Bunun Sky God Belief (Dihanin)

The most celebrated Bunun legend is the Shooting the Sun myth. In the primordial age, two suns hung in the sky, scorching the earth until rivers ran dry, crops withered, and the people suffered terribly. A brave warrior of the tribe resolved to set out with his young son toward the place where the suns rose, determined to shoot one down. Father and son crossed mountain after mountain, enduring countless hardships. Along the way, the orange tree the father had planted grew into a towering tree — a testament to just how long the journey lasted. At last they reached the edge of the sky, and the warrior drew his bow and struck one of the suns. Blood poured from the wounded sun, staining the sky red (this, the Bunun say, is the origin of the sunset glow). The injured sun slowly dimmed and became the moon. From that day forward, one sun and one moon shared the heavens, and the earth flourished once again. Dihanin, witnessing the warrior's courage, bestowed upon the Bunun the seeds of millet and taught them how to cultivate it, ensuring the people would never go hungry.

Bunun ceremonies feature millet wine and game meat as the principal offerings. Tribal elders or ritual specialists lead the community in prayer to the Sky God Dihanin. The Bunun possess a unique "painted calendar" — a system of pictographic symbols recording each month's agricultural tasks and ceremonies — making them the only indigenous people in Taiwan to have developed a form of written record-keeping. The most renowned element of Bunun worship is the Pasibutbut (Eight-Part Polyphony): participants form a circle and sing in layered harmonies, offering prayers for an abundant millet harvest.

The most important Bunun ceremony is the Ear-Shooting Festival (Malahtangia), held annually in April or May. The festival serves as both a coming-of-age rite and a hunting ceremony for Bunun men, who must shoot deer ears hung on a wooden rack to demonstrate their marksmanship. During the festival, participants perform the internationally celebrated Pasibutbut (Eight-Part Polyphony) — also known as the "Prayer for a Bountiful Millet Harvest." Using a distinctive vocal technique in which singers produce layered harmonies, the performance creates an otherworldly sound that rises as a prayer to Dihanin. In 1952, Japanese musicologist Kurosawa Takatomo sent a recording of this singing to UNESCO, where it astonished the international music community and has since been hailed as one of the great treasures of human musical heritage.