Local guide Yang Wei-jen was very upset when he discovered that someone had maliciously scratched a century-old Buddhist statue on the Jhueilu Old Road trail in Taroko National Park. In a post on his Facebook timeline, Yang said that when he was guiding a group of hikers along the trail on Aug. 24, he noticed numerous conspicuous scratches on the face of the Guanyin bodhisattva statue and took photos on the spot to record the damage. Yang said that he did not understand why anyone would damage a holy statue that has been protecting Taiwan for more than a century. Were they not afraid of suffering bad karma? Yang urged the public to take proper care of historic artifacts.
Interviewed by reporters the next day, Yang said that the damaged Guanyin bodhisattva is in an out-of-the-way location with no surveillance cameras along the way, so it would be hard to catch the culprit. He suggested that the park headquarters install a protective acrylic screen, or else move the century-old Buddhist statue to the visitor center at the foot of the mountains. He suggested setting up a Hehuan historic mountain trail memorial hall where historically valuable artifacts could all be looked after in one place.
The Taroko National Park Headquarters said that park rangers and officers of the Seventh Special Police Corps’ Ninth Division had gone into the mountains to investigate, and that they had confirmed that the stone Buddhist statue in the second tunnel of the Jhueilu Old Road trail did indeed show signs of having been scribbled upon. The park headquarters said that at this stage it would figure out how to repair the statue and reinforce area patrols.
照片：楊偉仁提供 Photo courtesy of Yang Wei-jen
The park headquarters said that the carved stone Buddhist statue, which is about 60cm tall, was left where it now stands when the Jhueilu Old Road trail was repaired between 1914 and 1915, making the statue more than 100 years old. Many people stop to worship the Buddhist statue when they walk past it. The park headquarters is deeply distressed and puzzled about this apparent vandalism, and if the culprit is found, he or she will be fined NT$3,000 (US$102) in accordance with the activities prohibited by the National Park Act.
(Translated by Julian Clegg, Taipei Times)
太魯閣國家公園錐麓古道上，一座百年石雕佛像被發現疑遭民眾惡意刮花，讓當地嚮導楊偉仁非常難過。他在臉書貼文指出，八月二十四日帶隊攀登錐麓古道時，發現一座觀世音菩薩像臉部被明顯刮花，趕緊拍照記錄。楊偉仁說他不懂為何有人會破壞守護台灣百年以上的神像，難道不怕有報應？呼籲民眾應該好好保護歷史文物。
照片：太魯閣國家公園管理處提供 Photo courtesy of the Taroko National Park Headquarters
楊偉仁次日受訪時指出，被破壞的觀世音菩薩像位處偏僻，沿途沒有攝影機，要抓到肇事者有難度。他建議管理單位可以加裝壓克力板保護，或將百年佛像移到山下的遊客中心管理，成立合歡越嶺古道紀念館，統一管理具歷史價值的文物。
太魯閣國家公園管理處指出，經保育巡查員、保七總隊第九大隊員警上山查勘，證實錐麓古道第二隧道內的石雕佛像確實有被塗畫痕跡，現階段先設法復原，並派員加強巡查。
太管處指出，這個約六十公分高的石雕佛像是西元一九一四至一九一五年間修復錐麓古道期間所留下，距今有超過百年歷史。許多民眾行經佛像都會虔誠膜拜，對於這次遭塗鴉的行為深感遺憾也不解，若查獲將依《國家公園法》公告禁止事項裁罰新台幣三千元(約一○二美元)。
(中央社)
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