The Pazeh have applied to become the 17th officially recognized indigenous community in Taiwan, the Council of Indigenous Peoples said on Thursday.
Several Pazeh associations from Nantou, Miaoli and Taichung delivered an application to the council on Wednesday in a bid to receive official recognition as the country’s 17th indigenous community.
The Pazeh have promoted the revival of their language and culture for more than 25 years, Nantou County Pazeh Ethnic Culture Association head Bauke Abuk said. He has long been committed to the promotion, preservation and research of the Pazeh language, folk songs and culture, and led the indigenous peoples name rectification movement.
Photo: Tung Chen-kuo, Taipei Times
As such, they applied to become Taiwan’s 17th officially recognized indigenous community, Bauke said.
He added that the traditional territory of the Pazeh community, a subgroup of the Taiwan plains indigenous people in central Taiwan, stretches from the north bank of Daan River to the south bank of Dajia River, covering Sanyi and Jhoulan townships in Miaoli, as well as Shihgang, Fongyuan, Daya and Beitun districts in Taichung. Later on, some members of the community migrated to the Ailan Plateau in Puli Township, Nantou County.
The “plain” people, also known as Pingpu people, are Taiwanese indigenous people who originally lived in lowland areas, as opposed to highland indigenous people.
There are 16 officially recognized indigenous people in Taiwan: Amis, Atayal, Paiwan, Bunun, Puyuma, Rukai, Tsou, Saisiyat, Yami, Thao, Kavalan, Truku, Sakizaya, Sediq, Hla’alua and Kanakanavu.
The “plains” people headed by the Siraya, have struggled to have their indigenous status recognized as “lowland” indigenous people.
However, the Constitutional Court ruled in 2022 that the Siraya and other Pingpu groups have the right to be recognized as “indigenous,” and gave the government a three-year deadline to implement a law to facilitate their recognition.
The ruling came after the Council of Indigenous Peoples rejected an attempt by the Siraya to register as indigenous in 2012 and the legal case reached the Constitutional Court in 2020.
After the Constitutional Court ruling, the Siraya, Kaxabu and Pazeh applied to be officially recognized as plains indigenous groups, the council said, adding that it would deal with these applications in accordance with the due process.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final