Maurie Sween

     Good news travels quickly.  Those who live in Taiwan are everywhere talking about a pretty little community in the southern mountains where the harmony that we all long for is being restored.  There people and animals have begun to look after each other and are starting to feel safe and happy.

     The village and the forested valley it crowns are together called Paradise Passage.  The name comes from the way the peaks rise like a staircase, drawing one’s eyes to crystal blue, glowing white, and fiery starlit skies.  Many who travel from the Pingtung plain into that highland say it seems the narrow road leads up into glory itself, that just around the next curve they will find splendors marvelous. 

     On reaching the settlement some suspect they have in fact arrived in a sort of paradise.  They remark about its loveliness.  Indeed the sights, sounds, textures, fragrances, flavors, and fellowships that there mingle carry countless delights for those with open hearts and rested minds.  

     Paradise Passage is a fictious location, but there are many such villages and woodlands located in the mountains of Pingtung County, Taiwan.  The highest of these are inhabited by the Rukai.  The bedtime stories that grandmother tells in Charlie's Rabbit were shared by elderly Rukai who had fond memories of growing up in that wilderness.  The wondrous animals that fill the pages of the novel still wander their forest trails.

Paradise Passage