Connections between people and trees
Taiwan’s enormous natural diversity is due in part to introduced species, but the stories about our island’s native and endemic species, and our emotional connections with, them are even more interesting and moving.
“Do you know the origins of Taiwan’s oldest ‘seven-day quarantine’? It comes from the Paiwan people,” says Yang suddenly. In days gone by Paiwan villages had two kinds of trees marking their entrance, the bishopwood and the large-leaved banyan (Ficus subpisocarpa). Both of these are common trees at low to medium elevations. The Paiwan would set up grass huts under the trees, and when an outsider wanted to enter the village they would first have to spend seven days of quarantine in one of these huts. Only once the villagers had assured themselves that the visitor was in good health were they allowed to enter the community. Yang says jokingly, “This wasn’t a matter of following some policy set by the Central Epidemic Command Center, but was part of the ancient wisdom of the Paiwan people.”
Bishopwood trees can by identified by their gray and reddish-brown colored bark, and in the case of old trees, the large burls that frequently grow on their trunks. An old saying has it: “If you have someone to talk with, then speak. If you have no one to talk with, then speak to the bishopwood tree.” Yang Chih-kai describes this saying as originating in a situation whereby, if one has arranged to meet a friend beneath a bishopwood tree and the friend has not yet arrived, one may quietly face the tree and speak one’s innermost thoughts, creating a kind of companionship. “This saying highlights an important connection between people and trees, through which trees have a special power to calm us. I feel that this expresses a kind of philosophical outlook, involving a closeness on a spiritual level.”
Yang specially draws our attention to the chinaberry tree (Melia azedarach), which is native to Taiwan. This elegantly shaped tree produces clusters of small pale purple flowers, and when the trees bloom in March and April they seem to be covered by a purple cloud—their appearance is very romantic. All parts of the chinaberry tree are useful. The leaves can promote ripening of bananas, and a decoction or extract of the leaves has antimicrobial properties and can be applied to the skin. The flowers yield essential oil, while the fruits, which are golden-yellow drupes, are used in traditional Chinese medicine. It is currently popular to travel to view trees in their flowering seasons. While it is cherry trees that are popular abroad, in Taiwan why not visit chinaberry trees?
Taiwan also has many place names and scenic locations connected to trees, from which one can surmise the landscapes of days gone by. When the Dutch architect Francine Houben was designing the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts at Weiwuying, she found inspiration in the old banyan trees with their gnarled, intertwined branches and complex aerial roots, and the center includes a broad, open space called the Banyan Plaza.
The little hill town of Jiufen in New Taipei City’s Ruifang District has been getting renewed attention recently thanks to the rerelease of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 1989 film A City of Sadness. The town’s name is in fact related to camphor trees. Taiwan was once the world’s “camphor kingdom,” and the mountains around Jiufen were covered with camphor trees. In those days stoves were used to distill the camphor from the chipped wood of the trees. Ten stoves were called “one unit” (yi fen), so the name Jiufen (“nine units”) indicates that back then there were 90 stoves located there, says Yang. By the same logic, a majority of places whose names contain the character fen had some connection with the camphor industry.
Roadside trees provide eye-pleasing greenery in urban areas, and can also moderate ambient temperatures and help clean the air.