5th Anniversary of Morakot Series – (1) The rebirth of Tanayiku

In 2009, after Typhoon Morakot dumped 3000 ml of rain on Alishan Township, destroying the beautiful Tanayiku River and wiping out 25 years of painstaking work on Shanmei Village (山美村), villagers were left incredibly disheartened and close to giving up hope of rebuilding. Nestled in the stunning mountains of Chiayi County’s Alishan Township, Shanmei Village - known as Tanayiku in the local Tsou dialect - is considered sacred land to the Tsou people. The name “Tanayiku,” which means ‘a place to forget one’s worries,’ in the Tsou language, was the first ecological park in Taiwan to be created entirely through the power of local people. At its busiest, the ecological park had an annual turnover in the region of US$350,000, providing essential job opportunities and making it the lifeblood of Shanmei Village.  

Returning to the riverside 5 years after Typhoon Morakot, we discovered that not only had the rare fish species Onychostoma barbatula returned, the crowds and Tanayiku’s beauty had returned too. Shanmei Village Mayor, Zhuang Xin-yi (莊信義), said that it had become very evident to the Executive Yuan’s Morakot Post-Disaster Reconstruction Council just how well all the resources had been combined and invested by the local villagers in order to complete the Tanayiku rebuilding project. In 2013, three years following the reopening of Tanayiku Ecological Park, tourist visitor numbers had already climbed to 206, 204 people annually, slowly returning to pre-typhoon levels. Finding a way to preserve the existing culture and appropriately develop the rich natural resources is the collaborative aspiration of all Shanmei residents. 

5th Anniversary of Morakot Series – (1) The rebirth of Tanayiku

URL:https://www.peopo.org/news/243877

(以下是中文對照)

莫拉克五周年系列~1 達娜伊谷的重生 影音

民國98年莫拉克颱風在阿里山鄉降下高達3千公厘雨量，破壞了美麗的達娜伊谷溪，摧毀山美村二十多年的努力，族人幾乎要放棄重建。位於嘉義縣阿里山鄉山美村達娜伊谷(Tanayiku) 自早是鄒族人的聖地，鄒語意為忘記憂愁的地方，是全國第一處以社區力量保育成功的生態公園。在園區最興盛的時候，年收入可以達到1千萬元以上，是整個山美社區生計就業的來源。

風災過後第五年，我們重回溪流；發現不只鯝魚回來、人潮回流，達娜伊谷也美麗再現。山美村莊信義村長回憶說，行政院重建會對於達娜伊谷重建的資源整合的投入有目共睹。園區在重新開園三週年的時候，遊客人數在102年底時已累積達206,204人次，慢慢的恢復到風災前水準。而如何把現有的文化記錄加以保存，將豐富的資源適度開發，會是山美居民共同努力的方向。