- Chinese Name: 龍昇社區發展協會
- Year of Establishment: 1993
- Located At: Miaoli County (Western Taiwan)
- Did You Know That …? The Taokas people (道卡斯族) are one of Taiwan’s so-called “lowland,” or plains, aboriginal tribes from the central part of the island. They are primarily settled north of Dajia Township in Taichung County and along the Miaoli coast to the coastal plains of Hsinchu.
- Address: No. 16-1 Longsheng Community, Zaoqiao Township, Miaoli County
- Contact Number: +886-3-765-1482
At the westernmost end of Zaoqiao Township in Miaoli County is Longsheng Community, which is home not only to the gorgeous Longsheng Lake and to some of the distinctive culture of the Taokas people, but also to edible gourds that can be used in beautiful craftwork and accessories.
The community sits on an area of hilly land with only a narrow space suited to farming. The main crop they grow is the bottle gourd, because bottle gourds are hardy, adaptable plants that can grow year-round. Bottle gourds have proven useful as both food and tools since antiquity, with farmers using ripened ones as simple bowls, scoops, and pots.
Longsheng Community also holds an annual Golden Gourd Art Festival, with a 250-meter “Tunnel of Gourds” set up on the lakefront for visitors. When the festival ends, the 2,000-some gourds used are already overripe, and as such inedible and generally unusable. Previously, they were simply left for compost, but the locals felt that this was a waste and racked their brains for alternatives.
In the end, they found that once the gourds had dried, they became excellent art materials. Not only did this solve the excess gourd problem, it also brought new color and value to the community, marking the start of their new relationship with gourds as handicrafts.
In 2014, Longsheng community invited master gourd artists Yeh Bu-Hsiong (葉步雄), Tseng Hsiu-yun (曾秀雲), and Kung Yi-fang (龔一舫) to give classes on how to transform bottle gourds – together with other local materials like vines and driftwood – into environmentally friendly and practical craftworks.
The community residents soon began using the gourds to make night lights, ornaments, and mid-sized pieces of art, including ones with traditional Taokas patterns carved into them.
Through creative aesthetics; the use of colorful etching, openwork carving, and firing; and the production of useful items like stationery and tableware, Longsheng Community is using bottle gourds to help pass down traditional craftwork methods while creating distinctive local wares.
They have also established the Bottle Gourd Craft Industry Sustainable Development Workgroup, which meets regularly to discuss production, commodification, sales, and marketing with an eye toward ensuring the ongoing sustainability of the community industry.
They have also set up Longsheng Handicrafts Workshops by the Miaoli High-Speed Rail Station and at West Lake Resortopia to facilitate the sale of their products.
The artisanal bottle gourd industry is slowly but surely developing quite a reputation, with even elementary school students learning the craft. It is hoped that in the future it will draw more young people back to their rural hometown and inject some much-needed new vitality while also keeping traditions alive.
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