While boatloads of tourists flock to Green Island each day in summer for its recreational opportunities, the travelers that visit Orchid Island come for a taste of aboriginal culture and for a glimpse of centuries-old traditions and ceremonies. For the island's Tao ethnic group, however, such rituals are not just shows put on for tourists, but rather a way of life and a means of ensuring cultural survival. In particular, ceremonies related to fishing, boat building and the harvest underscore the tribe's endurance.
Orchid Island lies in the Pacific Ocean 91 kilometers southeast of Taitung on Taiwan's southeast coast and 75 kilometers south of Green Island. In many ways, the island is a transition zone where the people, climate and flora and fauna of the tropical Philippines mix with those of subtropical Taiwan. The island's aborigines are sometimes called "Yami" in Western languages and in Mandarin, although they call themselves "Tao," which means "man" or "person." The Tao emigrated some 800 years ago from the northern Philippines' Batan Island, which lies just 110 kilometers to the south. Like the Philippines, Orchid Island's climate is tropical with plentiful rainfall, with the result that the island is covered primarily with tropical vegetation. The island was renamed Orchid Island by the Republic of China (ROC) government in 1946 after one of these indigenous plants, the butterfly orchid. Animals on the island also exhibit genetic characteristics of animals found in Taiwan as well as of those in the Philippines.
Efforts to preserve the Tao way of life began under the Japanese colonial government, which declared the island an anthropological research area devoted to indigenous culture. The Japanese prohibited visits by the public, and following the end of World War II, the ROC government maintained the ban on public visits to the 46-square-kilometer island until 1967. Some 40 years after the lifting of the ban, many Tao traditions remain today. As a result, visitors to Orchid Island are treated with a glimpse of a lifestyle that is far different from that on Taiwan proper.
Fishing Lure
The Tao are Taiwan's only ocean-going aboriginal group, and it is no surprise that fish play a central role in the tribe's culture. A Tao man's worth, for example, is judged by his ability to support his family through fishing. Although the Tao catch many kinds of fish, they esteem the flying fish the most. Flying fish season officially begins in late February or early March each year, when the tribe holds a ceremony to call them to the island. On the day of the ceremony, Tao men arise at dawn and go to the shore, where, after the ceremonial sacrifice of a chicken, an elder uses his fingers to paint the blood on some of the rounded stones that line the beach. Looking out toward the sea, he cries "We shout out to you, flying fish to the south, to come to us like arrows shot from a bow, for we have chicken and pork to welcome you. Flying fish! Return to us quickly!" Each boat captain then picks up five of the blood-painted stones to take home as part of a ceremonial request for a bountiful catch.
Sometime in March each year, the rich waters of the Kuroshio Current shift toward Orchid Island to bring the flying fish. Upon their arrival, Tao men begin fishing during the day and at night, preserving much of their catch with salt. The flying fish move on in June or July, and on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month (usually September), the Tao hold a ceremony signaling that fresh flying fish must no longer be caught or eaten, although dried and salted fish can be consumed during the winter. The tails of the largest flying fish are hung along the shore as a symbol of the season's end and all uneaten fresh flying fish are disposed of after the ceremony.
Floating Symbols
Tao tradition holds that every man in the tribe must build his own boat before he dies. While most families own boats that hold one to three people, villages come together to construct larger craft capable of seating about 12. Featuring high, upturned bows and sterns, the boats are one of the foremost symbols of Tao culture.
Long before a boat is to be built, an individual or clan lays claim to an appropriate tree from which to hew the requisite 21 to 27 wooden planks. Construction of the boats is done completely by hand with the same simple tools that have been used for generations. The planks are joined with wooden pegs and sealed with the resin of the barok tree. For a finishing touch, the boats receive intricate carvings and decorative emblems painted in white, red and black--the colors of the flying fish that form one of the tribe's primary sources of food.
One of the best times of year to visit Orchid Island comes in spring when colorful ceremonies are held to launch the new fishing boats. Shortly before this important annual ritual, women begin wearing octagonal wooden hats and necklaces strung with agate beads. On the evening before the launch, the host family and guests, or village if it is a larger boat, sing throughout the night. On the day of the launch, pigs are slaughtered as a sacrifice and the meat is offered to all that attend.
