Gaoshan origin

"Gaoshan" these three words in terms of literal meaning is refers to the ethnic group living in the mountains, the "family" refer to a particular crowd.Gaoshan in the early days of Taiwan literature history often referred to as "remarks".Qing dynasty period, in order to live on the ground of "flat Po's" (or "practice"), Taiwan han people according to their degree and residential location, will they referred to as the "mountain" or "savage".The word "mountain" is more popular in the folk;The "savage" is the official language.

After the period of Japanese colonial rule, Japanese colonial government still continue to use the "mountain" as a political category, just change the word "time" to "family", referred to as the "in".

The second sino-japanese in 1945The warAfter the end of the formal governance of the republic of China, Taiwan will be "in" renamed "gaoshan", or "mountain cell", the word gaoshan, formally.But based on respecting the austronesians, 1994 officially renamed after Taiwan indigenous to date.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China on ethnic identification and national identification using this named "gaoshan", and its recognition for its one of the 55 ethnic minorities.

Gaoshan traditional festival

Gaoshan holiday a lot.But as a result of gaoshan society is a soul worship and sacrifice to the prevailing social.The soul is considered to fill in the universe.From the boundless sky of stars, clouds rosy clouds, thunder lightning, the vast land of mountains and rivers lake sea, animals and birds, snakes fish insect, all has the mysterious soul.As a result, their traditional festival has a strong religious color, mostly is basically the emergence, in the form of sacrifice ceremony.During the festival, in addition to the song and dance feast, also added a sports, recreational activities, cultural exhibition.

According to statistics, gaoshan ritual up to more than 70, suitable for farming, fishing and hunting, play, birth, marriage funeral, construction and long journey, is offering, especially around the millet, rice, taro, potato chips, and other series of farming sacrificial activities, both fixed rituals, such as farming, planting, weeding, thinning, harvesting, warehousing, hunting, harvest festival;Temporary cults and adjust measures to local conditions, such as insect repellent of mount Kilimanjaro, rain, sunny, etc.In addition to the common ancestors offering, farming, hunting, offering, rivers, and special sacrifice, such as the summer people "dwarf" spirit offering, cao "millet offerings," may "ship", elegant beauty "flying fish", paiwan people offering "five years", British south people "monkey" and "big hunting offering", etc.As for the sacrifice of time, short 10 days, 8 days, the elder was 4 months old.Beauty of flying fish offerings, for example, in annual fishing season of flying fish, that is held between march to June, and catching fish production phase.It can be said that sacrifice, more time is long, heavy and complicated and rituals, is a prominent feature of gaoshan sacrificial ceremony.

Gaoshan important festivals are: seeding offerings (Thai Maya, the date of the end of the spring sowing in late march), peace offerings (bunon, April 4), "vertical" progenitor offerings (ping Po, September 16), festival (cao, members, may, August 15th), bamboo offerings (paiwan people, October 25,), monkey offerings and big hunting offerings (British Columbia south, November), short spiritual sacrifices (October 11 solstice summer people, 18) and elegant beauty of flying fish offerings, and so on.

From the object of worship, said gaoshan sacrifice can be summarized as three categories:

Category is awadani worship of the object.Awadani is a traditional crops, gaoshan awadani is indispensable to the daily life.Almost all traditional festival around awadani farming, relevant awadani farming every activity, are accompanied by sacrifice.Such as the festival of the year with more bunon awadani for transfer: January awadani seeding offering.2, 3 month transplantation thinning offering.April farming idle, held a grand peace offerings;June awadani mature, "to pick a grain offering," opening charge millet busy season;Awadani levite was held the "housing";Farming is finished, "festival" held in July, thank god, gods and ancestors millet.Other groups in addition to the yami, most have close relationship with awadani farming.Peoples awadani "festival", after the harvest is the most solemn sacrificial ceremony, a year will normally be held between July and August, ceremony including offering the gods and ancestors, thank the universe, praying for harvest etiquette, such as huge, equivalent to "year".

A kind of sacrifice is the ancestors as the center.Respect to ancestors undead, throughout the peoples and tribes.Their superstitions your ancestors have unusual mana, its admire to the utmost, and form a set of sacrificial system, so as to for future generations rid his blessing, and maintain blood as the ties of unity and strength of common groups.To the worship of ancestors, which reflect on fixed cult, such as five years of paiwan people sacrifice, ty luhya and the offering of ancestors of the summer people, but also on other sacrifices, tribal hunting,The war, insect repellent, weeding, rain, etc., should be first JiGao ancestors dead, pray for blessings or drop, in prayer, of the priests and wizard spell, also often asked for the expression of ZuSongZu, visible silko's concept of thorough popular feeling.

