Indigenous Groups in Taiwan
Taiwan has approximately half a million aborigines, or yuanzhu min, meaning original people-the indigenous people of the island. They are believed to be of Austronesia stock, having arrived in Taiwan from regions as far away as Easter Island, Madagascar and New Zealand. They currently make up less than 2 percent of the entire Taiwanese population.
There are currently 12 major indigenous tribes in Taiwan. They are the :
.jpg)
The Ami group is the largest of them, accounting for more than one-third of the indigenous population.
The aborigines are physically different from the Han Chinese in that they tend to have darker skin, bigger eyes and sharper nose. Originally they lived in the plains but with the arrival of the mainland Chinese over the centuries, they gradually retreated into the mountains. Their traditional occupations were farming, hunting, animal husbandry, and fishing. They are still involved in crafts such as weaving and metalwork.
Until the 20th century all of Taiwan’s aborigines, except Yami, practiced headhunting. Although the
Chinese officials tried to suppress the practice, they were unsuccessful for a long time.
It was only
during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan that the custom of headhunting was completely abolished.
At Sun Moon Lake in the Central Range, the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village houses a model re-creation of aboriginal villages representing each of the 12 tribes in Taiwan. Besides carrying on with their traditional lifestyle based on agriculture and hunting, some tribes have turned to making traditional crafts to attract tourist dollars.
Ami
The largest aboriginal tribe in Taiwan. They are found mainly in the eastern region of Taiwan from Hua-lien to T’ai-tung. The Ami have a matriarchal society in which the oldest woman in the family is in the head of the household. The family name is carried on through the women, so children inherit their mother’s name. when men get married, they traditionally move in with their wives’ families.
Traditionally Ami homes are thatched huts with wooden beams, most houses are large communal dwellings because extended families live together. The Ami have a reverence for nature and worship gods of nature, they have many rites and ceremonies, the most important being the harvest festival held in July and August each year.
Atayal
The Atayal people are distributed mainly over the northern parts of Taiwan. Some members live in the Taroko National Park. Like other aboriginals, the Atayal live on farming and hunting. Unlike the matriarchal Ami, Atayal men take their wives and children to live with their families, the Atayal religion is based on belief in utux, or supernatural spirits and the spirits of the dead.
Yami and Saisiyat
They are the smallest tribal groups in Taiwan, each having about 4,200 people. The Yami peoples’ homeland is Lan-yu, but too many have left to live in Taiwan because of a lack of job opportunities on Lan-yu. They are mainly fishing people who supplement their catch by breeding pigs and growing taro, sweet potato, yam and millet. Traditionally, men and women have different roles- the men prepare the fields for cultivation, build boats, go fishing, build homes. Weave baskets, and make pottery; the women tend to the crops and harvest them, take care of domestic affairs, and weave cloth. Being a fishing community, the Yami are famous for their beautifully carved and painted canoes.
The Yami also have a matriarchal system. Women can have the trail marriages for one month; if a husband does not prove his worth by contributing to his wife’s family, his wife can divorce him and look for a new husband.
The Saisiyat are mainly agriculturalists and foresters whose culture has been strongly influenced by their neighbors, the Atayal aborigines. Three or four households of the same name usually make up one Saisiyat settlement,. A few neighboring settlements may join to form village with shared faming land and amenities.
Spirit World of the Aborigines
the aborigines of Taiwan believe in spirits that live in inanimate objects, such as stones and trees. These are said to be the spirits of people who have died. After death they were liberated from their human bodies to dwell in the spirit world. A great part of aboriginal religious ritual involves appeasing these spirits as they can unleash destruction on humanity when any wrongdoing is committed. On the other hand, when people live according to the rules of society, the spirits help them and grant their wishes.
The Ami believe that, once upon a time, a male god was born from the splitting of mountains and a female god was born from a tree after a flood in a bamboo forest. These two gods are believed to be ancestors of human beings, the Saisiyat believe that in ancient times there was a flood that drowned everyone. The only survivor was cut into pieces by gods and thrown into the sea, from these pieces human beings were born again.