Last weekend we spent two days in Yilan with an aboriginal tribe. I had been excited about this since I saw the weekend excursion listed on the schedule, but I really had no idea what to expect from the experience. After a long drive into the mountains, we were greeted by the village Grandpa – or in Mandarin “Yeye”. He escorted us up the rest of the mountain; where the road was too thin and windy for our bus to make it up. We arrived to a large pavilion where they had prepared some traditional aboriginal clothes for us to wear and painted our faces. We learned a little about their language and they sang a song for us before we started making bamboo lunch boxes filled with rice.
We finished up sawing the bamboo and filling it before we were chaperoned down to another space where food was waiting for us. Out of all the meals I've had since coming to Taiwan this was undeniably the best. Even as a vegetarian they had TONS of options to eat, and all of it was absolutely amazing. Many of the foods were things I have never tried before, my favorite of which was a local fern that they had sauteed. I have picked wild fiddlehead ferns and cooked them myself, but whatever type of fern this was was much better; it tasted similar but had none of the bitterness I was used to.
After that amazing meal we were carted up the mountain in the back of a couple kei-trucks. The Grandpa led us up the mountain and showed us a few methods they use to trap wild boars. We learned how these traps are made only using things one can find in the jungle. We made it to the top of the mountain and entered a small rest area with various targets scattered around. We were handed bows and arrows and learned to shoot the very basic hunting instruments. This was a lot harder than I expected it to be! After a little bit we seemed to get the hang of it, though, and had a little archery competition.
We headed back down the mountain, got back into the trucks, and went back into the village. We ate dinner and then were introduced to our host families. The woman hosting my small group was incredibly nice and accommodating, and the breakfast she cooked for us the next day was delicious. You could tell she was really trying her best to make us feel at home because outside of the more Chinese breakfast dishes she also prepared sausage and scrambled eggs.
After meeting the host families we went back up to the village for the farewell party. While waiting for the event to start, me and some friends played basketball with some of the local kids. They were unexpectedly talented and we lost pretty badly. The event started with us learning a group dance; something that also turned out to be much more challenging than we expected. After that things became a little less structured, with music still playing many people kept dancing, some were barbequing pork, and other were just sitting with the locals and testing their Chinese conversational skills. I leaned more towards this option with a couple of my friends. We talked to a lot of the locals and bonded a lot with the Grandpa, so much so he personally invited us back to the mountain to go on an actual hunting trip with them!
The night went on for quite some time, but never stopped being fun. We made mochi with a wooden mortar and pestle thing; we all took turns hammering the rice into the bowl until it was soft and sticky.
After the festivities we went back to the host families. We got back pretty late and were all exhausted so, after watching a little Taiwanese TV with the woman hosting us, we went straight to bed.
Although I will remember this whole trip to Taiwan, the experience in Yilan will always stand out as one of the most down to earth and authentic experiences I've ever had. When I visit Taiwan again, I will be sure to find a way back up there to see the Grandpa again and spend more time with the friends I made in the village.
Program: Tradition and Modernity in Taiwan
Term: Summer 2018