On Nov. 20, Rukai elder Masegseg of the Taromak settlement in Taitung County’s Dongsing Village (東興) passed away at age 88.
To commemorate Masegseg, there should be a joint effort to seek UNESCO World Heritage recognition for the “Rukai mountain marathon” tradition.
The origin of the tradition can be traced to the 17th century, when Taiwan was partly ruled by the Dutch. In 1647, the Dutch colonial administration held the first local gathering at the Pimaba settlement — which is possibly the predecessor of the Puyuma settlement — and declared the people of Taromak its enemy.
A Taromak folktale tells of the Dutch expedition:
A group of red-haired people with smoke coming out of their mouths trespassed onto the settlement’s water resource area and the Taromak drove them off.
Libali and Adonga, Taromak brothers who could “run faster than the rain,” joined the fight after it had started and swiftly fended off the Dutch.
The brothers became heroes and since then competing to be the fastest runner became a Taromak tradition.
For hundreds of years during the Taromak harvest festival, a mountain race — vugas — has been held. The champion is called the sanga. If a person wins the title three times, he is regarded as a hero, and has butterflies embroidered on his clothes, hats and tools.
Masegseg was among the sanga.
What does it mean to be able to “run faster than the rain”? Masegseg explained it to me.
In the spring of 1967, there was a drought in Taromak. The lack of rain had an enormous effect on the crops. To solve the problem in a Taromak way, the men from settlements in the area who were good runners ascended the mountains via a valley to an altitude of 1,800m near the sacred Mount Kindoor (肯杜爾聖山).
There, they attempted to disturb the rain god by splashing water on one another and shouting.
They plucked the rain god’s mustache — langarasay, a fern that grows on the cliffs and trees — and took it back to Taromak.
They sought to agitate the god so that it would chase them and bring rain to Taromak.
Masegseg said that he was the first to return to the settlement.
When he reached Mulberry Creek (桑樹溪) at an altitude of about 100m, he saw the elders, women and children waiting and at that moment, it began to rain.
The drought had ended. He had brought the rain god back to Taromak.
Late Rukai elder Molrawco Lrabaliyos told me that he was one of the runners, but was caught by the rain at about 1,000m altitude, showing how impressive Masegseg’s run was.
The convention of agitating the god and being chased is not specific to the Taromak settlement. I have heard similar tales from late Rukai elder Gaynwane of the Guchabunga settlement.
Masegseg told me he once crossed the Central Mountain Range in half a day. When I was a junior at National Chung Hsing University, I was leader of the Mountain Club. If I were to have attempted the route he described, it would have taken me seven or eight days.
Masegseg said he used to participate in flatland marathons in Taitung County and beat Olympic decathlete Yang Chuan-kwang (楊傳廣).
Back then, almost all of the National Games marathon champions were from Pingtung County’s Wutai Township (霧台), where mountain marathons are popular.
In 2001, I visited the Rukai’s Oponoho and Dona settlements in Kaohsiung’s Maolin District (茂林, or Teldreka in Rukai). The elders there were also familiar with the mountain marathon. Clearly, it is a widespread tradition among the Rukai.
Hopefully, the Council of Indigenous Peoples, the Ministry of Education, local governments in Pingtung, Kaohsiung and Taitung, as well as universities across Taiwan, would carry on the tradition of the mountain marathon.
Moreover, Taiwan should aspire to have the tradition recognized as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage event.
Liu Chiung-hsi is a professor in National Taitung University’s Institute of Life Science and director-general of Austronesian Community College’s development association.
Translated by Emma Liu
RSS