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. ...
In the old days, a huge giant appeared among the Truku. The stride of his feet was so gigantic that he could step from one mountain right onto the next, and his stomp was so enormous that with just two trampling footsteps he created the Puluo Wan (or Truku) and the Hsila An terraces, now both settlements of the Truku tribe. Legend even has it that the entire Huatung Valley running in a north-south direction from Hualien to Taitung is the result of the giant’s stomping and pounding!
This incredibly tall and strong giant lived in the areas surrounding the Truku settlements, and one might have thought that he would become a good friend and helper of the tribe. But in fact, his greatest skill became a source of much trouble and nuisance for the Truku.
With his fast pace and wide stride, he would take almost every opportunity to intercept the prey of the Truku hunters. Whenever the hunters were chasing some game, he’d simply come up and put his head flat on the ground in exactly the direction into which the fleeing animals were running. He would open his enormous mouth, and the game would barge helter-skelter into his maw. While he thus enjoyed one free meal after the other, the Truku living around him were suffering from hunger. Soon, the situation became unbearable.
So the Truku of the various settlements decided to join forces and fight the giant together. Although everybody was afraid of the giant’s great strength, they also believed that by putting their heads together they would be able to come up with a way to defeat him. After much deliberation, the Truku devised a plan. It was somewhat risky, but they went straight ahead with it anyway.
On the next hunting day, all the Truku warriors gathered in the mountains and pretended to go hunting. When the giant saw this, he anticipated another generous meal, and he hid behind the next mountain to wait for the animals to come running by.
Now the Truku had prepared a large round mountain crystal, and when they saw that the giant had assumed his position behind the next mountain, they made a fire and put the big crystal rock into it until it was glowing with a bright red sheen. Seeing that the time was ripe, the warriors began pushing the crystal rock down the mountain. As they kept shoving and rolling it forward with their united strength, they were shouting, “Quickly, move it! After it, after it!” to give the impression that they were really on a hunt.
As he heard the shouts of the warriors and the sound of the huge crystal rock rolling downhill, the giant quickly stuck out his tongue and opened his mouth as wide as he could, getting ready to devour all the animals that he thought came stampeding down the mountainside. Image his surprise when the red-hot crystal rock suddenly rolled right into his throat! The giant was rolling about on the ground, writhing in agony, until at last he fell into the ocean off Hualien and sank to the bottom of the sea. Only his two feet remained above the water’s surface – today we call the feet Orchid Island and Green Island.
