Datong Ecotourism: Venture Deep into the Leshui Tribe and Learn the Wisdom of the Mountains and Forests from a Hunter
"Grandpa Wild Boar, now 67 years old, is the fourth-generation hunter passed down in the Leshui Tribe. In recent years, together with Grandma Wild Boar, his daughter and son-in-law, he has been promoting hunter tours, leading visitors to make their own hunter rice bundles, venture deep into the hunting grounds to learn about the Atayal people's use of plants, and upon reaching the hunting lodge, enjoy roasted wild boar, sip millet liquor, and take part in archery and traditional trap-making activities. The solid and rich itinerary is truly captivating!"
Located beside the Lanyang River, the Leshui Tribe was once known as the "forgotten tribe" in its early years due to interrupted transportation, but in recent years it has gradually drawn the attention of many visitors through the promotion of tribal cultural ecotourism, securing guidance resources from the Council of Indigenous Peoples through the Indigenous Peoples Affairs Office of Yilan County, and beginning to assist tribal members in transforming the traditional Atayal hunter lifestyle into a working-holiday-style travel experience, which has been highly acclaimed and has attracted families to walk into the mountains and forests to learn the wisdom of coexisting with nature.
Twisting thread, sawing bamboo, make your own rice bundle~
Early in the morning, visitors arrive at Leshui one after another. After a simple welcome, visitors don the traditional Atayal clothing and headbands, then apply tattoo stickers to symbolize the early facial tattooing culture, and the children are all eager to try, as if through a cosplay ritual they become Atayal hunters for a day!
Next, Grandpa Wild Boar teaches visitors to use both hands and legs, twisting cotton thread on their thighs into sturdy two-ply cord, and to experience hand-sawing makino bamboo, filling it with glutinous rice and mountain spring water, and sealing it with banana leaves to make their own bamboo tube rice bundle for the afternoon trip into the hunting grounds. Then they follow Grandpa Wild Boar on a tribal tour, visiting the distinctive buildings of the Leshui Tribe such as the youth gathering hall, the fire hut and the lookout tower built of bamboo and wood, while uncovering how this tribe, once prosperous and once forgotten, became an administrative stronghold of Datong Township during the Taipingshan logging era, and how after the great flood and the ban on logging, it entered a twenty-year period of isolation like an island.
Authentic Atayal-style meal, infusing Atayal emotion starting from the five senses
As noon arrives, Grandma Wild Boar has prepared a table full of flavorful dishes -- stir-fried wild boar, free-range chicken with prickly ash leaves, shredded pork stir-fried with glutinous peppers, steamed live fish with maqaw, dragon beard vegetable, and pork rib soup with wheel eggplant, among other rich dishes. Many of the ingredients come from the pesticide-free vegetables grown by Grandma Wild Boar, delicious yet healthy. Through this feast from the tip of the tongue to body and soul, visitors fill up with energy, ready to unveil the afternoon hunter experience.
Walk up to the hunting grounds and learn about the Atayal people's use of plants
After eating and drinking their fill, they set off fully equipped. Visitors sit in rows in the half-open small truck, heading all the way to the nearby family hunting grounds, following closely in Grandpa Wild Boar's footsteps into the mountains and forests. The seemingly inconspicuous wild plants beside the mountain cliff, casually picked by Grandpa Wild Boar, are all transformed into everyday food or daily necessities, such as the white, silky banana heart, a life-saving plant hunters use in the mountains to quench thirst; the folded leaves of giant taro can serve as a natural cup for holding water, and if turned upside down and fixed with a branch, instantly become a rainproof cap; and the de-feathered leaf sheath of the Chinese fan palm, whose elastic fiber toughness makes it usable as a simple fishing rod. Before long, Grandpa Wild Boar draws out his machete and nimbly peels the stem of the rice-paper plant, revealing the white pith, a natural material used in early years for craft supplies and rice-paper plant paper, with a texture very close to that of polystyrene foam!
Learn archery, make traps, taste roast meat and millet liquor
After arriving at the hunting lodge, Grandpa Wild Boar shaves makino bamboo into skewers, while Grandma Wild Boar strings up the pre-marinated wild boar meat one by one, roasting it over a triangular stove built of stones. Nearby, children swing under the trees, while the adults are absorbed in the archery experience. Then Grandpa Wild Boar demonstrates to visitors the principles of making traditional Atayal traps, and uses branches to simulate the scenario of a wild boar accidentally stepping on a trap. The moment the steel wire snaps up in an instant, one cannot help but marvel at the ingenuity of the hunters of old.
As the cooking smoke rises from the hunting lodge, the smoky scent mingles with the rich aroma of meat juices. The skins of the skewered wild boar have been roasted to a golden crispness, full of savory aroma. The skewers marinated with maqaw and prickly ash leaves are paired with the bamboo tube rice made earlier that morning, along with Grandma Wild Boar's homemade millet liquor. The day's hunter tour draws to a close amid satisfied taste buds, ending a most fulfilling day. If you are interested in the hunter tour of the Leshui Tribe, feel free to contact the Facebook fan page "Grandpa Wild Boar"!
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Facebook fan page: Grandpa Wild Boar
