The Bunun people inhabit the high central mountains, traditionally living at altitudes of between 1,000 and 2,500 metres, making them the highest-altitude indigenous people in Taiwan. They are famous above all for their Pasibutbut, a form of eight-part polyphonic choral music performed as a prayer for a good millet harvest. The sound — a slowly ascending harmonic cluster — is unlike anything else in the world’s musical traditions. When the Japanese musicologist Kurosawa Takatomo recorded it in 1943 and sent the recording to the International Folk Music Council, the response from European musicologists was reportedly one of astonishment that such a sophisticated harmonic tradition could have developed independently.

The Bunun Cultural Centre in Taitung County, and community events in the high mountain areas of Nantou, Hualien, and Taitung, are the best contexts for encountering Bunun culture.