Cilo’ohay, to Stay or to Leave? How a Tribe without a Land Passes Down Its Pangcah Culture

• Main Authors: LIEN, CHEN-PING, 連晨軿
• Other Authors: YANG, TSU-CHUN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/64472519727307227646

碩士 === 國立臺南藝術大學 === 音像紀錄與影像維護研究所 === 101 === Cilo’ohay was a relatively new Pangcah tribe located at the downriver of Wanli Stream, Senrong Neighborhood, Fonglin Township, Hualien County in Taiwan. Before the Pangcah people established the tribe there, the place was the sole residence and hunting ground of the Truku people. This is because the Japanese ruling government established the Lintian Mountain Logging Office in 1939 and asked the Truku people, who at the time lived in higher mountain areas, to move down. Soon, many more people from around Taiwan came to work for the Lintian Mountain Logging Office, including some Pangcah members. As business steadily grew, land was distributed to the migrant workers so that they could build their own houses nearby. The migrant population increased by year, and the Pangcah people who gathered in Senrong eventually developed a tribe of their own, Cilo’ohay. A fire took place in 1972 at the forest ground, however, burned off most of the natural resources there. The government further implemented the “Taiwan Forest Management Reform Project” in 1980 to restrict logging and advocate forest conservation. As a result, the Lintian Mountain Forest Ground withered. At last, with the closure of an industrial era in Taiwan, in 1988, logging stopped completely, and people quickly moved away to seek job opportunities elsewhere. What’s worse, in 2001, a blaze took place at the Kangle New Village. It not only burned down the largest number of Japanese housing in Lintian Mountain, but also burned people’s memories of Lintian Mountain into ashes. From its establishment, growth to decline, nowadays, only around 20 residents living in the Lintian Mountain Dormitory are left in Cilo’ohay. Inspired by personal experience, a film was made to document the writer’s own tribe. The main goal is to understand how a Pangcah tribe, which was formed only due to the expansion of an industry, developed its own culture in a short 70-year period of time. When the industry no longer exists, what must the tribal residents do to sustain their sense of belonging? When these people have no houses and land to live anymore due to the government’s policy changes, how shall they pass down the tribal culture? The writer combed through all the historical factors, observed the tribe’s Ilisin (harvest festival) over the last few years, studied how the policies and planning of the Forestry Bureau affects the tribe’s operations and interviewed the tribal residents in order to draw a comprehensive picture of Cilo’ohay. Whether it is land or cultural identity/sense of belonging that’s essential to sustaining a tribe was also reflected upon.