The wangyi, a medium who communicates with the Pingpu people's god -- Taizu -- is performing libation rites. Gulping from a bottle of rice wine, she sprays the liquid three times over the sacrificial pig splayed at her feet; once for a blessing, once for exorcism and once to welcome Taizu.
Pingpu is a blanket term describing all indigenous people that once lived in the 'grassy flatlands' (pingdi caopu 平地草埔) of Taiwan, but with little account for actual ethnicity. The Sirayan people are a Plains Aboriginal group who were once spread throughout much of southwest Taiwan. When the Dutch arrived in Taiwan almost 300 years ago the Siraya were in contact with, but not yet subjugated by, the early Han Chinese settlers. They were said to have a matriarchal society and a language that was elegant and refined. They hunted deer, grew crops and had a communal society with no word for 'steal'.
The Pingpu are an Austronesian-speaking people like all other Aboriginal groups on the Island. The Sirayans, one of the larger Pingpu subgroups, are classified into the Sirayan, Makattao and Taivoan tribal branches; and the Sirayan branch is further subdivided into four main settlements originally in the Tainan area, Sincan (Xingang), Mattow (Madou), Soulangh (Jiali) and Backaloan (Shanhua).
After centuries of assimilation into the Han culture, the ways of the Sirayan people in Taiwan are in danger of being lost forever. The Sirayan language, last spoken natively in 1908, is now being laboriously reassembled by scholars using the Sinckan Manuscripts and Dutch missionaries' translations of Catholic works into Sirayan.
Tainan's Tourism Bureau Director, Chun-An Chen (陳俊安), explains, "Early Qing Dynasty settlers were not permitted to bring women from China, so out of necessity, they intermarried with local women, many of whom were Plains Aboriginals. Later waves of immigrants, from those arriving with Koxinga to the KMT nationalists, found themselves in the same predicament." In this way the slow process of acculturation continued for hundreds of years. Today many Taiwanese with Pingpu ancestry have no idea of their Aboriginal heritage.
A common misconception is that the people of Pingpu descent in Taiwan comprise only a small percent of the population. The official figure in Taiwan of people of Austronesian descent in Taiwan hovers around the 2% mark (mostly so-called high mountain tribes), but some genetic studies indicate the figure could be higher than 60%. This could clearly be used as political leverage for those promoting Taiwan independence, therefore making the matter a politically thorny one. Sadly, those simply wanting recognition and respect for their ethnic identity find themselves caught in the middle.
Recent moves in the preservation effort are the establishment of the Siraya Culture Association (台南縣平埔族西拉雅文化協會) in 1999, Tainan's Siraya National Scenic Area in 2005, the successful translation of the Sinckan Manuscripts in 2006 and the annual stagings of an important traditional Pingpu Ceremony -- the Night Ceremony. Dongshan Township is a very well known Sirayan Ceremony, as is the Toushe Village Taizu Night Sacrifice, but there are other smaller and equally important and culturally valuable night ceremonies. One such ceremony is the Liuchongsi Night Sacrifice.
Liuchongsi Village takes its name from the Liuchong River, an important river that runs from Dadong Mountain into the Plains of Tainan. This village has 220 or so households of which some 100 have Pingpu ancestry. The Liuchongsi area was once the hunting grounds of a subgroup of the Hoanya Pingpu people (洪雅族). The Taivoan Pingpu Tribe (大滿亞族) was first driven from the Tainan plains into the Yujin Basin by early Qing settlers, then, later in the Qing, they were again pushed from their area by Han settlers. One of these displaced groups of Taivoan people -- the Dawulongpai She (大武龍派社, a subgroup of Taivoan) -- established a new village along the banks of the Liuchongsi River. A later wave of Pingpu immigrants fleeing Japanese retribution in the wake of the Tapani (today's Yujin) Incident arrived around 1915. Throughout this time the Pingpu were living alongside and inter-marrying with Han settlers, gradually adopting Han ways at the cost of their own.
