Indigenous Arts of Taiwan in Global Museum Collections
Indigenous Arts of Taiwan in Global Museum Collections
Curated by Steven G. Alpert
This month, Art of the Ancestors is pleased to introduce a small array of beautiful items made by the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. According to the Republic of China (ROC) 2025 statistics, it is estimated that more than 600,000 persons are officially recognized as indigenous citizens. That's approximately 2.5% of the overall population. The largest groups are the Amis, Paiwan, Atayal, Bunun, Truku/Puyuma, Tsou, Saisiyat, and the Tao (Yami), a marine-based culture off Taiwan's southeastern coast.
Though not the main focus of this introduction, Southeastern Taiwan, as many of our readers have long known, is considered the most likely candidate for the ancestral homeland of Austronesian-speaking peoples. Originating around 5,000 years ago, Austronesian speakers began mastering advanced seafaring techniques. Island hopping, or traversing vast open oceans, they journeyed on catamarans, lashed rafts and lug boats (a cleated construction tied to a boat's inner frame), or outrigger canoes with crab-claw or fore-aft sails—that provided the means for movement and marked a milestone in human history. Currently, scholars think that Proto-Austronesian speakers arrived in Taiwan from what is today southern China during the Neolithic Period, some 5,000-6,000 years ago. Around 2200 BC, they reached the Philippines and by 1500 BC Indonesia.
Today, Austronesian speakers comprise around 400 million people spread across a vast geography that encompasses Taiwan, Southeast Asia, parts of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. At its furthest extent, from Madagascar off the East Coast of Africa to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, it spans over 9,000 miles, or about 36% of the Earth's circumference. This remarkable feat represents the largest geographical dispersal of any linguistic complex on earth; one that has only been exceeded within the last five hundred years by European-related languages spreading via colonial expansion and their incumbent influences.
According to Robert Blust (1999), Austronesian linguistic taxonomy can be divided into several primary branches, all of which save one are found exclusively on Taiwan. For most scholars, the Formosan languages of Taiwan are classically grouped into as many as nine (first-order) subgroups of Austronesian. All Austronesian languages spoken outside mainland Taiwan (including the offshore Yami language of Orchid Island) belong to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of languages, which most likely also developed on Taiwan. More recent biogeographical studies of plants and animals, DNA and genome sequencing, as well as continuing linguistic and archaeological research, continue to buttress or reflect variants of the "Out of Taiwan" model of migrations. (See, e.g., Hsiao-chun Hung: 2019)
What drove these migrations is not this month's topic, but a fascinating subject that involves the island of present-day Taiwan. A longstanding question is why Austronesian speakers sought to explore such vast distances, settle, culturally speciate, and, in some instances, thrive in new, far-flung homelands? This linguistic diaspora took place over a period of more than 5,000 years. Was their explorative nature spurred by life-sustaining shortages or environmental factors? Population or hierarchical pressures? Social stresses? As a means of developing trading systems associated with valuable goods? Or was it ingrained in some of the deepest longings or cultural practices of Austronesian-speakers? Perhaps, it was a shared goal of some of the most able or markedly martial persons to become clan founders, and to have their descendants worship, consult, and confide in them as if they were living entities? For example, in many parts of Indonesia, an apical ancestor —meaning a specific individual, real, mythological, or non-human—can become venerated by an entire descent group (such as an extended clan) to retrace and declare the august quality of their lineage. Totemic elements such as animals and plants can also therianthropically be associated or combined with one's ancestors to reinforce concepts of social unity and origin.
Such notions are often expressed in the design elements, architectural layouts, and the decoration and demarcation of shrines and mortuary structures, and, in some instances, the great houses of Austronesian speakers. (See: The Living House, Waterson: 1990). There are very distinctive differences in the traditional styles of great or chiefly houses. In Taiwan, structures can vary widely depending on a group's geographic environment and their cultural practices. For example, the Tao (Yami) built partially subterranean houses to afford protection against storms and the monsoon season. Amis and Puyuma of the hot eastern plains tended to use more bamboo, straw, and wood in constructing their dwellings or men's houses (takubuwan). In the wetter parts of the highlands, the Bunun and Tsou peoples built their houses on stilts to ward off dampness rising off the central mountains and to afford them greater physical protection. However, it is the building techniques and the use of especially durable materials, combined with noteworthy artistic adornments, that give the chiefly structures and surrounding compounds of the Paiwan and Rukai peoples their unique presence.
