According to Puyuma tradition, when a teenage male reaches puberty he should spend half a year, every year until marriage, preparing to be a man. In the past, teenage boys from the Puyuma Aboriginal villages would leave their families to live and study together under the watchful eye of an elder. The exercises, mostly aimed at perfecting their hunting ability and house building skills, were necessary requirements of becoming an adult and providing for one's family.
At the end of their half-year training, the young men would return home and take part in one more test: the ceremonial slaughter of a monkey. In addition to the Harvest Festival held at the end of the summer, the Monkey Festival is organized and attended by the entire village. Although it has been modified greatly over the years, the ritual is still of major significance to the Puyuma and it is also open to the public.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BEINAN TOWNSHIP
The songs and dances during the ceremony are the same as those used traditionally to simulate the behavior of a monkey. The major difference in the ritual comes after the singing and dancing when the boys come to the center of the circle and use spears to stab a monkey to death. After the persistent lobbying of animal rights groups, real monkeys are no longer used in the ritual killing and in their place are grass dolls. After the killing ritual is re-enacted, another rite is performed to mourn the spirits of the monkeys.
Visitor involvement in the ceremony is left up to the discretion of each individual, said Shu Jan-mei (
A week after the boys return from their manhood training, a three-day Hunting Festival takes place when the men retreat to the nearby mountains.
Visitors do not normally attend the hunting excursion but there is a ceremony open to the public honoring the men upon their return home. The women and children serenade the men as they enter the village and treat them to a showcase of song, dance and food.
The Hunting Festival is a joint celebration with several of the villages taking part. It will be held in front of Beinan New Station in the Cultural Park on Dec. 31.
Dec. 31 also marks the Burial Festival for village ancestors and is followed by New Year's celebrations on Jan. 1 and 2 to give thanks to the gods in anticipation of an abundant summer harvest. Marked with singing and dancing competitions, Shu said this is the liveliest of the winter festivals.
The Monkey Festival begins tomorrow morning at 6am and continues until mid to late afternoon. There are 10 villages throughout Beinan Township, Taitung County, that will be performing the ritual and each is open to the public.
Public transportation, however, will not be available and it is recommended to rent a scooter or hire a taxi for the day, depending on how many villages one wishes to visit. The Nanwang village is a five-minute walk north from the train station.
Event Information:
What: Puyuma Monkey and Hunting Festival (
When: Dec. 18 to Jan. 4
Where: Beinan Township (
Cost: Free
Contact: For more information in Chinese contact the office administration in Beinan at (08) 9381368. For further details in English and Chinese on places to stay and where to eat in Beinan and Taitung city check online at http://tour.taitung.gov.tw.
Getting there: (Taipei to Taitung):
By air: More than 20 daily flights to Taitung with Far Eastern Air Transport and UNI Airways Flight (approximately 1hour). Shuttle service to Taitung's new train station provided at airport.
By rail: Three express train services daily between Taipei and Taitung (6 hours). Now a train service available from Taitung to Beinan New Station (approx. 30 mins.), although it is possible to rent a scooter or hire a taxi from Taitung.
While Americans face the upcoming second Donald Trump presidency with bright optimism/existential dread in Taiwan there are also varying opinions on what the impact will be here. Regardless of what one thinks of Trump personally and his first administration, US-Taiwan relations blossomed. Relative to the previous Obama administration, arms sales rocketed from US$14 billion during Obama’s eight years to US$18 billion in four years under Trump. High-profile visits by administration officials, bipartisan Congressional delegations, more and higher-level government-to-government direct contacts were all increased under Trump, setting the stage and example for the Biden administration to follow. However, Trump administration secretary
In mid-1949 George Kennan, the famed geopolitical thinker and analyst, wrote a memorandum on US policy towards Taiwan and Penghu, then known as, respectively, Formosa and the Pescadores. In it he argued that Formosa and Pescadores would be lost to the Chine communists in a few years, or even months, because of the deteriorating situation on the islands, defeating the US goal of keeping them out of Communist Chinese hands. Kennan contended that “the only reasonably sure chance of denying Formosa and the Pescadores to the Communists” would be to remove the current Chinese administration, establish a neutral administration and
A “meta” detective series in which a struggling Asian waiter becomes the unlikely hero of a police procedural-style criminal conspiracy, Interior Chinatown satirizes Hollywood’s stereotypical treatment of minorities — while also nodding to the progress the industry has belatedly made. The new show, out on Disney-owned Hulu next Tuesday, is based on the critically adored novel by US author Charles Yu (游朝凱), who is of Taiwanese descent. Yu’s 2020 bestseller delivered a humorous takedown of racism in US society through the adventures of Willis Wu, a Hollywood extra reduced to playing roles like “Background Oriental Male” but who dreams of one day
Burnt-out love-seekers are shunning dating apps in their millions, but the apps are trying to woo them back with a counter offer: If you don’t want a lover, perhaps you just need a friend? The giants of the industry — Bumble and Match, which owns Tinder — have both created apps catering to friendly meetups, joining countless smaller platforms that have already entered the friend zone. Bumble For Friends launched in July last year and by the third quarter of this year had around 730,000 monthly active users, according to figures from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Bumble has also acquired the
RSS