A small school with a place in world music history.
Kanding Elementary opened in 1947 as "Kanding National School," became independent in 1963, and took its current name in 1968. It serves the Bunun village known in the Bunun language as Kamcing, where roughly 97% of the school's students — about 35 children across six classes plus a preschool class — are Indigenous, mostly Bunun. The school is small in size but carries outsized significance: Kamcing is the community where a piece of Bunun musical heritage, later recognized around the world, was first documented.
崁頂國小創立於1947年，初名「崁頂國民學校」，1963年獨立設校，1968年更改為現名。學校服務的部落在布農語中稱為「Kamcing」，全校約35名學生（六班加一班學前班）中約97%為原住民，多數為布農族。學校規模雖小，卻具有非凡的文化意義：Kamcing正是後來享譽國際的布農音樂文化最初被記錄下來的地方。
What makes this school worth knowing.
🎵 The Birthplace of a World-Famous Harmony
祈禱小米豐收歌首次錄音地
In 1943, Japanese ethnomusicologist Kurosawa Takatomo made the first-ever recording of the Bunun "pasibutbut" (祈禱小米豐收歌) — an eight-part polyphonic harmony sung without any melodic leader — in Kamcing, the village this school serves. The recording later introduced the world to a vocal tradition unlike any other, and Kamcing's place in that history remains a defining part of the school's identity.
🎓 A School Nearly Entirely Bunun
近全數布農族學生
About 97% of Kanding's roughly 35 students are Indigenous, overwhelmingly Bunun — making the school a close reflection of the community it has served since 1947.
🏡 A Small School, A Deep History
歷經多次更名的老校
From its 1947 founding as "Kanding National School" through independence in 1963 and its current name in 1968, the school has grown alongside Kamcing across three generations.
Kamcing and the pasibutbut.
The village of Kamcing, known in Chinese as Kanding, holds a singular place in Bunun and world music history. It was here in 1943 that the pasibutbut (祈禱小米豐收歌, "Prayer for Millet Harvest") — an eight-part Bunun choral harmony sung to bless the millet crop, built on overlapping vocal lines rather than a fixed melody — was recorded for the first time by outside researchers. The recording later reached international audiences and remains one of the most studied vocal traditions in ethnomusicology, cited by scholars for its uniquely dense harmonic structure. The school and its community continue to carry that heritage today.
Find the school.
台東縣海端鄉崁頂村中福21號
No. 21, Zhongfu, Kanding Village, Haiduan Township, Taitung County, Taiwan
School's Official Website (Chinese) ↗
Last updated: July 2026 · Content adapted and condensed from the school's official Chinese-language website by the Taiwan Bilingual Hub team, not yet reviewed by the school. If you're from Kanding Elementary and would like to correct or expand this page, please contact us.