The Walking Trees

Drive 40 minutes north of Taitung City along Highway 9. Turn left at Luanshan. The road climbs into a forest.

There is no electricity. No concrete. No shops. No mobile signal.

This is where the Bunun people of Luanshan (SaZaSa) live — and where the trees still walk.

The man who bought back a forest

Twenty years ago, Aliman was a Bunun tribal leader in Luanshan, in Taiwan's Yanping Township.

He watched developers eye the tribe's ancestral forest. He watched permits change hands. He watched bulldozers approach.

So he did something no one expected: he went to the bank, took out loans against his own home, and bought the forest back — piece by piece.

For twenty years, he and his tribe paid down those loans. They refused offers from hotels, theme parks, and electric companies. They built no roads.

The forest survived because one man would not let it be sold.

What is a "walking tree"

In Luanshan's forest, white banyan (Ficus benjamina) drops aerial roots from its branches. The roots reach down to the soil and become new trunks. Over decades, a single tree becomes a forest of trunks — appearing to walk slowly, year by year, across the ground.

Some of Luanshan's banyans are 300 years old, with aerial roots a meter thick.

Avatar director James Cameron came to see them in 2010. He said the forest looked like Pandora's Tree of Souls. Hayao Miyazaki visited in 2013. Locals say he was silent for a long time before speaking.

But the most important visitor is not famous. It's whoever respects the forest enough to come quietly, listen, and leave no trace.

SaZaSa — "where life flourishes"

In Bunun language, SaZaSa means: "a place where sugarcane grows tall, animals are active, and people live well."

It is not a place name. It is a description of what should exist there — and what Aliman's tribe has worked to keep alive.

In Luanshan, the Bunun maintain:

• Original millet fields (the tribe's staple grain)
• Smokehouses for fish and meat (traditional preservation)
• Stone altars for ancestral worship
• Stone slab houses (traditional Bunun architecture)

Visitors who come here through the Luanshan Forest Cultural Museum are guided by tribal members, who decide what to share and what not to.

Why "no electricity"

When asked why he refused to bring electricity to the forest, Aliman said:

"If we bring electricity, we bring refrigerators. With refrigerators, we don't smoke fish anymore. Without smoking fish, the smokehouse stops working. Without the smokehouse, the songs we sing while smoking fish are forgotten. Without those songs, a part of being Bunun dies."

The "no electricity" is not poverty. It is a deliberate, ongoing act of cultural survival.

How to visit (and what to know first)

Visits to Luanshan Forest Cultural Museum are by reservation only, with limited daily group sizes.

| Item | Details | |---|---| | Cost | NT$ 1,500-2,500 per person (depending on program) | | Duration | Half day (4 hours) or full day (8 hours) | | Includes | Tribal guide, lunch (Bunun cuisine), forest walk, traditional fire-starting demonstration | | Booking | At least 2 weeks ahead — longer in peak season | | Language | Mandarin Chinese is primary; English-speaking guides occasional, arrange ahead |

Visitor protocol (very important):

• No drones, no electric scooters, no loud Bluetooth speakers
• Ask before photographing tribal members; ancestral spaces are off-limits
• Eat what is offered, including millet wine — it is rude to refuse
• Bring out everything you bring in — including organic waste

What this place will give you

If you come expecting Instagram backdrops, you may be disappointed.

If you come expecting to learn something you cannot Google — you will leave changed.

The forest teaches a kind of patience that contemporary life rarely demands. You learn to walk slowly. You learn that a tree taking 100 years to mature is a complete sentence, not a half-finished thought. You learn that a tribe choosing not to use electricity has made a longer plan than most companies make.

That is what Luanshan offers. Not a view. A frame.

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Further reading:

• One-day Luanshan + East Rift tour: Sazasa Luanshan 1-day
• Comparison — Indigenous East Rukai tribe: Millet & Swing — the only East Rukai village in Taiwan
• Beinan Culture from 5,500 years ago: Beinan 5,500 years