Taiwan Indigenous News
Tuesday, 25 October 2005
Female head of the national park system seeks to improve parks
... She said she could sense the wisdom of the mountain forests as passed down throughout the ages by Taiwan's indigenous peoples. The ...
Hsieh reveals moves to help indigenous students
... crystal display television to the students at an elementary school in Taitung County and announced more measures to help Taiwan's indigenous children secure ...
Tribe wants official recognition
... "Taiwan's indigenous tribes are all unique minorities in this country, but we are all the original residents of the island. Every ...
Today, not much is left of Kavalan language, music and culture, and what little has been preserved is to be found in Hualien County’s Hsin She (“New Community”) in the form of a few traditional songs and ballads.
Most of them are ritual songs, and while their words are relatively obscure and difficult to understand, the melodies are very clear-cut and simple. These songs are the most complete record we now have of Kavalan traditional culture.
In her book Official Records of Kavalan, Chen Shu-chun describes a scene of dance and song from the tribe’s long-gone past: “Every year after the autumn harvest, the whole tribe would get together to celebrate by playing competitive games and drinking. This feast was called tsuo nien (“celebrating New Year”) or tsuo tien (“celebrating the harvest”). The alcohol consumed on such occasions was made from glutinous rice. Everybody would grab a handful of it, put it in their mouths and chew on it for a while. When it had mixed nicely with the saliva and assumed a more or less liquid state, everybody would spit it into a big jug. This is left overnight to ferment, and by the next night fresh water would be added to the young wine, making it ready to be drunk. Then everybody would sit down on the ground and drink from the rice wine using a wooden ladle or a bowl made from a coconut cut in half. When everybody had more or less reached a certain level of intoxication, they would get up and start to dance. No elaborate ceremonial dress or finery would be worn. The dancers would be topless or wear plain short shirts as they dance and skip in circles—very much like a children’s ring-a-round-a-roses. There seemed to be no fixed repertoire of songs, and most of the tunes were improvised on the spot. There would be one singer who would chant in a slow, drawn-out voice while the others clap the beat with their hands. Whenever a Kavalan woman would notice that Han Chinese had arrived on the scene, they would invite them to come over and join in the drinking. It was generally considered best to firmly insist on not drinking, because once one of the guests had accepted the cup, which would usually be filled to the brim, it would be considered very rude and impolite, and a loss of face, for any of the other guests to reject it.”