The Wisdom of a Maritime People

Taiwan’s most maritime people

The indigenous peoples of Lanyu and Taiwan proper are speakers of Austronesian languages. The speakers of this language family are distributed across islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Among the lands inhabited by the Austronesian-speaking peoples, Taiwan lies furthest north. In the past all of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples had the ability to navigate at sea, but today only the Tao people of Lanyu still preserve this skill.

Writer Syaman Rapongan, who comes from Lanyu, has traveled the Pacific Ocean. After sailing to Zamboanga in Mindanao and a fishing harbor in northeastern Luzon (both in the Philippines), he discovered: “There are people there with whom I can speak Tao.” Later he went to Tahiti and Guam, and found out that the native peoples of both islands use the word tao to mean human being, just like the residents of Lanyu, indicating an affinity between the languages. For him such interactions confirm the historical links between Lanyu and the island nations of the Pacific.

The relationship between Lanyu and Batan Island in the Philippines has long been a focus of research. It is clear from archae­ological finds that the residents of these two islands have interacted. In comparison with Batan, Lanyu has been better able to preserve its traditional culture because it is separated from Taiwan proper by ocean. In the Japanese colonial era, Lanyu was seen as an important site for anthropological research.

The Flying Fish performance troupe puts on a flash event in the Czech capital, Prague. (courtesy of Yen Tzuyu)

Wisdom from the sea

The Tao are a maritime people with outstanding navigational and boatbuilding skills.

Canoes

The traditional boats of the Tao people (of which the smaller ones are called tatala and the larger cinedkeran) are unlike the dugout canoes used by many indigenous peoples. While the latter are made by hollowing out a single tree trunk, the boats of Lanyu are assembled from wood taken from different parts of various trees. Chen Jeng-horng, an associate professor in the Department of Systems and Naval Mechatronic Engineering at National Cheng Kung University, offers the following evaluation: The carvel-built Tao canoes narrow to a sharp angle at both bow and stern, thereby reducing resistance, while the tall prows keep the boats from being swamped by waves. Thus in terms of fluid dynamics the boats function well.

Materials for Tao canoes are selected with an eye to sustainability. Rather than using a whole tree, the Tao take wood from many species, including false Indian almond (Neonauclea reticulata), Formosan nato (Palaquium formosanum), and matoa (Pometia pinnata), all of which have strong, rot-resistant wood. Chen Jeng-horng says that Tao canoes are an excellent example of “appropriate tech­nology,” using a variety of resources in small amounts, which is precisely the ideal currently being ­advocated inter­nationally. This is why Chen was able to see a display on Lanyu boats in the world’s largest science and technology museum, the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany.

A Tao elder visits a school to teach students about millet culture. (courtesy of Yen Tzuyu)

Catching flying fish

The Tao people call flying fish (libangbang) “a gift from Heaven.” This is why each year when the flying fish season approaches everyone makes careful preparations based on traditional rules and rituals. The arrival of the flying fish, which follow the Kuroshio Current northward, marks the change of seasons for the Tao and has given rise to a rich variety of cultural activities.

Fishing requires observation of sea conditions, and consequently the Tao invented their own calendar system based on the phases of the moon and personal experience. It is in the Tao spring (around March to June), when flying fish, dolphinfish, and tuna migrate from south to north, that Tao men board their boats and go to sea to fish.

According to tradition, during the flying fish season it is forbidden to catch fish around coral reefs, enabling the fish that live in this habitat to spawn and reproduce. After the flying fish season ends, it again is permissible to catch fish from coral reefs, while the flying fish are allowed to return home to spawn and replenish their population.

The Tao indigenous people believe that flying fish are a sacred gift from Heaven. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs file photo)

A passion for the sea

Growing numbers of people on Lanyu are becoming aware that traditional culture is in crisis and is in danger of being lost, and they have created organizations to research and promote such culture. For example, Syaman Rapongan and some friends have established the Island Indigenous Science Studio, while Syaman Macinanao, a singer who was nominated for Best Indigenous Language Album at the Golden Melody Awards, has founded the Iraraley Indigenous Culture Classroom. Other organizations, such as the Lan An Cultural and Educational Foundation, and the Research Association of Tao Culture and the Catholic Church in Lanyu, which have been working on Lanyu for many years, have also engaged with this topic. Also, after three laws governing experimental education were enacted in 2017, Yayu Elementary School and Lanyu Senior High School became experimental schools and began offering courses in ethnic studies.

