Taiwan Today

Taitung County is working to preserve and promote its rich artistic and historical resources dating back to the Neolithic era.

It is a hot, sunny day in October 2018 in Tuban, a small village in the mountains of southeastern Taiwan’s Taitung County. A few dozen men sit in a circle on a raised bamboo structure, each holding a sharpened pole that extends so high its tip seems to disappear into the dazzling sky. The crowd bursts into cheers and applause every time one of the pole bearers succeeds in spearing a rattan ball pitched above their heads by a high priest. In total, 10 balls will be thrown and each participant who captures one will have earned good luck for his family for the next five years.

This is the most important event in the colorful Maljeveq festival observed by members of the Paiwan tribe, one of Taiwan’s 16 officially recognized indigenous groups. Celebrations last for days and include ancestor rituals, ceremonies to ward off evil spirits, dancing, feasting, food offerings and singing. Held once every five years, it has been hosted by the Patjaljinuk clan for more than a century. The current chief is Galaikai Patjaljinuk and the shaman that inherited the right to officiate at the festival is her youngest daughter, 47-year-old Mamauwan Patjaljinuk. Throughout the year, her spiritual responsibilities include presiding over weddings and funerals, and conducting divination rites.

“My grandmother became chief when she was 14 years old,” Mamauwan said. “She headed 12 Maljeveq ceremonies over six decades and it’s largely thanks to her that our cultural heritage has been preserved so well.” The shaman said her mission is to keep the ancient traditions and practices alive by engaging with the younger generation. The Paiwan way of life, she added, is “imbued with age-old knowledge and wisdom.”

Recognizing the unique role the festival plays in the community, the county government designated it an important folk custom in 2009. The Ministry of Culture (MOC) dispatched researchers to the event last year to investigate whether to upgrade it to national-level status.

Along with the Paiwan, five other tribes—the Amis, Bunun, Pinuyumayan, Rukai and Tao, also known as the Yami—call Taitung home. The proportion of indigenous people living in the county is 35 percent, the highest of any region in the nation, according to Chung Ching-bo (鍾青柏), director of the local government’s Cultural Affairs Department (CAD). Aboriginal people “are Taitung’s most distinctive feature,” he said. “Their rich history, rituals and festivities as well as traditional arts and crafts are a core part of our intangible cultural heritage.”

In addition to the Paiwan’s Maljeveq, some of Taitung’s most famous indigenous celebrations are the Bunun’s Ear-shooting Festival, which includes an archery contest; the Pinuyumayan’s Mangayaw, a hunting event; and the Tao’s monthslong Flying Fish Festival.

Ancient Treasures

An exciting discovery made in 1980 shed light on the distant ancestors of the county’s aboriginal inhabitants. Workers building a new train station on the fringes of Taitung City stumbled across an ancient graveyard. Thousands of coffins, some with human remains still inside, were unearthed, providing evidence of a prehistoric settlement dating back 3,000 years to the Neolithic era.

Recognizing the importance of the find, the government arranged for archaeologists to examine the plot. Beinan Archaeological Site turned out to contain the largest cluster of slate coffins found in the Pacific Rim. Thousands of caskets, some custom-made to fit corpses, others stuffed with funerary objects such as ornaments and weapons, were excavated as well as around 20,000 pieces of jade, pottery and stone tools. Jade, an especially favored material, was fashioned into hairpins, beads and short tubes strung together to make necklaces and bracelets.

After years of planning and construction, Taiwan’s first world-class museum of archaeology, the National Museum of Prehistory (NMP), opened nearby in 2002 to preserve and display the artifacts. The main facility houses the collection, hosts exhibitions, conducts research and promotes public education. In addition, visitors can tour the dig site, now named Beinan Cultural Park.

“Beinan is one of the world’s richest sources of ancient relics,” NMP Director Wang Chang-hua (王長華) said. “It’s enabled research on Neolithic cultures, helping us understand how people lived at that time.” The 18-hectare park is distinctive because of the in situ conservation of archaeological remains, she added.

