Taiwan Indigenous News
Friday, 20 February 2009
TB Treatment Delays In Taiwan
It should also be noted that the mortality rate and incidence of TB are much greater in aboriginal communities in Taiwan than in non-aboriginal areas. ...
Taiwan's indigenous population up 2.05 percent
MOI officials said the increase was about six times that of the 0.34 percent rate of growth of Taiwan's overall population. Taiwan's indigenous people were ...
Not the same old song and dance
He aims to present a more authentic picture of Aboriginal performing arts and culture. “I want our customers to see the performances in their most original ...
President pushes to boost tourism in Taiwan's indigenous areas
8 (CNA) Concerned over the development of tourism in Taiwan's indigenous areas, President Ma Ying-jeou asked government agencies Sunday to work with travel ...
The Thao believe that the owl was once a young woman. The legend says that in the ancient days, there was a girl who became pregnant with child, even though she didn’t know how. As a result, her fellow tribespeople looked down on her, and no matter how much she pleaded with them, she couldn’t convince them of her innocence. In the end, the poor young woman could no longer bear the shame, and so one day she went away into the mountains all alone, and there she soon starved to death.
After her death, she turned into an owl and henceforth lived in the deep forest. Whenever a Thao woman was with child, the owl would fly to her family’s house and keep hooting to remind the woman to take good care of herself, ensuring a smooth delivery. Now the Thao began to miss the young woman they had driven away, and they felt guilty about having treated her so badly before. To make amends, the Thao do not kill owls. Another reason why they do not kill or hunt these birds is that the Thao believe that owls know all the paths and tracks in the deep mountain forests where they live, and therefore it would bring bad luck to kill them—if you do, you will certainly get lost in the mountains. And to this day the Thao also hold that the owl has foreknowledge of women’s pregnancies. The coming of an owl to the house of a woman with child is always greeted as a good omen. All in all, the owl has become a totem of the Thao tribe.