Transportation and Building Craft

1. Plank boats and dugout canoes

Taiwan being an island, one might think that those indigenous people living by the sea are adept at utilizing it. However, the indigenous peoples of the western plains have long since adopted Chinese culture. Did these people once use boats, and if so what did they look like? We cannot know for certain. Only a handful of documentary records and certain place names, for example, Mengka (艋舺), provide any clues. A Record of Missions to Taiwan and Adjacent Waters, for example, contains this record of a Kavalan boat: “A mangka is a single hollowed out log, flanked with boards bound with vine; since there is no putty with which to caulk the boat, water easily seeps in, and so the savages have to frequently used a scoop to bail it out.”
The indigenous peoples of Taipei and Keelung also used mangkas. Notes on the East of the Sea (海東札記), a Qing dynasty text, relates how the local indigenous people “come and go through Guandu using mangkas. A mangka is boat made by hollowing out a log. Large ones can carry thirteen or fourteen people, small ones three or four. They cross the river by pulling a pair of oars. The native slaves are accustomed to it. The largest mangkas are made at the Keelung inlet. Besides a hollowed log, stabilizing planks are bound to both sides using vines. These can carry 25 or 26 people.”
The Thao people of Sun-Moon Lake used mangkas, as Collection on the Eastern Campaign (東征集) records: “Mangka is the name for a boat used by savages. A single trunk is hollowed out to make it; it is rowed using pairs of oars. Large ones can carry more than ten people, small ones three to five. Small islands are surrounded by water, there is no land route in and out. Everybody uses mangka. Outsiders wishing to visit their community must hold up a grass torch and signal them with the rising smoke. The savages will then row across in a mangka to meet them. Otherwise you cannot reach the island.”
The mangkas described in the above documentary sources are dugouts, in other words, boats made from a single hollowed out tree trunk, usually a camphor tree. Some vessels could carry three to five people, while larger ones could carry 10, 20, or more. These boats were all rowed. Before the road around Sun-Moon Lake was built, boats were the Thao people’s main means of transportation.
Dugouts are perhaps are more primitive way to make a boat. The Tao people’s plank boats are more complex, and require greater boat making skill.
Tao boats are keeled, with hulls constructed from 20 or more planks. Different trees are used for different sections of the boat. Joins between the planks are filled with plant fiber to prevent leakage. The boats are made in smaller and larger versions. The smaller plank boats are steered by one or two persons, whereas larger boats can carry eight to ten. After construction is complete, a launching ceremony commonly called the ‘boat launching ceremony’ must be held for every one of the new boats that has been finished and carved. Clansmen wear formal dress. During the ceremony the men knit their brows, adopt fierce expressions, and shout intimidatingly to ward off anito, the evil spirits. This spectacle that has become a target for many photographers.
In the early twentieth century, the Tao of Orchid Island and the Thao of Sun-Moon Lake were still using traditional boats. This attracted the attention of anthropologists, which is why the image of Taiwan’s indigenous boats that has come down to the present is mainly that of the boats used by these two tribes.
This category contains 19 photographs. The first five of these show Tao plank boats; the remainder show Thao dugouts.

2. Traditional means of transporting goods

The Amis, a plains people, used ox carts to transport goods. Most other indigenous Taiwanese peoples used manpower to transport goods. Unlike the Chinese, who carried loads on their shoulders, indigenous Taiwanese carried loads either on their heads or on their backs, strapped to their heads or shoulders.
Plains indigenous peoples carried loads on their heads, while those in the mountains mainly carried them on their backs. To strap a load carried on the back to the head, the ends of a rope were fastened to either side of a basket, and the rope placed across the forehead to take the strain. This method was often used on rugged mountain paths.
The baskets used to pack and carry things were all woven out of natural materials like rattan or bamboo. Bamboo was produced in every region of Taiwan, and became indigenous people’s material of choice for weaving containers. Baskets were sometimes cylindrical, sometimes conical in shape. Some indigenous people still use similar containers, traditional in shape, though now made of plastic. They are still carried in the same ways.
Besides the baskets, there were also back frames that could be used to carry people and loads.
There are 20 photographs in this category, mainly showing people carrying loads on their backs strapped to their heads.

3. Dwellings, granaries, and watchtowers

The lives of indigenous people traditionally revolved around the settlement or village. These settlements were sometimes formed of people living in close proximity, sometimes scattered across an area. The Atayal, for example, lived scattered apart, with relatively few families living in close quarters. In mountainous areas, they sought out gentler slopes on which to build their houses, and so their settlements were often scattered on flatter land either side of mountain streams.
When choosing land on which to live, indigenous people often sought out land more suited to growing crops, easier to defend, and with convenient access to water. A divination was then held, and if the land was found to be auspicious, they would decide to live there.
The Qing dynasty text A Record of Missions to Taiwan and Adjacent Waters describes southern plains peoples’ houses as having “rammed earth foundations, frames made of bamboo, thatched grass roofs, and woven bamboo walls.” When building, “every time a house is built, many workers are gathered together to assist; there is no foreman’s or craftsman’s fee to be paid, no bothersome axes, saws, or chisels are used: multiple houses can be completed using just a knife.” Granaries are “also built out of bamboo and grasses. The foundation posts are twice as high as a normal house. The building is wooden below and topped in bamboo or grass mats. The grain is stored at the top of the granary. Each one can store more than 30 thousand liters. Each year the grain tax levied on the village is taken from a different granary. Every night a gong is sounded for an inspection, regardless of the weather.”
Indigenous houses were bamboo framed, with thatched walls and roofs. Communities worked together to put up houses; there were no foremen or craftsmen. Extremely simple tools such as machetes were used in the construction. Granaries were twice as tall as dwellings, and likely stilt houses. Though this is an early eighteenth century description of indigenous building methods, the similarity to descriptions of early twentieth century indigenous buildings is apparent.
Indigenous house-building followed roughly the following steps: First, the materials were gathered. The timber and bamboo to be used was sorted. Next, the ground was prepared. When building the house, first the frame was erected, followed by the walls. Finally the roof was put on.
Traditional indigenous houses came in quite a variety of forms. They can be divided into houses where the floor was below ground level; houses where the floor was at ground level; and houses where the floor was raised above ground level (i.e. stilt houses). Indigenous granaries and meeting houses were tall framed mainly to keep out damp and insects.
Building materials were always selected depending on location, and included bamboo, timber (posts and planks), stone (slabs and blocks), thatch, and cane.
Interiors were usually unpartitioned, with beds, a cooking range, and an animal bone rack. Outside the house there was a front courtyard and enclosing wall.
The family home was the most important building in the lives of indigenous Taiwanese. Apart from houses, there were also a granaries, watchtowers, and meeting houses. Meeting houses were the village’s public buildings, and the venue for group discussions.
After Japan began its occupation of Taiwan, to strengthen its rule over indigenous Taiwanese, it tried to condense scattered communities, and move those living in the mountains down to the plain. In 1926, Taiwan Governor-General’s Office issued its 10-Year Plan for Savage Relocation to combine numbers of settlements into a single areas—the so-called ‘group resettlement’ policy. At the same time, they introduced new construction methods.
A total of 63 photographs make up this set. The first two precious photographs capture the housebuilding process. The remaining pictures are arranged by tribe, mostly Atayal, Thao, Tsou, Bunun, Paiwan, Puyuma, and Tao. The images illustrate how the different buildings in each settlement related to nature, including family dwellings (houses made of bamboo, wood, and stone slabs), home interiors, stilt-house granaries, watchtowers, and meeting houses. They also show the newly introduced ‘improved houses for natives’.