For dear Yedda--

The girl is sitting alone

Many dreams in her eyes
In the mountains afar
Lives her dream, her grandpa
Perhaps, her grandma is making tea
Singing melodious indigenous song
Clearing the mist the girl goes back to history,
goes back to her tribes
There will be festival soon to welcome her,
Drums are beating, can you hear girl
Deep into your heart!                                        

                   --Azizul Rasel (2013.02.25)

This is an old photo from 2006, so the Girl was several years younger than she is now. 

Taken at an old Paiwan village called Padain in present-day Tarisi (slope) of southern Taiwan, she was sitting at a gazebo, looking over Tarisi river and waterfalls beneath her feet and looking towards the ranges that connect the Paiwan sacred mountain, Kavulungan (the Old One), from afar. The gazebo was made of slate stones, typical building materials for her people Paiwan, although by the time she was born, most of them were already living in concrete blocks which they paid by unfamiliar installments. 

Girl once spent the night at a slate stone house in another old village of Rukai. Geographically and culturally speaking, Rukai has always been seen as a close neighbor of Paiwan. Nowadays, some Rukai people are moving back to the old village, claiming previous ways of life in the mountains. Girl witnessed their determination in one of her visits. Though it was not very soft to sleep on, the slate stone underneath her back that night truthfully brought her nearer to the earth and to the traditional territory of Rukai.

On this day of 2006, Girl climbed to Padain with fellow hikers and nature lovers. Indigenous or not, they respected the mountain god and would not start any journey without offering rice wine and betel nuts to the spirits. On this day blessed by such devotion, their walk was smooth and swift, and when entering the village from this side of the slope, they saw low stone houses squatting in square green farms separated by simple bamboo fences. There were yams, corns, vegetables and flora beyond her immediate knowledge. It was serene.

What good old days!  When some of her time was spent in the wilderness exploring every path leading to the very home of an indigenous people. The reward was more than a beautiful show of mother nature. There was passion; there was life; there was content; there was peace. So she always remembers and loves this photo.

Years from 2006, Girl learns to climb a different sort of mountain, and along the way she meets beautiful people and beautiful minds. Like her previous fellow hikers, indigenous or not, these beautiful colleagues respect the mountain before them and pay tribute to it not with rice wine or betel nuts, but with faith and diligence, day and night. A share of truth from a foreign country called the past and a beautiful story to shake the core of the present world make up the Padain they earnestly search.

Azizul Rasel is such a young historian from Bangladesh and one of the beautiful minds Girl meets along the way. He remembers Girl is from an indigenous village in southern Taiwan and generously writes a poem for the photo she dearly cherishes.  

What a great compliment and a greater token of friendship! So in addition to the photo, she will always remember and love this poem too. It has walked the last line of his body, etching deep in her heart.

There will be more than drums beating, songs ringing and dances flying. There will be more than papers presented and words pronounced. In the festival we shall all celebrate. There in the celebration of life we shall meet and be merry again.