Labuwan of the Dawu Tribe in Wutai Emerges from the Shadow of Typhoon Morakot and Regains Its Vitality
Not long after passing the Wutai Township Office in Pingtung County, at the 38.9K fork of Provincial Highway 24 (commonly known as the Wutai Highway), turn left and head downhill - this is the way to Dawu Tribe (about 7.5 km). Dawu Tribe is located in the valley of the Ailiao North Creek in Pingtung County, its position hidden and unique, isolated from the world, like a hidden paradise. However, the Typhoon Morakot disaster five years ago made the road leading to Dawu Tribe even more bumpy, rugged, and full of difficulties.
Even though the green vegetation on the right-side slope is still not yet lush, and bare mountain rock is visible everywhere, because of the dip-slope orientation, rockfalls continue to collapse, potentially affecting the road's passage at any time. But the people of Dawu Tribe, originally called Labuwan, meaning brave warriors of a great settlement skilled in hunting and farming, never give up easily!
Recalling the various difficulties of that time, the gentle eyes of Peng Yuhua, village chief of Dawu Tribe, still sparkle with extraordinary resolve. In a calm voice, she describes the steepness of the road home after Typhoon Morakot, yet every word and sentence is terrifying.
Because the tribe was then designated by the government as a special post-disaster area, by law all residents had to relocate to the plains. To return home, the tribespeople, eager to get back, concealed it from government departments and selected one or two young people to risk sneaking back to the tribe to scout. At that time the mountain road had collapsed, the suspension bridge was broken, and the young people could only slide down the cliff and then cross the stream, while the riverbed was covered with silted sand and gravel, washed-down broken branches and dead wood, and debris and shattered tiles.
The young people said that at the time the whole tribe was like a dead city, reeking of stench, piled with the carcasses of livestock. Facing such a miserable scene, they wept with their heads in their hands, yet their determination to return home grew even stronger.
The first time Dawu Tribe village chief Peng Yuhua returned home was half a year after the disaster. Just as the tribe was on the opposite bank of the river after many hardships, heavy rain fell on the mountain, causing the cable car to break, and the chief's family could not cross the river. She said that kind of fear - so close yet unreachable, with a home but unable to enter it - made her deeply experience the piercing pain of being uprooted.
