Tien Cultural Foundation lends helping hand to Atayal people

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on March 20, 2006. It features the Tien Cultural Foundation in Taiwan, which has been helping people from the Atayal aboriginal tribe in the mountains of northern Taiwan's Hsinchu County in recent years. The Atayal people are working hard to develop their collective administration as a unified village. They want to have a stable income while maintaining their own culture, the ecology and education.

The Tien Cultural Foundation has come to understand that in order to help the Atayal people, it is important to ensure sustained development in these aboriginal villages, to maintain the cultural traditions of these people, to advance their economic development, and to help them preserve their natural environment. Eventually, the foundation decided to provide digital equipment, training programs and e-marketing plans, in order to help the Atayal people pursue a better chance of developing their lives.

The Tien Cultural Foundation has established the Atayal Wildlife Preservation Education Center and the Magaw Production Taskforce, as well as a computer education center, in the aboriginal villages. Seventy families and 500 inhabitants from these villages can make use of the taskforce and facilities at the computer center.

The word "magaw" in Atayal language means sacrifice and the spirit of sharing. In this sense, the establishment of the Magaw Production Taskforce is to help the Atayal people advance the culture and economy in their villages. The taskforce is based on the family unit, and in total there are 14 families participating. These people are working in groups to organize ecological tourism activities and to directly sell their agricultural products. Those who have large homes have also created guesthouses for visitors.

Local and international visitors are welcome to come to the villages during the Peach Blossom Festival, which includes a special banquet called "Stain the Village". The festival features plenty of peaches, children's activities, and traditional handcrafts such as flower pressing and bamboo cup making.

In recent years, the Atayal people in Hsinchu has undergone a number of economic transformations and settled on the development of eco-tourism. The village people produce excellent peaches and high-elevation vegetables, such as vanilla, tomatoes and cabbage.