Yayu Elementary School has a cultural performance troupe called The Flying Fish, and they hope that through their shows of traditional song and dance the whole world will get a chance to discover the spirit and culture of the Tao people. The troupe appeared in the film Long Time No Sea and in 2019 was invited to Poland to perform at the Inter­national Festival of Children’s Folk Ensembles.

Teacher Yen Tzuyu, who leads The Flying Fish, has been on Lanyu for 16 years now and has witnessed the decline of the Tao language. “When I first visited Lanyu back in 1997 students still spoke their mother tongue to each other, but when I came back less than ten years later to teach, I discovered that the students didn’t speak Tao very much. The younger generation of parents can understand it, but they don’t speak it very well.”

Yen understands only too well that the language is rapidly disappearing, and that once-a-week mother tongue lessons in school are manifestly inadequate. Therefore Yen, who has a background in music, has taken elements of song and dance that he has observed while teaching in various Taiwanese indigenous communities in the past and combined them with stories he has heard on Lanyu to create modern songs which he then asks Tao people to translate into their native tongue.

The song “Yama’s Big Boat” (yama means “father” in Tao) is frequently performed by The Flying Fish. It is based on a clan story that Yen heard from the parents of one of his students. For the Tao, there is great honor in building a boat. The student had once gone up a hill with his grandfather and made a mark on the clan’s tree to show his intention to build a boat when he grew up. But later the clan suffered misfortune, so that although the large canoe had already been built, they did not have enough people to launch it onto the sea, and it could only be left on the beach during the flying fish season. Yen was so moved by the sadness of this story that he wept on the spot, and decided to use it as the theme for a composition. When he sang the completed song for that student, the latter also shed tears as he recalled his grandfather.

On the transmission of traditional culture, Yen says: “The point is not to return to the way of life of the past, but to ensure that the connection with the sea is not lost.” By learning Yen’s songs, children can learn about the wisdom of their ancestors and have a chance to use their mother tongue. Yen adds: “When children go home and share these songs with their families, and ask questions, the younger generation of parents might also get the opportunity to learn about traditional culture. That is our hope.”

Lanyu canoes are constructed from the wood of various local trees, reflecting the Tao people’s concern for environmental sustainability.

(MOFA file photo)

Hearing the voices of Lanyu

The main reason that Tao people are gradually losing touch with their traditional culture is that they migrate to Taiwan proper for work. Lanan Media has in recent years been turning some of Radio Lanyu’s Tao-language programs into podcasts, so that Tao living on Taiwan can hear their native tongue and remain familiar with it.

Sinan Misiva, editor-in-chief of Lanan’s bimonthly magazine Nadketan No Vazey Do Pongso and a program host at Radio Lanyu, explains that one of these programs is called Do Inaoro Ta (“Our Courtyard”) because that is an element in traditional Tao architecture: Tao semi-­underground houses (vahay no Tao) are used for resting and sleeping, whereas courtyards (inaoro) are where people gather to chat, discuss issues of public concern, and entertain guests. “In the program we discuss many details of traditional life, things which are part of the collective memories of Tao people aged over 50 but are hard for younger people to imagine.” Sinan Misiva says that when younger Tao come back to Lanyu, sometimes they will talk about subjects from the podcast, which is another way to learn about culture.

Do Inaoro Ta discusses customs like the Calling Fish Ritual (meyvanwa), the flying fish season (rayon), and the Thanksgiving Ritual (minganangana), as well as the life wisdom of the Tao people such as farming practices, discerning the direction of the wind, and making pottery by hand. On another program, Songs of the Island of the Tao, elders perform chants and songs, many of which are connected with family matters: expressing best wishes for children, celebrating becoming a grandfather, and even songs about heartbreak when children want to move to Taiwan proper. These indicate the importance of family to the Tao.

Sinan Misiva has noticed that in recent years a growing number of young people have returned home to Lanyu to live and work on the island in accordance with their skills and interests. For example, her husband now works as an ecological guide. “Besides coming back to take care of one’s parents, the motives for returning include the fact that Lanyu families are very broadminded about their children. Parents don’t have demanding expectations of their kids, but simply hope that they can be healthy and have the life skills to farm and fish.” On Lanyu, also known as “the island of human beings” (pongso no Tao), the ambition that the Tao people have passed down from generation to generation is that of living in harmony with nature.

The aim in passing down Lanyu's traditional culture is not to return to the life of the past, but to keep alive the connection with the sea.

On the radio program Songs of the Island of the Tao, Tao elders are invited to the radio station to sing folk songs. There are also regular singing competitions on the island in which people of all ages are encouraged to take part.