Taiwan Indigenous News
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Political whisk: Angry Taiwan aboriginals throw eggs
"It's about our land, and the Council of Indigenous Peoples doesn't support us." The protesters, organised largely by aboriginal legislators, ...
Tea, aboriginal beads, cakes win contest for Taiwan's best products
Handcrafted with clay, they were used as a symbol of nobility and power in the aboriginal tribe. Now they have become one of the must-buy tour souvenirs in ...
Indigenous people call for minister to resign
6 (CNA) Over 300 members of the indigenous people's alliance for safeguarding the Aboriginal Basic Law staged a protest Tuesday in front of the Council of ...
Protesters slam interference in media affairs
PTS, Hakka Television Service and Taiwan Indigenous Television Service (TITV) are all affiliates of TBS, which is funded mainly by the government. ...
Truku society is organized along patriarchal principles and places much emphasis on the core family as basic social unit. The clan is more than just one’s extended family: its members usually perform religious rites together, hunt together, work together, worship the ancestors together, and follow the same precepts and taboos handed down by their forefathers. Those taboos are subsumed under the term “gayan”.
Traditionally, the Truku define religion as “ancestor worship”, i.e. a belief in the continuing influence of the deceased members of the tribe, who will protect their living descendants—if the latter respect and abide by the taboos, and follow the teachings and customs, of their forbears.
Through a variety of rites and celebrations, in which every tribe member has to participate in some role or other, ancestor worship is that which holds the tribe together as it shapes their sense of community and tribal identity.
While the form and content of the ancestor rites may have changed over the centuries, the profound reverence and awe the Truku feel for their forefathers have never ceased to permeate almost every aspect of their culture and civilization.
Unsurprisingly, the most important Truku festival is the annual Ancestor Rite that is celebrated after the millet has been harvested, or sometimes after it has been put in storage. The main purpose is to worship the forefathers and thank them for their protection and grace, as well as to ask for their continued benevolence in the coming year. This amounts to prayers for a good harvest and blessings for all families.
Consequently, the Ancestor Rite is also called the Harvest Festival. Whatever you call it, the focus is firmly on ancestor worship. The festival is held in the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the time when there is a break in the farm work and the men go hunting in the mountains while the women finish their weaving work and brew millet wine. The celebrations feature a feast for the entire tribe with much drink and food, as well as singing and dancing. Any couples in love, and engaged to be married, will be introduced to the whole tribe by the elders, thus officially announcing their upcoming wedding. The festivities end around dusk with another set of prayers to the ancestors for protection and a good harvest in the coming year.
