Dress and Dressing Up

1. Woman beside a loom

In early times, indigenous Taiwanese wore clothing made from tree bark, but by the early twentieth century they mainly relied on hemp and animal hide to make cloth. Cotton and wool were obtained through trade with the Chinese.
Ramie was the main raw material used by Taiwan’s indigenous people for clothing. The process of growing, gathering, peeling, drying, spinning, spooling, boiled, warping, and weaving it into piece of cloth was an elaborate, time consuming, and labor intensive process.
After making the hemp thread, it was dyed red, black or yellow with natural plant or mineral dyes. The thread was then woven with a self-made loom, which scholars call a ‘horizontal back-strap loom’, which was widely used across south east Asia.
The most distinctively shaped component of this loom was its box-like warp beam. This was about a meter wide, and usually made from a bored-out section of tree trunk. When weaving, the weaver maintained tension on the warp by pushing on the warp beam with her feet and leaning back on the cloth beam which was attached to her waist.
The dimensions of the body itself placed fixed limits on the length and width of cloth that could be woven on this loom. When the cloth was finished, it was simply sewn into shirts, skirts, and shawls.
Weaving was most popular among the Atayal people. From a young age, girls helped with stripping and spinning the hemp, and could already weave by themselves by the time they were 16 or 17 years old. Women who demonstrated exquisite weaving skill were often admired by the community.
Besides making cloth, mountain-dwelling indigenous peoples like the Tsou and Bunun also made clothes from animal hides taken from deer, goats, muntjacs, leopards, and bears. After killing and skinning the animal, the pelt had to be stretched, scraped, and tanned. Some tribes also made hats from animal skullcaps.
Of the 22 photographs in this set, the first three depict indigenous people spinning and warping thread, while the fourth shows someone making a haversack. The next 16 photographs illustrate the weaving process, mainly as carried out by Atayal women, and the final two photographs show indigenous women sewing.

2. Everyday dress

The indigenous Taiwanese peoples each had their own distinctive dress, though there were some points of commonality. The dress they wore can be roughly divided into ordinary dress and ceremonial dress. The usually wore ordinary dress when at home, farming, or hunting; for festivals and celebrations, they dressed more richly. Their dress can be further divided into clothing and ornaments.
Indigenous clothing mostly included long and short shirts, skirts, open-seat pants, hats, bibs, sleeve protectors, leggings, and square shawls.
Indigenous men sometimes went bare-chested. Below the waist, they wore loin cloths tied around their waists, hanging down over their private parts, or just pieces of cloth to cover this area. Some wore Chinese-style pants, and generally went bare-legged. Sometimes they wore rattan hats, like Atayal men, or animal skin hats, like the Tsou. Some also wrapped long pieces of cloth around their heads, though this habit was probably influenced by the Chinese.
On their upper bodies, indigenous people also wore shirts made from a square of cloth. These could be short or long, sleeved or sleeveless. The shirts worn by northern Taiwan’s indigenous peoples generally had no collars or buttons. The shirts were open at the front; they were in the habit of wearing a ‘bib’ over their chests, made from square piece of cloth, folded along the diagonal, and fastened at the neck. The diagonal fold hung in front of the chest, and could be used to place small objects. Besides the shirts, they was also wore square shawls over their shoulders.
Tsou and Bunun men were skilled at tanning hides. They used them to make a range of garments, such as leather hats, shirts, trousers, footwear, and sleeve protectors.
Indigenous women wore similar clothing to the men. In some areas, women were naked above the waist. Below they wore skirts of square cloth wrapped around the waist. They also sometimes wore varying length shirts made from square cloth. Early twentieth century photographs taken by the Japanese reveal that many indigenous women of the time also wore Chinese-style clothing. Atayal women, for example, also wore tradition square shawls over Chinese-style dress. Most wrapped their heads in dark colored cotton cloth. Some wore sleeve protectors to cover their arms, and leggings to protect their legs.
Besides clothing, indigenous men and women of every region used to decorate many parts of their bodies with ornaments and jewelry. These were made from seashell and beads, animal teeth and bones, glass and lazurite beads, metal (such as gold, silver and bronze), various silk threads, and bamboo.
Each of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were influenced in their dress by neighboring tribes. For example, in the north, the Atayal dressed quite similarly to the neighboring Saisiyat people. The Bunun people were scattered relatively widely; the dress of Bunun living in the Kaohsiung area was influenced by that of the Paiwan. The dress cultures of the Paiwan, Rukai, and Puyuma peoples of southern Taiwan were very similar.
There are 26 photographs in this category, arranged according to tribe: Atayal, Thao, Tsou, Bunun, Paiwan, Amis, and Tao, respectively.

3. Ceremonial dress and dress indicating social class

Besides the everyday clothing they wore, indigenous people also had clothing that was not worn to cover the body or keep out the elements, but instead indicated the social class or special achievements of the wearer, or that was worn for rituals and ceremonies.
The Atayal wore a type of short sleeveless shirt with decorative white buttons and seashell stitched on it. It could only be worn by a chief or a warrior who had successfully headhunted. Paiwan and Rukai societies had strict social classes; only a chief could wear certain items of clothing or certain embroidered patterns, such as leopard skin garments or shell pearl. These ornaments were therefore indicators of social class.
When attending ceremonies or celebrations, ordinary people also had to dress richly, and so had ceremonial clothing they could wear on such occasions.
Indigenous ceremonial dress was essentially adapted from ordinary everyday dress. Tao men, for example, usually wore short vests and loincloths. For ceremonies or sacrifices they added various ornaments and jewelry. The chief wore a silver helmet and silver discs on his chest. Tao women wore octagonal formal hats made of wood, or coconut palm bark hats.
Paiwan chiefs usually wore a long-sleeved short shirt and one-piece skirt. When dressing more formally, they added a long sleeveless jacket made of leopard skin. Tsou men wore leather hats, adding eagle or pheasant feathers for more formal occasions.
Formal dress was more complicated, sumptuous, and ostentatious than normal clothing, because numerous precious ornaments were added. In southern Taiwan, for example, both men and women of the Paiwan, Rukai, and Puyuma peoples wore exquisite crowns and forehead ornaments made from petals and leaves, pieces of metal, metallic bells, lazurite beads, animal teeth, and bird feathers.
The Atayal had extremely precious shirts and skirts adorned with tens of thousands of pearls stitched to each garment. A one-piece pearl shirt could weigh up two to three kilograms. The Atayal used them as a bride price or to trade.
The 30 photographs in this set are subdivided by tribe: Atayal, Saisiyat, Paiwan, Puyuma, Amis, and Tao.

4. Facial tattooing, ear piercing, and tooth removal

Taiwan’s indigenous people decorated themselves with many ornaments, such as animal teeth, strings of pearls, and copper bells. Body adornment was another custom of indigenous dress. It was a form of cultural expression worn for aesthetic reasons or to confer honor on the wearer. The main forms of body adornment they used were tattooing, tooth removal, and ear piercing.
Tattooing was the custom that has perhaps drew outside attention the most. The seventeenth century Small Sea Travel Journal records that “the savages of Douwei . . . besides covering their bodies with tattoos, further tattoo their faces. They look utterly strange, just like devils in appearance.” This is possibly a reference to the Atayal. Atayal women were also tattooed: it was recorded that “aboriginal women are tattooed around the lips.”
Six of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples, the Atayal, Saisiyat, Paiwan, Rukai, Tsou, and Puyuma, had tattooing customs. Seemingly any part of the body could be tattooed; however, only the Atayal and Saisiyat tattooed their faces.
Tattooing was not undertaken purely for aesthetic reasons. It was also a way to distinguish someone’s identity. Before a young Atayal man could receive a facial tattoo, he had to have participated in a headhunting expedition, while a woman had to be able to weave a piece of cloth. This symbolized that that person had come of age and could marry. The different tattooing methods used in different communities also served to distinguish them.
Facial tattoos were carried out by specialists, usually women, who had learned their skill from the previous generation. The parents of the recipient repaid them with wine, livestock, and cooking pots.
Tattooing was usually carried out in winter. This was because the wound would get infected less easily in the cold weather, and could be nursed by family members who were less busy due to it being the slack season. Atayal tattooists used a wooden stick tipped with six or more metal needles. The needle stick was placed against the skin at the tattoo site, and then lightly tapped with a mallet. Blood would immediately ooze from the site, which the tattooist would then wipe clean, and then rub with black pot ash. The success or failure of a facial tattoo was judged by the luster of the black. A dark and distinct tattoo on a woman’s face would be considered beautiful. If the color was lacking, the process could be repeated a second and third time.
Japan also had a tattooing custom, but in the nineteenth century the Japanese government began to outlaw the practice. In 1913, during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, Taiwan’s Governor-General ordered the northern savages (i.e. the Atayal) to cease the practice of tattooing. The colonial authorities believed the Atayal custom of facial tattoos was connected with headhunting, because a man could only receive one once he had brought back a head. Thereafter, when Japanese troops subjugated indigenous settlements, they confiscated their tattooing tools, and so facial tattooing and headhunting practices were slowly eradicated. At the same time, the colonial authorities promoted indigenous children’s education, hoping to eradicate these traditions ideologically.
By the 1940s, the Atayal custom of facial tattooing was extinguished. In fact, even as early as the 1910s, there were already cases where facial tattoos had been surgically removed.
Indigenous Taiwanese also practiced ear piercing. The Small Sea Travel Journal records that “The men compete to have the largest ears. As they pass from children to young men, their earlobes are pierced and slender pieces of bamboo pushed through the holes. These are gradually increased in diameter, until some have ears as large as plates, even hanging down to the shoulders or touching the chest.” Stretched earlobes were considered beautiful, and the process of piercing and stretching began at between 8 and fifteen years of age.
Another custom among the Atayal, Bunun, and Tsou peoples was tooth removal. When men and women reached a certain age their incisors or canines were removed, which was considered more aesthetically pleasing. It was also used to distinguish tribes, and to mark a person as being of age.
There are a total of 15 photographs in this group. The first three record the facial tattooing process. The next eleven photographs show Atayal men and women with facial tattoos and pierced ears. The final photograph shows tooth removal.