In Taiwan, aristocratic indigenous families operated in what we might call a stratified feudal system, linking chiefly families who intensively controlled the land, its resources, hunting rights, ritual activities, etc. Paiwan chiefly descent is generally bilateral: the oldest child, whether male or female, of a great chief will inherit their authority. Physical aspects of dwellings reflected their exalted positions, in part by using fine art as familial crests or emblems of continuity, power, and as a seamless living link to a mythic past. Many of the most outstanding surviving carved and decorated items of scale are from chiefly houses. These might include a house's center support column, attendant posts, door frames, panels, screens, and structural beams.
The finest of these historic carvings are now being acknowledged by the ROC as national treasures. For instance, in 2015, with great fanfare, a wooden support column known as Muakaikai from the traditional Paiwan village of Kaviyangan (also known as Jiaping) was "ritually married" to the National Taiwan University, where she has been housed in their Museum of Anthropology since 1932. This impressive four-sided, four-faced 18th-century carving originally comes from the house of chief Zingrur. Muakaikai is said to represent a mythological female ancestor in his family tree. This model of a 'symbolic union' or 'marriage' was paradigmatically used to realign the statue's spirit with the descendants of its creator and the nation, in an act of renewal, respect, and ongoing dialogue.
The old village of Kaviyangan has now been abandoned, but the site is still used as a meeting ground for gatherings, rituals, and ceremonies. Actually, the greatest of all Paiwan center posts (qeluz), the spine of the house that glorifies its chief, is also associated with Zingrur. Standing at an impressive 2.5 meters tall, this broad, remarkable—no accolades can do it justice—wooden carving is an artistic tour de force, a true world-class masterpiece. Its rounded eyes, elegant superior features (including tattooed shoulders and fingers), armbands, and bracelets of authority display many prototypical traits associated with having an illustrative ancestry.
Further, Paiwan houses, as mentioned, are sturdily built and long-lasting, as they are well-crafted from wood, stone, mud caulking, and locally quarried slabs of slate. The latter material was dressed or finely polished and then drilled with support holes for walls, flooring, sleeping platforms, benches on gabled roofs, paving stones, patios, and the platforms surrounding a chiefly dwelling. Inner house qeluz are normally carved from wood, but given slate's abundance, this material was also employed for some pillars or stelae (See: Bien D. Chiang: 1986).
Stone qeluz were most often placed in an outdoor stone forecourt that, by extension, projected a chief's power. It served as a communal meeting spot where the village gathered for "sacred and secular events, such as settling disputes, discussing village affairs, or simply social chatting" (Chiang: 1986, p. 4). In northern or eastern Paiwan, these carved slabs are known as saulaolai. Three traditional slabs are illustrated here; two from the Museum of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica in Taiwan, and a nine-foot-tall example from the University of Pennsylvania. The figurative carving styles on these slabs are similar to those found in the interiors of chiefly houses.
Other carved interior embellishments include a suspended three-dimensional figure and two wall panels. A fragmented panel from the Five Continents Museum (Museum Fünf Kontinente) and a full panel from Humboldt Forum, Berlin (formerly the Museum für Völkerkunde) both share images of ancestral beings set amid floating heads (i.e., symbols of chiefly continuity, the four directions, blessings, and the ability to rule or dominate) that are paired with creation myth snakes. The snake is a well-known and often-repeated motif that represents a sacred figure: the venomous Hundred-Pacer Viper (Deinagkistrodon), who, with a human female counterpart, was the procreator and divine ancestor of noble lineages. In some versions, the snake also guards the 'sun-eggs' from which Paiwan nobles are hatched.
The markings of the nobility are found on most everything that is of importance in daily or ritual life. Three items associated with foodstuffs from inside the house are illustrated. These include a fine storage bin from Yale University's Indo-Pacific collection and two mortars. Mortars were also considered important, as they were part of a ritualized process for hulling grains such as millet, pounding betel nuts, or creating herbal medicines. The demarcation of noble items carried over to ceremonial garb, associated accoutrements, and tattooing. Two finely beaded men's jackets are reproduced; one from the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines and the other from Yale University Art Gallery. Additionally, there is a fine example of a Tao silver ceremonial helmet.
