Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
is one more reason to come to Wulai. There's a
minitrain
to the base, or you can walk the
pedestrian route beside the train line (about 1.5km) along a pleasant wooded lane with
some dramatic mountain scenery.
To get to the minitrain station walk to the end of the pedestrian eating street in Wulai,
cross the bridge and head up the wooden stairs. At the end of the line are lookouts and a
strip of cafes and restaurants.
Wulai Atayal Museum
MUSEUM
(Wūlái Tàiyǎ Mínzú Bówùguǎn; Wulai St; 9.30am-5pm Tue-Fri, to 6pm Sat & Sun)
The
Atayal are the third largest aboriginal tribe in Taiwan, and form a big presence in Wulai
(part of their traditional territory). Inside the museum are replicas of traditional bamboo
and wood houses, and informative displays on hunting, farming, religious beliefs, music-
al instruments, facial tattooing and head hunting. For more information about the Atayal,
THE ATAYAL
In the not so distant past, when an Atayal baby was born he or she was given a
small tattoo to demonstrate humanity. As the child grew older though, tattoos had
to be earned: by being a fierce headhunter for men, and a skilled weaver for wo-
men. It was all part ofgaga, a code of rite, rituals and prohibitions that governed
life. Without the tattoos one could not become an adult, marry, or even pass the
rainbow bridge to join ancestors in the afterlife.
The Atayal (or Tayal or Daiyan) are Taiwan's third-largest tribe by population
(around 80,000 members), though distributed over a larger area of Taiwan than
any other. They probably migrated to Taiwan some 7000 to 8000 years ago from
southern China/northern Laos, and have traditionally lived in the high mountains
above 1000m. Around 250 years ago they began to move from today's Ren'ai
Township to the north as part of a great migration story that is still central to their
identity. Today they can be found from Nantou to Wulai, and also in Ilan and Huali-
en Counties.
The Atayal had little contact with Taiwanese until the late 19th century (when
camphor became a major export) and until the 1920s still lived a mostly self-suffi-
cient life in small villages, growing rice, millet, beans and root crops, supplemented
with hunting and fishing. In the following decades, the Japanese began forcing the
Atayal to grow rice in paddy fields, banned tattooing and headhunting, and relo-
cated many villages to lowland areas. After 1949, the Kuomintang (KMT) continued
