Kenting Livestock Station Stelae

Three weathered stelae stand next to an office inside the Hengchun branch of the Taiwan Livestock Research Institute (農委會畜產試驗所墾丁分所). For decades the inscriptions were illegible and station staff treated the monuments as folk-religious objects deserving of annual pudu offerings. In May 2025 local historian Nian Jicheng (念吉成) cleaned the surfaces and identified them as a talismanic curse stone (五雷令符), an earth god stele (福德正神), and a guardian-general stele (某府將軍). The curse stone substantiated legends of early Han Chinese settlers using sorcery to suppress the spiritual power of the Paiwan community of Kulaljuc, or Sheding (社頂), which is located in the hills above the ranch, around 1873, prior to the extension of Qing administrative control of the area. Following the discovery, a reconciliation ceremony was held with descendants of both communities. The stelae themselves are still on display inside the livestock station, which is not regularly open to the public.