Taiwan is a very nice place. It has beautiful sceneries, nice beaches (there is one without sand but with pebbles) and nice people! Talking about people, did you know that they have 14 indigenous tribes?
The map above shows the location of the indigenous people in Taiwan. Nearly all of these indigenous people speak Mandarin and their own native languages. The languages of these tribes belong to the Austronesian family which amounts to more than a whopping 200 million people worldwide!
The tribe with the greatest population would be the Amis. This is one of the most well-known tribe of Taiwan. It has a population of about 140,000 and they are all over Taiwan, but mainly located in Ami towns and villages along the east coasts from Taitung to Hualian (Lonely planet, 2007). They have a special harvest festival usually held from July to September with joyful songs and dances. It also celebrates the transformation of boys to men.
Next would be the Atayal with about 90,000 people scattered around the northern mountainous area of Taiwan. The men would take their Father's first name as their last name. Their traditional way of life consists of the Slash-and-Burn method of farming and hunting. They have fantastic weaving skills which was important in determining social status for women in the past. The better their weaving skills, the higher her social status. Red symbolises blood, which represent the vitality of life. They have a coming of age ceremony which involves facial tattooing and they still partake in ancestral worship.
The Bunun people have a population of about 40,000 who can be found in the Southern and Central mountainous area of Taiwan. This indigenous group of people have a harvest festival as well. They have a belief that shooting through an animal's ears before hunting would ensure a successful hunting session!
With a population of 25,000, the Truku tribe's village can be visited around the eastern coast of Hualien and in the mountainous region of Nantou County. The Truku people were known for their fantastic skill on hunting, weaving and knitting. Privileged people with facial tattoos shows that they are good in those three skills. Today, they still retain their skills of making knives and shamanistic practices.
The Rukai tribe has about 9,000 people. They have a hierarchy system which consists of nobles and commoners. Commoners can become nobles if they possess great leadership skills, reaping a huge harvest or simply by marrying into the noble family. The lily flower is significant to them. For men, it denotes bravery. For women, it denotes purity. They have a harvest festival which only allows male participants. They would place a millet cake batter on a stone plate to be baked. If it comes out nice and moist, it means that there would be a bountiful harvest with plenty of rain. If it comes out dry and brittle, it means that the year ahead would have little rain, reaping little harvest.
The Puyama tribe has about the same number of people as the Rukai tribe. Did you know that they have eight different sub groups, each with its own tales of origin and legend? Despite these differences in origin, they have the same social organisation. The eldest daughter would inherit the family. It is very different from the usual Chinese tradition whereby males are to be the head of the family after their Father's death. Despite being exposed to Christianity and the Han religion, they have managed to retained their own traditions and values.
The Tsou has a population of about 7,000. They are skilled hunters and it is taboo to eat or hunt bears and leopards.
There are about 87,000 Paiwan people who live in the south of Pingtung. They hold a poisonous snake, Agkistrodon acutus, in high esteem. They hold the Maveleq once every five years, 15 days each time. It is their belief that their ancestors' spirits would come down from Dawu Mountain to join them for a while.
The Saisiyat tribe has about 5,800 people and they have a special ceremony held every other year to commemorate the spirits of the Ta'ia people who claimed that they were the earliest inhabitants of Taiwan. Why is there a need to commemorate them? Well, they do not exist any longer. Legend has it that the Saisiyat people killed them all because the Ta'ia people sexually harrassed the Saisiyat women. After the killing spree, they suffered from bad harvest. Thinking that it was a curse of the anguished souls of the Ta'ia people, they held a special ceremony to appease them.
Watch the video above to see the dance I have mentioned earlier on. I am deeply in awe of the women's ability to whip their hair back and forth without feeling any discomfort. It is amazing how they are able to do it when I feel dizzy just after bending down to pick up a pen from the floor (or maybe it is just me being extremely unhealthy).
At eastern Taiwan, we have the Kavalan people with a population of 1,200. Many of them have grown to be part of the Han because of intermarriages. However, they still retain their distinctive language and traditional values.
Moving on to the Thao with a population of only 660, they have a chief who makes decisions for ceremonies. The position is passed on from Father to Son. In each home, there would be a basket hanging from the corner of a wall. They believe that their ancestors' spirits dwell in there. This is by far, the most interesting form of worship in the home I have came across.
The Sakizaya have about 400 people. They are very similar to the Amis in terms of attire and customs as they have social interactions from way back. One other possible reason is that they had to disguise themselves as the Amis tribe to avoid being killed by the Ching army in the 19th century.
Lastly, we have the Sediq with 5,700 people. They were officially recognised as one of Taiwan's indigenous tribe on May 31, 2008. Before that, they were classified as being part of the Ayatal because they had very similar customs, attire, languages and rituals. They have great weaving and embroidery skills, often forming a star-shaped pattern on a white background.
Now that we have learnt something about the indigenous groups of Taiwan, let's know more about their languages!
The written language used is Chinese. The 'traditional' Chinese characters are used as opposed to the 'simplified' Chinese characters used in mainland China. Though the official language is Mandarin, many Taiwanese communicate in Holo or Hakka. The indigenous people speak their own languages.
73% of the Taiwanese speak in Holo. Hakka is a dialect and it is slowly being forgotten as the young Taiwanese speak Mandarin or Holo. The indigenous people's languages are under the same family as Malay and Hawaiian. The number of speakers of these languages are declining as the new generation of people speak Mandarin or Holo after moving to the cities to work. The Ministry of Education (MOE) has included these languages into the school curriculum in a bid to teach the young generation so that it would not be lost.
Students learn English in schools. However, they are so focused on passing the examinations that they just memorise grammatical patterns of English, rather than mastering conversational English (Lonely Planet, 2007). Therefore, tourists who speak English and not Mandarin would encounter some difficulties in trying to ask for help from students. They have Romanisation of the Chinese language. However, people with different accents would pronounce it properly and it is difficult for them to discern the words. There is HanYu PinYin which was introduced by the mainland China, but it is not practised in Taiwan.
Lonely Planet. (2007). Taiwan. Singapore: Lonely Planet.
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