The launch is also ceremonial, with young men wearing loincloths and encircling the designated boat, performing rituals to guard against evil spirits and throwing the boat into the air several times. The ceremony is only considered complete after the boat has been launched and seen to remain afloat.
During the Harvest Festival, Tao women perform the hair dance to express their affection for their husbands and families. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)
Working Together
Tao society does not have clearly defined class distinctions--there are no chiefs, for example, only village elders--and encourages working together for the mutual benefit of all. For example, tradition holds that when a member of the Tao decides to build a home, friends and relatives should pitch in to help with their labor and experience. This custom continues today in two villages on the island's east coast that retain the traditional housing style, in which homes are built partially below ground level. These homes are built in excavations lined with stone, making them warm in the winter and cool in summer and offering protection from the typhoons that strike Orchid Island. The houses themselves are constructed from wooden planks and have steeply sloping roofs that barely protrude above ground level.
Most of the traditional houses have a smaller workhouse to one side, while the other side has an elevated, roofed platform that gives a clear view of the sea and catches cooling breezes, providing a place to relax and eat, smoke, chew betel nuts and chat with neighbors.
These houses are set in a grid of coral rock walls, separating them from pigpens and fields of wet taro, which require a steady source of water. Flat stones set in grass and other level areas provide walkways. The construction of these traditional homes occurs fairly frequently because Tao custom dictates that after the parents of a member of the tribe have passed away, the family home must be dismantled. The elder son of the family inherits reusable construction materials from the former home and supplements it with lumber obtained from the forests to build a new house. While men are primarily responsible for building homes, Tao women are in charge of plowing new fields near the new house that will be used for growing taro when construction is completed.
In the late 1960s, the ROC government began a program to "improve" the standard of housing on Orchid Island, ordering the construction of standard concrete homes and relocating the Tao to them. Many of the tribe's elders objected and insisted on moving back to their traditional homes. An additional difficulty arose because the concrete for the new houses was mixed with substandard, salt-laced sand from the ocean's shore, with the result that the new housing began to deteriorate after only a few years. Nevertheless, the program continued until 1976, with many of the old-style homes demolished. Today, such "progress" has resulted in concrete housing becoming the predominant building style in four of the island's six villages.
Harvest Celebration
Besides fishing, the Tao depend on farming for sustenance, with millet being one of the major crops. Although less millet is grown today than in former times, the crop still holds an important place among the tribe's traditions. In the past, each family conducted its own small-scale harvest ceremony over the course of one week in early summer to thank the gods for a good harvest and to pray for another productive one the next year. Today, these family ceremonies have given way to larger ones held by each village and have been shortened to one or two carefully selected, auspicious days. However, the ceremonies no longer take place annually, with a decision on whether to hold them made early in the year. If they are to be held, village elders notify families that they should grow millet. The harvest ceremony is held after the crops are gathered, usually in June.
Other crops such as wet taro, yams, fruits and vegetables are harvested around the same time as millet, and while the Tao also give thanks for these crops in the festival, millet takes center stage in the millet-pounding dance. Children, adults and elders perform this dance, which specifically includes each major age group to ensure that the tradition is passed down to successive generations. In the dance itself, each participant holds a wooden pestle, sings and dances around a mortar, taking turns bending at the waist and pounding the millet in the mortar.
The most distinctive ceremony during the Harvest Festival is the hair dance performed by Tao women, who gracefully swing their long hair to express their affection for their husbands and families. In the past, Tao custom dictated that women should not dance in the daytime, so they danced by moonlight, usually along the beach. Today, though, the dance is performed during the daytime as part of the Harvest Festival. The women begin the dance by standing in a row and loosening their hair. They begin to sing and gently sway, then link arms and bow low until their hair touches the ground. From this position, they swing their hair from side to side before them, then bend their knees and rapidly flip their hair to the back, making their hair appear to stand on end as it swings to the rear. This movement is repeated several times.
The Tao were insulated from the pressures of the outside world under Japanese colonial rule and then later under the ROC government. Today, however, some 40 years after travel bans to Orchid Island were lifted, the preservation of Tao traditions is at risk, as are the traditions of many indigenous cultures around the world. In response, the tribe has made a concerted effort to maintain important traditions such as those related to the flying fish, boat launching, home building and the harvest. We are still here, these traditions seem to say, and this is who we are.