Qualla: Mount Dabajian

Mount Dabajian: Introduction

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peellden, CC BY-SA 3.0. You can see it from far away, and you cannot mistake it for anything else. Most mountains taper to a point. Dabajian ends in a wall. The lower half of the peak rises on a moderate slope like any high-country ridge, but then the mountain changes its mind. The upper portion becomes nearly vertical — a sheer rock face approximately 150 meters high and 100 meters wide, dropping on all sides. Japanese mountaineers who first saw it from a distance compared the silhouette to a Turkish fez. Taiwanese climbers call it the Marvelous Peak of the Century. The Atayal and Saisiyat peoples, for whom this mountain is far older than any of those names, regard it as something closer to the center of the world.

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Image: Peellden | CC BY-SA 3.0

Mount Dabajian: Ancestral Mountain

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rachelyjt2873, CC BY-SA 4.0. For the Atayal people, Mount Dabajian — which they call Papak Waqa, meaning 'rock split like an ear' — is not simply a landmark. It is where their ancestors originated. Their traditions hold that souls of those who lived well traveled through this mountain after death. Water flow...

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Image: Rachelyjt2873 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mount Dabajian: Shape and Stone

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lee ming hsien, CC BY-SA 4.0. The visual drama of Dabajian comes from its structure. The lower half rises at roughly 35 degrees — steep but hike-able, moving through forest and then into the high alpine zone. The upper half simply stops being a slope. The vertical face on every side is composed primarily of g...

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Image: Lee ming hsien | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mount Dabajian: The Decision to Close the Summit

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Afakt, CC BY-SA 4.0. Steel ladders were once bolted to Dabajian's vertical rock face to make the summit accessible. They were removed in 1991. In 2010, Shei-Pa National Park formalized what the ladder removal had begun: climbing to the actual summit was legally prohibited under Taiwan's National Park...

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Image: Afakt | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mount Dabajian: The Holy Ridge

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kf047423, CC BY-SA 4.0. Dabajian is the western anchor of one of Taiwan's most celebrated alpine routes. The Holy Ridge — 聖稜線, Shènglíng Xiàn — runs from Dabajian to Xueshan over approximately 15 kilometers of terrain that rarely drops below 3,000 meters. Numai Tetsutaro named it in a 1928 article, borr...

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Image: Kf047423 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Mount Dabajian: The Banknote Mountain

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alan66625, CC BY-SA 4.0. In July 2005, the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) issued a new NT$500 banknote. On the reverse, among the natural imagery chosen to represent the island, was Mount Dabajian. The choice acknowledged something that mountaineers and indigenous Taiwanese had long under...

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Image: Alan66625 | CC BY-SA 4.0