Category is the undead enemy of sacrifice for the object.The most typical of the summer people "love offerings".The summer people from generation to generation down "to love" dead, on the one hand out teaching concept "to love" farming techniques and the kindness of song and dance entertainment, on the one hand, also out of extreme fear enemy spirit, hope to make against the power of the spirit into the power of native protection.This enemy dead religion worship was once prevailing in gaoshan society, except the yami gaoshan, different RACES in history have had hunt the alien head and festivals "hunting" first offering, the sacrifice ceremony instrument is based on the worship of the dead enemy, thought against the spirit will protect native, serve for the native people.Therefor, the wind of "hunting" was over all the ethnic groups of Taiwan, "hunt the first offering" was once the most solemn and grand tribal festival, usually by the venerable priests priest.Although "hunting" first offering has been abolished in the 40 s, worship the notion of enemy spirit still exists, but against the spirit centered "love offerings" also follow up to now, no change because of the influence of the foreign culture.?Throughout names vary sacrificial ceremony, its characteristic is: first, sacrifices in order to maintain fishing and hunting, agricultural production and social life as the theme, both religious rid wish with the dual function of textile production, particularly agricultural sacrifice almost synchronization with seasonal production activities arrangement, the mobilization of labor production, demonstration, organization, and summarize the positive role.

Gaoshan uninhibited personality, friendly and hospitable.Xi on holiday or festival day for dinner and dancing rallies.Every holiday, will beKill pigFeasting, kill the old cow, buy wine.At year-end, bunon eating "nuo" with a plant leaf, glutinous rice steamed on package, for his family ties people to enjoy, to celebrate.Gaoshan festival welcome the richest representative food is made of all kinds of glutinous rice cakes and zi ba.As a snack during the festival not only, still can be used as a sacrificial offerings.Will also be glutinous rice to make dinner guests.Gaoshan a lot of ritual activities of all ethnic groups, such as: offering, the grain offering sacrifice to god, the god of ancestors and gods, huntingTo get marriedVarious offerings and harvest offerings to offering the most grand of the paiwan people five years.Then in addition to the pendulum feast offerings, also in a variety of recreational activity.And wedding banquets scene is very rich and magnificent, especially to prepare a lot of wine, when the participants are binge drinking, and have the custom of not drunk do not come loose."The harvest" this day, people take a cylinder, and the wine around the campfire, dancing, eating and drinking, celebrate a year of labor to harvest, held once a year.Paiwan people are celebrating this day commonly used a wooden, carving exquisite cups, two arms, drink, to close, if the guest to must want to kill the chicken.The bunon diners are put chicken leg to stay, when guests leave take on the road to eat, to eat the chicken thigh, have more strength to walk.Members of people with stones as the baking oven taro, after baking the taro crisp outside of soft, easy to carry, also often bring guests to eat on the road.

Gaoshan custom taboo

Taboo is JinGui of religious significance.It is not the power of nature by means of far avoided against the negative.There are many stories about hunting, farming gaoshan, sacrifice, and other aspects of taboos, its purpose lies in: by mandatory abide by these JinGui, avoid the risk of not aware of, especially the occurrence of death, in order to maintain the normal activities of production, sacrifice and social ethics, and is not affected and interference.Once taboo is breaking, we anticipate may suffer some kind of disaster and rattled, immediately stop all ongoing activities, to pray, incantations, wine, such as offering oninousness rid way, remove the possible existence of danger;Break prohibition, and light punishment, undertake oninousness rid feast all expenses, or put to death.

In gaoshan a dime of taboos, some of them are common, tribes, in any case should be closely guarded.Universal taboos, belongs to the visual, such as taboo meet animals cross the dead and buried, meet mating, etc.;Belongs to the sense of touch, such as taboo fetish, contact the dead objects, etc.;Belong to the behavior, such as taboo exhaust, sneeze, kin sexual intercourse.Special taboos, such as:A womanCannot be used in contact with the man hunting devices with weapons, such as bow, arrows, spears, spears, etc., shall not, without access to the male club and sacrificial area;Men do not contact with women using loom and raw hemp, during the hunting, fishing, and indeed, ban with women;During adult trained in the clubhouse, prohibited contact with women;During fishing, hunting or sacrifice, the home can't fire;During the sacrifice notEat fishAnd so on.Among them, the sacrifice is particularly taboo sneeze, south gaoshan think sneeze means the soul out of their shells, along with the danger of the evil spirit, is a sign of the disaster happen.

In addition, the fertility of taboo is also very prominent.Mainly include: taboo twins, superstitious twins is beast, boded disaster will come, will kill one thought rid.Taboo bunon bastard, usually the bastard abandoned field.May peeping into production taboo men and the widow,babyTaboo father's arms, it is said that because the baby body weak, through contact with infected his father weak condition, so that when hunting, to run to weak, nothing.The peculiar taboos matriarchal privileges social ensure child custody "measures" fuck in the mother's hand.