Thao people

Thao/Ngan young man of Sun Moon Lake, Nantou, Taiwan ca 1904

The Thao/Ngan (Chinese: 邵族; pinyin: Shào zú; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Siō-cho̍k) are a small group of Taiwanese aborigines who have lived near Sun Moon Lake (Lake Candidius) in central Taiwan for at least a century, and probably since the time of the Qing dynasty. In the year 2000 the Thao/Ngan tribe numbered only 281, making them the smallest of all of the recognized aboriginal tribes in Taiwan (a number of aboriginal tribes, both smaller and larger than the Thao in population remain unrecognized by the Taiwanese governing authorities).^[1]

They are the smallest of the Taiwanese aborigine group in terms of population and the smallest ethnic group in Taiwan. Despite their small group size, the Thao/Ngan have retained their customs, beliefs and traditional culture and language up until now, though they have been assimilated into mainstream Chinese culture as well. Most of the members of this ethnic group work today as menial workers, cooks and vendors in the tourism industry at Sun Moon Lake. The Chi-Chi earthquake of 1999 damaged or destroyed 80% of the houses of the Thao/ngan tribe and made many of them lose employment.

Language

The Thao/Ngan people have their own language, the Thao language, which is nearly extinct and spoken by only a few, mostly elders, of the (already small) Thao ethnic population. The language has been sinicized. Most people who speak Thao are bilingual or trilingual and can speak Mandarin Chinese and/or Taiwanese as well. The Thao/Ngan language is classified as a Paiwanic language, and a Formosan language which is a geographical subgroup of the much larger Austronesian language family. The Thao language has loanwords from the Bunun language, spoken by the Bunun ethnic group of which the Thao/Ngan tribe cooperated with as well as intermarried.

Legend

Here is the legend of why the Thao people live in the side of Sun Moon Lake. The ancestors originally lived on an island in the middle of Sun Moon Lake. They then saw a deer and wanted to eat it, so they chased it until they arrived in the side of Sun Moon lake. Then the deer ran into the water, leaving the Thao tribe by themselves. They could only wait. The Thao people then slept at Sun Moon Lake. One of the elders dreamed of a fairy in a white cloak. He said to them "I am the deer that led you here. This place is your promised land. Please don't leave, because generations will come." The elder told the others about the dream, but now the Thao are still struggling with numerous problems.

Official recognition

On 15 August 2001, the Executive Yuan (Council) of Taiwan officially recognized the Thao/Ngan tribe as the tenth ethnic group among Taiwan's indigenous peoples. The Thao have been mistakenly regarded as the ‘Tsou’ tribe (a separate and different ethnic group of aborigines) since the time of Japanese occupation. The error was caused by both a misunderstanding of the legend saying that "the ancestors of Thao were from the mountain Alishan (Mountain A Li)" and the similar pronunciation of ‘Thao/Ngan’ and ‘Tsou’. Thus, the domain of the Thaos/Ngans had been registered as "Tsous from the flatlands of the mountains" under the nine ethnic groups of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples.

Further reading

• Blust, R. A. (2003). Thao dictionary. Taipei: Institute of Linguistics (Preparatory Office), Academic Sinica.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thao/Ngan.

• Thao/Ngan Homepage
• 'Home at last!' The Thao/Ngan return to their ancestral homeland.