The Authenticity of Cultural Value
As a 29-year-old youth from the Amis/Pangcah Fata’an Community in Hualien, Taiwan, I see the project I am working on is a process to enable people in my own community to see the authenticity of our cultural values.
I am Amid Olay Pakadodang, an offspring of the Kakata’an clan that has been the clan in charge of worship and rituals. I have been learning about and researching the traditional healers, Cikawasay, and the rituals. When I was conducting a field study some years ago, I learned about this traditional dessert “Cilipeday Enmo” and felt responsible to revive and pass on the practice of preparing this dessert. In the past, Cilipeday Enmo was made only in a special ceremony related to weddings, and regarded as a treasure in the community. When Cilipeday Enmo is cooked, the fragrance is overflowing. The elders said that to be able to prepare such a dessert, indicated the prosperity of the family. An additional personal reason for me to be so determined to revive Cilipeday Enmo is because I am at the age suitable for marriage, and I really wish to hold a traditional Fata’an wedding. Cilipeday Enmo is one of the indispensable critical elements.
Cilipeday is the name of an ancient variety of red glutinous rice. Nowadays, there are not so many people growing it. The contemporary varieties of rice we eat in our daily diet can be harvested three times a year. As to the ancient variety of Cilipeday, it’s only harvested once a year with small farming scale and amount. Once during an interview with an elder in the community, he told me that he missed the particular taste of Cilipeday that he had when he was a child and he really wished to have the chance to recollect this taste of his childhood. Cautiously, he shared the Cilipeday seeds he had been keeping for decades with my uncle and entrusted my uncle to bring this taste of childhood back again. My uncle has been working on rice growing in the community for many years and he spent 3 years cooperating with the Agriculture Research and Extension Station in the regeneration of Cilipeday.
Because my uncle has successfully brought back Cilipeday, not only was the wish of the elders fulfilled, also the long disappearing taste of Cilipeday Enmo is back in our lives this year. Because of the 50 years of Japanese colonization, the ruling of the KMT national government, and the influence of Christianity, traditional Indigenous pastries have been replaced by various kinds of cakes and pastries made of ingredients easier to obtain and introduced by mainstream diets and cultures. The taste of Cilipeday Enmo is so unique and only with the use of Cilipeday, the specific ancient kind of red glutinous rice, can it be made.
Thanks to my uncle’s effort, we were able to reproduce the specific flavor and texture of Cilipeday Enmo once again. We are also working on the next step with the youth organization in the community to coordinate and integrate with schools curriculum, cultural tours, local catering and traditional rituals to expand the scale of the plantation of this ancient variety and bring the authentic taste of Cilipeday Enmo back to our spiritual lives in our community.
Amid Olay Pakadodang
Healer
Slow Food Community – Hualien–Taiwan for the Preservation of Indigenous Biodiversity : member