Another designated 'national treasure' is a remarkable 300-year-old stone pillar from the Vungalid, an indigenous Paiwan community living on the southern central mountain range in Pintung County. It is associated with the former site of Aluvuan, where in 1929 it was taken by the Japanese (who ruled Taiwan from 1895-1945) from its abandoned location to become housed in what today is the National Taiwan University’s Museum of Anthropology. This Paiwan double-sided menhir represents the original ancestral couple from whom the village's chief claimed descent. It is said to have been erected between the mountains and the village to protect and ensure the fertility of the community and its surrounding fields.
Decorated knives and swords of various types were inimitable to Taiwan's indigenous communities. Often finely decorated, their iconic swords (tjakit in Paiwan) were carried and used both as daily tools and as primary symbols of social status and authority. Designs such as ancestral torsos or figures, severed trophy heads, or the hundred-pacer viper are common visual memes for conveying the birthrights of the nobility and symbols of their leadership and martial abilities. Shown here is a detail from the decorated panel of an open-sided scabbard.
No introduction to Taiwan's indigenous material would be complete without showcasing several special classes of ceremonial knives and daggers, each with remarkable handles. The importance of knives, of metal in general, is such that they were included in dowries and transferred in times of peace and war as an ultimate symbol of male prowess and cultural continuity. Smaller knives are also used for divination in healing and cleansing, as well as for hunting and communal village rites by shamans to cut through obstacles and obtain positive outcomes. Aside from small knives or blades, other shamanic paraphernalia or materials such as pig skin, bones, special seeds or pebbles, etc. were kept in beautifully carved and decorated portable boxes (anpochi/anepochi). These were worn on one's back and suspended using a twined and knotted netting made from cut ramie stalks, a member of the nettle family.
In conclusion, it is repeatedly said that there are "Three Paiwan Treasures." These consist of decorated ancient earthenware pots of great ceremonial and practical value, as they were used for storing precious objects and as symbolic gifts in betrothal exchanges. Glass beads, the second treasure, are de rigueur in rites of passage ceremonies, wealth-measuring, and spiritual protection. Lastly, there is a special class of heirloom daggers and large knives with bronze handles known in Paiwanese as tikuzan ni tagarus. They are considered sacred and were traditionally reserved for the highest tier of aristocrats. Such daggers were kept in special ceremonial houses and were reportedly brought out and displayed only once every five years. One source referred to them as "the walking stick of the god of the universe". The largest of these daggers that could be found was nearly 23 inches long. While there is archaeological evidence that coastal Taiwan learned how to handle iron early on, there is no record of traditional bronze casting. The iron blades and their bronze handles perhaps echo long-lost exchange or trade patterns that have existed for a far greater length of time than we might otherwise casually assume? Some of these cast handles must indeed be very old, as their main figure(s) and attendant motifs hark back to the Bronze Age in mainland China and to the period of greater Dongson material of Southeast Asia.
Given Taiwan's pivotal geography, not only in antiquity but also in more modern times during the Japanese era and during the 1950s and 1960s when US troops were stationed there, an environment emerged in which cultural material was both created for use and sold as curios and souvenirs. It is a pleasure to highlight a few items of unusual artistic merit, often from earlier periods, and to further encourage the view that Taiwan is a destination where both the artistic traditions of Han Chinese and the island's indigenous peoples can be deeply appreciated.
— Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors
1
Four-Sided Ancestral Pillar | Muakaikai
National Taiwan University’s Museum of Anthropology
國立臺灣大學人類學博物館
Taipei, Taiwan
Kaviyangan Village, Taiwu Township, Pingtung County
Paiwan peoples
Wood
2
Ancestral Spirit Pillar of the Family House of the Zingrur Leader of the Jiaping Old Society
The Museum of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica
中央研究院民族學研究所博物館
Taipei, Taiwan
Jiaping Village, Taiwu Township, Pingtung County
Paiwan peoples
Wood
2736
3
Carved Ancestral Stone Slab
The Museum of the Institute of Ethnology,
Academia Sinica
中央研究院民族學研究所博物館
Taipei, Taiwan
Laiyi Village, Laiyi Township, Pingtung County
Paiwan peoples
Stone
3983
4
Ancestor Statue Slate
The Museum of the Institute of Ethnology,
Academia Sinica
中央研究院民族學研究所博物館
Taipei, Taiwan
Laiyi Village, Laiyi Township, Pingtung County
Paiwan peoples
Stone
3982
5
Stela from Aristocratic Dwelling | Qeluz
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Chala'abus, Pingtung County
Paiwan peoples
Stone
Gift of Mrs. Martin J. Forman, 1992
92-6-1
6
Ancestor Figure featuring Qiang Scalp Hat and Wild Boar
National Taiwan Museum
國立臺灣博物館
Taipei, Taiwan
Laiyi Village, Laiyi Township, Pingtung County
Paiwan peoples
Wood
Acquired in 1927-29 | Sakuma Foundation Collection
AT000739-002
7
Wall Panel
Museum Fünf Kontinente
Munich, Germany
Paiwan peoples
Wood, pigments
Achim Bedrich, Purchase 1975
75-16-3
8
House Board
Humboldt Forum
Berlin, Germany
Paiwan peoples
Wood, pigments
I C 44270
9
Storage Container
Yale University Art Gallery
New Haven, Connecticut
Paiwan peoples
Wood
Promised gift of Thomas Jaffe, B.A. 1971
ILE2012.30.143
10
Carved Mortar or Drum
Humboldt Forum
Berlin, Germany
Paiwan peoples
Wood, pigment
I C 44269
11
Carved Mortar or Feeding Vessel
Museum Fünf Kontinente
Munich, Germany
Paiwan peoples
Wood
Ludwig Bretschneider, Purchase 1975
75-13-13
12
Beaded Men’s Jacket
Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines
順益台灣原住民博物館
Taipei, Taiwan
Paiwan peoples
Cotton, flannelette, beads, copper buttons
M007300
13
Beaded Men’s Jacket
Yale University Art Gallery
New Haven, Connecticut
Paiwan peoples
Cotton, wool, glass and ceramic beads, metal buttons; plain weave, applique
Promised gift of Thomas Jaffe, B.A. 1971
Ex-collection: Okuda, Tokyo (2014-02-05)
ILE2016.13.43
14
Ceremonial Silver Helmet
Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines
順益台灣原住民博物館
Taipei, Taiwan
Orchid Island (Lanyu)
Yami (Tao)
Silver
M124400
15
Ancestral Stone Pillar
National Taiwan University’s Museum of Anthropology
國立臺灣大學人類學博物館
Taipei, Taiwan
Paiwan peoples
Stone
16
Detail of Open-Sided Scabbard
Museum Fünf Kontinente
Munich, Germany
Paiwan peoples
Wood, mother-of-pearl, metal, pigments, cord
Robert L. Stumbling, Purchase 1969
69-15-1 b
17
Bronze Knife
The Museum of the Institute of Ethnology,
Academia Sinica
中央研究院民族學研究所博物館
Taipei, Taiwan
Laiyi Village, Laiyi Township,
Pingtung County
Paiwan peoples
Copper alloy
Acquired by Jen, Shien-min
(1956, Chala'abus, Pingtung County)
2314
18
Shaman’s Divination Box
Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines
順益台灣原住民博物館
Taipei, Taiwan
Paiwan peoples
Wood, hemp rope, copper, shell, metal
M118100
19
Bronze Knife Handle
Museum of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica
中國研究院歷史語言研究所博物館
Taipei, Taiwan
Excavation site:
Tomb 19SSSHPHT9P06D-d,
District H, Thirteen Lines, Thirteen Lines Site, Dingquli, Bali District, New Taipei City, Taiwan
Bronze
T0030259
20
Knife with Figurative Handle | Tikuzan Ni Tagarus
Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines
順益台灣原住民博物館
Taipei, Taiwan
Paiwan peoples
Bronze, iron
M026000
All artworks and images presented in this feature are the property of the attributed institutions.