activity area










  • Aboriginal clothing

  • The Paiwan people live in southern Taiwan, from the Dawu Mountains in the north to Hengchun in the south, Ailiao in the west, and the coast south of Taimali in the east. Divided into Raval sub-clan and vutsul sub-clan; vutsul group is divided into paumaumaq group (North Paiwan), Chaoboobol group and parilario group (South Paiwan), paqaroqaro group (East Paiwan). According to the current administrative division, the Paiwan people are distributed in 12 townships in Pingtung and Taitung and one in Taitung City, namely: Sandimen, Majia, Taiwu, Laiyi, Chunri, Lion, and Mudan in Pingtung County. And the eight townships in Manzhou, the four townships of Jinfeng, Daren, Dawu, and Taimali in Taitung County, and Xinyuanli in Taitung City. Among them, Laiyi Township in Pingtung has the largest distribution of Paiwan people. The total population is about 87,000 people.

Cultural traits

The most striking thing about the Paiwan people is their gorgeous costumes. In addition, there is a strict class system, roughly divided into four classes: leader, nobleman, warrior, and commoner. Class concepts are not only manifested in property and marriage, but even the use of names has a certain range according to different classes. A Paiwan can judge his class as long as he knows his name. Leaders and nobles also enjoy privileges in decoration, such as the stripes of the hundred pace snake, eagle feathers, glazed beads...etc. The class system is inherited from generation to generation. The Paiwan people are a gender-equal society. The property and rights of the family are inherited by the eldest heir. After the brothers and sisters get married, they move out of the family and set up a new house and family name.

Cultural traits

  • Dancing at the festival

  • Because the Rukai gradually assimilated with the neighboring Paiwan people, Japanese scholars even merged the Rukai into the Paiwan system in the early stages of Japanese occupation of Taiwan. This is obviously due to the close proximity of the two ethnic groups and their too similar living habits. Sincerely. Rukai and Paiwan have a high degree of similarity in clothing, patterns, and headgear, and both ethnic groups implement the social class system of aristocrats and civilians, and both worship snakes, so Japanese scholars initially regarded the two ethnic groups as the same ethnic group.

Difference

  • In fact, there are still differences between the Rukai and the Paiwan, for example: 1. The Rukai people do not hold the "five-year festival" of the Paiwan people. According to Nobuto Miyamoto's "Indigenous Peoples of Taiwan": Decades ago, there was a Rukai that bordered the Butsul family of the Paiwan people. The Rukai tribe also learned to hold this festival (five-year festival), but as a result, many people died in the village. The Rukai tribe thought it was a punishment from the gods, and they no longer held it in the future. 2. The Paiwan ethnic group adopts the "eldest son" inheritance system regardless of gender; the Rukai ethnic group adopts the "eldest son" inheritance system. 3. Instead of squatting with bent limbs, the funeral is done sideways or vertically. The form of the tomb built by the stone slabs, or the posture of the body when buried, are different.










  • Distribution map of Taiwan's aborigines