Decision to move the village
After coming off the mountain, some dozen members of the village, including the village head, elected political representatives and elders, formed a self-help society. Because of the great courage he showed during the escape, and because of his articulateness, Lin Qingzhang, though only in his 30s, was chosen as executive director. "We held a residents' meeting up on the plateau, and the elders reached the conclusion that with the village having shifted westward 250 meters toward the Nanzixian River [see the picture on p.30], we had no choice but to move."
With sites the government selected and several options of their own, the village elders first considered the very Minzu Plateau that had provided them with safe shelter through the storm and that was adjacent to the village. Apart from its proximity to the original village, some of the elders remembered that the plateau was in fact where the village had been originally been located. But it is less than three kilometers wide, and on two sides is bordered by rivers, which might continue to eat away at its base. Furthermore, there had already been some landslides in its higher sections. So eventually, with many regrets, they decided instead on the site the government offered that was closest (about a 50 minute drive) to their old village: land in Shanlin Village that had belonged to Taiwan Sugar Corporation.
Occupying 58 hectares (about seven football fields), the site is next to Kaohsiung County's Shanlin Junior High School and was formerly Taiwan Sugar's Yuemei Farm. In conjunction with the government's plan to move Minzu residents there, the Tzu Chi Foundation and Foxconn Technology Group have promised to fund construction of 700 permanent residences in Shanlin.
The plan for relocating Minzu Village there, which has a distinctly experimental flavor to it, calls for the use of light steel structures for the residences, which are designed to withstand Magnitude 8 earthquakes and Force 17 winds. The homes, which range in size from 500 to 1225 square feet and are being allotted based on the number of members of a household, have been guaranteed to last 50 years. Village facilities are comprehensive and will include a nursery school, an Aboriginal handicrafts workshop, a community center, and a medical clinic. Out of respect for Aboriginal religious beliefs, a church and ancestral shrines for various tribes are also provided. And with cutting-edge solar panels, a bicycle lane, and a recharging station for electric scooters, it is a model of environmentally minded planning.
"We were quite moved by reading Tzu Chi's report," says Li Yuzhang, a resident of the village and a former county legislator. He was surprised to find that the foundation had clearly done its homework on traditional Bunun culture. Their plans even included a weaving workshop, as well as a traditional "calling platform," which young villagers had never even seen before!
Lin Qingzhang, on the other hand, says that the choice of Shanlin was undesirable in several ways but unavoidable-for they wanted to find somewhere they could safely put down roots for the long term. The tribal people made two requests, however: First, they hoped that the government wouldn't repossess their reservation in the mountains, so that they could go back to visit and to plant crops. "Without agricultural lands in the mountains, we'd lose our roots, and we'd starve to death in the flatlands!" Their second request was a guarantee that they could live in their new village forever, thus preventing the government from taking back the land for a public infrastructure project. Lin Qingzhang stresses that President Ma Ying-jeou and former Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (who has just stepped down from that position) both orally agreed to the villagers' requests.
Rescue and relief teams from many organizations and agencies have come to the affected areas; the road back will be long and tortuous.