Taitung has done a remarkable job in safeguarding its tangible and intangible assets. Key to these efforts has been forging links with the local community and focusing on issues important to them, Wang said. NMP researchers, which include experts in anthropology and ethnology in addition to archaeology, conduct in-depth field studies in indigenous villages across the county and use their knowledge to help formulate heritage conservation strategies.

The museum also houses exhibition halls to showcase Taiwan’s natural history, geological development and original inhabitants as well as human evolution through artifacts, life-size models of mammals and multimedia guides. Wang said the institution plays an important role in enriching Taitung’s status as a cultural destination. In 2017, the NMP welcomed almost 172,000 visitors through its doors.

Historical Homes

Fast forward a few thousand years and arrivals from China and then Japan during the latter’s colonial rule (1895-1945) introduced new influences to the area. “They added to the region’s cultural diversity,” CAD’s Chung said.

In particular, tucked away in streets and lanes are elegant wooden houses and larger structures built during the 19th and early 20th centuries. County authorities granted historic status to 27 traditional Japanese-style buildings in 2007, including dormitories, offices and villas. The first to be refurbished was opened as a cafe called Chu Chu Studio in 2017. Under a program launched in 2015, a NT$180 million (US$5.84 million) grant from the MOC aimed to restore another 15 of these sites. Originally accommodations for senior high school teachers, they are being converted into venues for arts and educational events and recreational facilities. “In a city, the old town is the repository of its collective memory,” the director said. “We place great emphasis on preserving heritage architecture to highlight unique aspects of the region’s identity and character.”

Overall, Taitung has 51 historic buildings recognized at county level including churches, temples and train stations. Not all are Japanese-era structures. A chapel designed by Swiss architect Justus Dahinden, occupying the top floor of Kung-tung Technical Senior High School in the city, is one example. Built in 1960, the avant-garde place of worship was voted the winner of an online World Monuments Fund competition in 2017 on new architectural sites for preservation. As well as the chapel, the building includes classrooms and the former living quarters of priests and monks.

For Chiang Chu-shan (姜柷山), an amateur historian who has dedicated his life to researching and documenting the county’s past, these constructions enrich the cultural flavor of the region and help keep the memories of those times alive. “These old structures allow us to tell the stories of bygone days to the next generation,” he said. With the assistance of the local government, Chiang has published about 40 books on topics like Taitung’s cultural landscapes, Japanese-style wooden houses and religions as well as indigenous arts, crafts and customs. He said he hopes more people will understand and appreciate the area’s unique attractions through his works.

Cultural Exchanges

While these heritage buildings enhance the county’s appeal, it is big name events such as Taiwan International Balloon Festival—where hot air balloons from around the globe sail Taitung’s summer skies—and Taiwan Open of Surfing in December that draw tens of thousands of visitors every year. The local government wants to capitalize on their popularity to raise awareness about the region’s cultural charms among overseas visitors.

“We’ve been working hard to promote the local creative scene,” Chung said. Established and emerging artists and groups from home and abroad frequently present their work in the county at events staged by the local government, he added. For example, the monthslong Taitung Arts Festival, organized by the CAD, features a variety of dance, drama and music shows performed by prominent Taiwan and international troupes. Last year, the annual event drew more than 100,000 visitors.

In 2016, the department held an international camp where 30 people under the age of 35 learned traditional crafts like leatherwork, pottery, weaving and woodcarving from local experts over a 10-day period. The following year, it started an annual exchange program that invites three overseas artists to come to the county while three Taitung resident artisans go overseas to learn new skills and create works.

The local government is determined to foster Taitung as a cultural tourism destination by capitalizing on its exquisite traditional arts, world-class archaeological exhibits and vibrant festivals, Chung said. “We’ll continue to partner with the community and leverage our resources to boost visitor numbers.” 

Write to Kelly Her at kher@mofa.gov.tw