A feast of art
If you find the natural surroundings breathtaking, Pnguu's art will leave you gasping for air.
The Tsou are not only physically striking, they are natural artists. Their woodcarvings, bamboo weaving, leather sculpture, and paintings depict the legends, history, and culture of the Tsou.
Mo'o Poico Nu worked for the Forestry Bureau, maintaining railroad tracks and changing ties, for over 20 years. When he retired four years ago, he left his Forestry Bureau employee dormitory in Jiaoliping to return to Pnguu where he set up the Lahousse Studio, using funds from the government's multi-employment development plan.
In his creations, Mo'o utilizes raw materials commonly found near his village-the moso and makino bamboos. "Moso is better for carving, because it is harder, while makino is more flexible, making it better suited for weaving," he explains.
Mo'o's coarse, dark hands fly as he splits, colors, and weaves bamboo to make beautiful, lifelike butterflies and dragonflies.
Yamui, another of Pnguu's treasures, used to run a restaurant in Pnguu, but her spine was injured in an automobile accident, leaving her unable to work. It did, however, open up another door for her and her hometown.
Starting some three years ago when she started drawing on a washboard, Yamui, at nearly 60 years old, began creating. Before she knew it, she had over 200 paintings to her name. Her works, which employ bold colors like the bright red and pitch black of the Tsou Tribe, have been exhibited in the Alishan Museum and in Beijing.
The fire-red boar at the entrance to the village, now Pnguu's talisman, is the work of Yamui and her daughter.
Legends in paint
Characters from traditional Tsou stories are portrayed in Yamui's paintings.
"A Man with Two Bags" depicts a legendary hunter of the Tsou Tribe whose genitalia were so large that he would carry two bags-one to tote his kill and the other for his member.
The creature with red eyes and red hair shown in another painting is a mythological spirit that emerges out of the mist. "My dad has seen it," explains Yamui in all seriousness. The reason for the existence of spirits like these is that years ago, the Tsou people employed slash and burn methods (burning forests and using the resulting ashes as fertilizer) in their agricultural practices.
Most of the characters in Yamui's paintings are nude. "I remember that into my teens, older people in our village didn't wear clothes." Members of the tribe only started wearing clothes when Christians later came to help relieve poverty.
Love Affair between Human and Spirit, The Legend of the Treasure that Subjugates the Mountain, Gift from Heaven... A self-taught painter, Yamui squeezes paints out onto a wooden board and applies them to tree bark, changing her own life as she records the legends of the Tsou in Pnguu.
The Pnguu Tsou
Paicu Tiaki'ana, who once cut an album (Paicu) named after herself, not only writes songs and performs them in her native Tsou tongue, she is also a rarity in that she is highly adept in a number of other Tsou art forms.
Blessed with the lilting voice of an angel, she also has very talented hands. She is accomplished at woodcarving, leather sculpture, weaving, and patchwork. She has integrated the life and culture of her people into her work, so that it exudes a very strong Tsou flavor.
The Tsou use animal hides more than any other indigenous people in Taiwan and are highly skilled at leather production. They scrape the flesh from the skins and dry them. To make them supple, they use a mortar and pestle to pound them or they stretch them across a smooth log and two people pull on either side. The Tsou used large quantities of leather in their traditional costumes, including gloves, boots, and cloaks, but since the government's hunting prohibition issued in the 1990s, their art has been gradually disappearing, because they have been unable to obtain the necessary raw materials locally. Paicu currently relies on imported leather for her sculpting.
A symbol of the Tsou Tribe-a wooden structure on wooden stilts with a thatched roof topped with golden dendrobium, a favorite flower of the god of war-is frequently depicted on Paicu's leatherwork.
"The kuba is more than a pavilion. It's a gathering place for welcoming and farewelling gods as well as for sacrifices and meetings," says Paicu. Only tribes with chiefs have formal kubas. In Alishan, only the villages of Tapangu and Tfuya currently have their own chiefs and their own traditional kubas. The one at Pnguu is not used as a kuba.
If you've been to the Alishan Forest Recreation Area and you don't want to fight the crowds, you might try visiting Pnguu to experience Alishan's natural beauty as well as the kindness and fascinating culture of the Tsou people.