Like the Pingpu language, their traditional night sacrifices were gradually being forgotten. It ceased to be performed altogether for fifty years until recently, in the interest of preserving, promoting and rebuilding the Liuchongsi Pingpu cultural identity, the ritual was revived.
The sacrifice is performed in the village 'konkai' or meeting hall – a place for social gathering and religious activities. Further, because Pingpu societies were either matrilocal (men moved into the women's residence) or uxolorical (men lived in a separate residence) there were areas that males of a certain age moved into to learn hunting skills, martial arts and the rules of the age-grade system critical to the organization of their society.
On the day of the sacrifices, not long after we arrive all the villagers stand in front of the konkai holding incense and are led in a communal worship of Taizu by the wangyi. Some are old, some young, some wear floral wreath headdresses and traditional gowns, and some sport jeans and t-shirts, but all reverently pay their respects to this ancient god. Taizu has arrived, the five ancestor sisters are reunited and the venerable Liuchongsi Pingpu Night Ceremony has begun.
The Liuchongsi Night Sacrifice is held annually on the 15th day of the ninth lunar month. The Liuchongsi Pingpu worship Taizu, who is represented as Five Sisters (太祖五姊妹). All Pingpu worship Taizu as their principal protective deity but different areas have differing numbers of sisters. Chun-An Chen hypothesizes that, being a matrilineal society, the number of sisters worshipped by different areas may represent the number of clans that migrated into the area.
The chanting (牽曲) begins. Village females dressed in white robes and floral headdresses circle the sacrifices dancing and chanting hand in hand. The meanings of many chants have been forgotten, but the solemnity and reverence of the chants are deserving of their deity's attention.
The Liuchongsi konkai is made of bamboo and wooden poles. In the rear of the Konkai a large, low, roughly hewn slab of stone serves as an altar for the worship of Taizu. The 'taizuweng' (太祖甕), five water filled brown earthenware urns with wreaths of Amaranth, Chrysanthemum and Cockscomb encircling the necks, sit at the back of the altar. In the middle there are five white porcelain vases with water and Eupatorium and in front; five water filled rice bowls sit amongst betel nut and cigarette offerings. On the floor in front of the stone altar five bamboo tubes hold smoking incense similar to temple censers. There are two statues in the konka. One -- a recent addition -- is Taizu depicted as an old woman whose likeness appeared in a dream. The second is a tiger (白虎將軍) similar to the figure Huye (虎爺) commonly seen in Taiwanese temples.
Many Sirayans, like the Kamasua, eschew the use of incense as a Han convention, but not in Liuchongsi. Throughout the night locals file through the konkai placing incense in the bamboo tubes and paying their respects to Taizu.
In the center of the Konkai is a thick wooden pole called the 'general column' (將軍柱). Most Pingpu konkais bind a pig's skull (representing Taizu's spirit army) to the pole but Liuchongsi's pole has only a bamboo topped by a basket representing Taizu's throne (向神座) where incense is burned. At the foot of the pole a brown 'spirit urn' (向缸) is filled with rice wine and believed to possess magical healing properties. The Pingpu word 'xiang' (向) means spirits or magic. Finally, broad leaves covered with offerings cover the floor behind the general column.
The water filled vessels are a major factor differentiating a Pingpu konkai from a typical Han temple in Taiwan. This array of vessels once prompted a Japanese scholar to label the Pingpu 'gourd worshippers.' "In fact, it is the water contained in the vessels that is important," says Chun-An Chen. The Pingpu gods and ancestors are worshipped through the medium of water.
Now the wangyi is completing the libation ritual, she slaps the sacrificial pigs' flank with a cleaver signifying Taizu's approval of the offerings, and the pigs are flipped over to complete the ceremony.
The villagers carve the pigs up, share the meat among the villagers, and the ceremony concludes. But the struggle for recognition and preservation of the ancient Sirayan culture continues. |
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