Wearing traditional costumes and performing age-old rituals, nearly 200 Aboriginal people from the Thao tribe -- the smallest Abo-riginal group on the island -- returned to their ancestral land yesterday, celebrating what they described as a "rebirth" of their tribal culture.
Women sang loudly together with tears in their eyes. They sprinkled rice wine on the ground to inform the gods of their arrival.
"After 50 years of fighting, we are finally returning to our own land," said one Thao.
PHOTO GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Since the Japanese occupa-tion, the Thao have lived in the Tehua community area on the shore of Sun Moon Lake, near the epicenter of the devastating 921 earthquake. The quake destroyed most of the hotels and tourist spots around the lake and also caused serious damage to the Thao community at Tehua. At least 180 houses in the village collapsed, 95 percent of which belonged to the Thaos. Most of the tribe's 283 members have also been left unemployed by the quake.
This, they said yesterday, was the main reason for the "land-return" ceremony. They said now that their homes were destroyed, they are now going back to where their roots are.
The ceremony took place in a religious as well as political atmosphere. Garlands were placed on the heads of the 200 villagers. Then, singing together, they took a raft across a small bay out onto a nearby peninsula -- called Puzi -- that is their traditional homeland. After the 10 minute ride from the Tehua community, shouts and cheers went up as they landed. "Piakalinkin!" they shouted, meaning peace and safety.
PHOTO GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"We Thao people like to be close to nature. That's why we wear garlands on our heads," said Mani, a Thao woman in her 60s.
Fifty years ago, the tribe -- which numbered around 900 at that time -- lived in an area on the southern shore of Sun Moon Lake they call Puzi -- the Thao word for `white.' For two hundred years the Thao grew rice on the fertile flats, hunting and fishing locally and living quietly isolated from the rest of Taiwan.
But plans by Taiwan's Japanese occupiers to turn the natural lake into a reservoir to feed a hydro-electric plant meant much of the Thao's low-lying homeland would be flooded. The tribe were moved to new land to the south-east of the lake at what is now the Tehua community. They were not given any choice in the matter. Generations later, their traditional tribal culture has been diluted by Taiwanese and Chinese culture, and their population reduced to only 283.
PHOTO GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
When the KMT "liberated" Taiwan, they moved into the area, developing the lake into what is now the island's most popular tourist destination.
"They [the KMT government] let the Han [Taiwanese] move here and integrate with our people," said Panu Kapamumu, the director of the Association for the Cultural Development for Thao People.
Panu believes this was a major step toward the destruction of Thao culture.
"They did not take us seriously, they just wanted us to dance and sing," he said.
Thao is still not recognized as an official Aboriginal tribe by the government, because it was long thought to be a sub-division of the Tsou tribe by anthropologists.
But villagers said the government took advantage of their culture while politically ignoring their status and rights.
The vanishing of their language is a major indicator of this loss of culture, as few people under the age of 45 speak the tribal language anymore.
Panu said yesterday that the ceremony represented "a chance for our people to trace our culture back toward the source."
After arriving at Puzi, senior villagers and spiritualists of the tribe started to identify old defense works and ancestral tombs, reaffirming the connection between the land and the Thao tribe.
"We are planning to resettle here now and restore our culture here," said Panu.
Villagers then started fires and made traditional rice cooking containers from fresh bamboo cut nearby.
With everyone lending a hand, villagers enjoyed the traditional Thao meal and rice wine. They decided to camp on the site, to sleep where their ancestors slept -- to sleep at home again.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS