{
  "id": 7948864,
  "title": "Displaced by typhoons, Taiwan’s Bunun Indigenous people struggle to preserve heritage",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/17/displaced-by-typhoons-taiwans-bunun-indigenous-people-struggle-to",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-17T04:17:35.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Mongabay",
    "slug": "mongabay",
    "url": "https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/displaced-by-typhoons-taiwans-bunun-indigenous-people-struggle-to-preserve-heritage/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Bunun Indigenous people of Taiwan, once a thriving community in the high-mountain hamlet of Tengjhih, now struggle to preserve their heritage in the wake of devastation caused by typhoons. In 2009, Typhoon Morakot destroyed the only access road to the village, forcing around 150 Bunun residents to relocate to lowland areas. Despite representing only 2.1% of Taiwan's population, Indigenous peoples saw 70% of unsafe land declared within their territories. Rebuilding efforts faced challenges due to climate change and landslides, with recent typhoons further devastating the area in 2025. The loss of their ancestral land has severed connections to cultural practices and language, threatening the transmission of heritage to younger generations. Young people now find no village or work upon returning, and Bi' Ismahasan, a 70-year-old tea and coffee farmer, relies on government assistance for survival, lamenting that every year brings a worse harvest.",
  "summary": "Wild grass now grows around the abandoned wooden houses of Tengjhih, a high-mountain hamlet in southern Taiwan, once a key settlement of the Bunun Indigenous people. Now, little remains except for the memories it holds. Around 150 Bunun Indigenous residents of Tengjhih were permanently resettled in lowland areas after the deadly Typhoon Morakot in 2009 […]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}