Lalashan (R’ra) in Taoyuan City becomes Taiwan’s first certified Urban Night Sky Place
Lalashan (R’ra) in Taoyuan City has been certified as Taiwan’s first Urban Night Sky Place (UNSP) today by DarkSky International. Situated roughly 40 kilometers from the metropolitan core, the site is recognized for safeguarding its biodiverse cloud forests and revitalizing indigenous Atayal cultural traditions under preserved dark skies.
Dan Oakley, Policy and Destination Senior Manager at DarkSky, said, ‘It’s great to see this application through to certification. The community‘s commitment to protecting their skies really shone through, and their approach to manually retrofitting all their street lighting was truly impressive. The area should now be an inspiration to visitors and residents to visit this special place’.
Natively called R’ra (“beautiful”), this ancestral Atayal homeland connects to the night through Gaga, traditional tenets rooted in environmental respect and moonlit navigation. Across its 6.45 square kilometers in Fuxing District, surrounding mountain ridges form a natural barrier that blocks light pollution from nearby cities. Under these preserved skies, a rare cloud forest shelters Taiwan’s largest old-growth red cypress stands, harboring over 130 endemic species alongside fireflies and native bats.
To secure the UNSP certification, Taoyuan City enacted strict light-pollution regulations covering luminance, color temperatures, and curfews. Supporting these policies, authorities retrofitted over 1,000 public streetlights with fully shielded, warm-spectrum fixtures and removed intrusive decorative lighting. Alongside public efforts, local Atayal communities and businesses signed a voluntary covenant to adopt responsible lighting and train as certified eco-tourism guides.
“By taking the lead in enacting light-pollution guidelines and pursuing dark-sky certification, Taoyuan demonstrates its commitment to preserving our mountainous night skies while balancing urban growth with environmental conservation,” said Taoyuan Mayor Chang San-cheng. Reflecting on the spiritual and cultural meaning for local communities, Chen-Chen Li of the Baling Atayal Church, Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, added: “Even as city light creeps closer, R’ra still holds a pure night where people can quiet their hearts and reflect. Gathering beneath the stars reminds us of our duty as stewards of the earth. We hope future generations can always look up at this vast sky, shared with God and our ancestors.”
Looking ahead, efforts will prioritize enacting a formal municipal light-pollution ordinance to secure lasting protection. In tandem, planned eco-friendly upgrades to the visitor center and stargazing sites will support a shift toward reservation-only tours rooted in Atayal culture. These initiatives will be reinforced by advanced technologies that integrate ground-based sky quality monitoring with satellite and drone surveillance.
About the International Dark Sky Places Program: Founded in 2001, the International Dark Sky Places Program is a non-regulatory and voluntary program encouraging communities, parks, and protected areas worldwide to preserve and protect dark sites through effective lighting policies, environmentally responsible outdoor lighting, and public education. When used indiscriminately, artificial light can disrupt ecosystems, impact human health, waste money and energy, contribute to climate change, and block our view and connection to the universe. Lalashan (R’ra) Urban Night Sky Place now joins more than 275 Places that have demonstrated robust community support for dark sky advocacy and strive to protect the night from light pollution. Learn more by visiting https://darksky.org/what-we-do/international-dark-sky-places/.
About DarkSky International: The mission of DarkSky is to preserve and protect the nighttime environment and our heritage of dark skies through environmentally responsible outdoor lighting. Learn more at darksky.org
Media Contacts
Heidi Lin
Secretary-General, Taiwan DarkSky Association (TDA)
[email protected]
