 Night Festival of the Siraya people | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Tainan City andTaitung county (Taiwan) | |
| Languages | |
| Siraya (formerly),Taiwanese,Mandarin | |
| Religion | |
| Animism,Christianity,Taoism,Buddhism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| OtherTaiwanese Aborigines (EspeciallyTaivoans andMakatao) Hoklo Taiwanese |
TheSiraya people (Chinese:西拉雅族;pinyin:Xīlāyǎ Zú) are aTaiwanese indigenous ethnic group. The Siraya settled flat coastal plains in the southwest part of theisland of Taiwan and corresponding sections of the east coast; the area is identified today withTainan andTaitung County. At least four communities comprise the group: Mattauw, Soelangh, Baccloangh, and Sinckan. The first four communities correspond to the modern-day districts ofMadou,Jiali,Shanhua, andSinshih, respectively.
The Siraya arePlains Indigenous peoples, meaning occupants of flat coastal regions rather than mountain areas. Like other indigenous peoples of Taiwan, they areAustronesian peoples. The name "Taiwan" (historically speltTayoan,Tayouan orTayowan,Chinese:臺員) originated from theSiraya language. TheAustronesian languages to which Sirayan belongs includes some of the most widely-spoken languages inSoutheast Asia, includingIndonesian,Javanese,Tagalog (or standardized asFilipino), andMalay.[1]
Taivoan andMakatao used to be considered Sirayan communities but are now classified as independent peoples based on the latest linguistic discoveries, cultural features, and self-identification.
After the port in the Siraya area of Taiwan wasannexed in 1683 by Qing Dynasty China, a process of gradualacculturation led to theSiraya language falling out of use.[2] Its last recorded regular use was in 1908, after Taiwan was underJapanese rule.[1] The mother tongue of most Siraya families becameTaiwanese, a variety ofHokkien, withJapanese andMandarin Chinese learned in schools as the government-mandatedlingua franca.
The Siraya maintainedmany aspects of their culture despite this. A number of families in the Tso-chen, Kou-pei and Chiou-chen-lin ofSinhua Township in particular stillidentify themselves as Siraya. The family nameWan (萬), often encountered in the region, is a Chinese transliteration ofTalavan, a common Siraya surname.[1] A Siraya Culture Association (台南縣平埔族西拉雅文化協會) was established in 1999. In 2002 the reconstructed Siraya language (see below) began to be taught in schools and used in new literature.[1] In 2005 the Tainan County (now part of Tainan City) government established a Siraya Aboriginal Affairs Committee (台南縣西拉雅原住民族事務委員會) and subsidised a glossary, released in 2008, containing entries for over 4,000 Sirayan words.[1]
Efforts have been under way by the Siraya and related plains aboriginal peoples to gain official recognition from Taiwan's national government. In 2010 the Siraya enlisted the aid of theUnited Nations. Siraya and Taiwan government representatives have noted a flaw in the language of the law: the Chinese term employed for indigenous peoples literally means "mountain people." A literal reading of the law excludes coastal groups from recognition automatically. Government officials have proposed changing the law to ensure accuracy and inclusion of all indigenous groups.[3][4]
Traditionally the Siraya lived in villages, which were in constant conflict with one another. Women handled agriculture and religion, while men handled hunting, warfare and decision-making. Married couples did not live together, with the wife living with her parents and the husband living in the men's quarters; if they wanted to see one another, the husband would have to visit in secret. The Siraya were unusual in that most women did not have children until their mid-thirties and if a woman became pregnant before this, an abortion would usually be performed by the village shaman, with most women having multiple abortions during their lifetime. This was because the Siraya held a belief that childbirth and child rearing had an adverse effect on success in warfare, thus childbirth was postponed until the husband retired from being a warrior (generally around age forty), with his wife being a few years younger than him and still having a few years of child-bearing left.[5]
According toTaiwan Journal, Taiwan'sAcademia Sinica historians and linguistics announced, on 14 February 2006, that their team of researchers have deciphered up to 80% of the 187 so-calledSinckan Manuscripts (orSinkang Manuscripts), a set of documents from 17th and 18th centuries written in the language spoken by the Siraya people using a system ofromanization introduced by theDutch in the 17th century. In order to convert the Siraya to Christianity, Dutch missionaries studied the Sirayan language, devised a romanized script in which to record it, taught the Siraya people how to use it, and began translating theNew Testament into the Sirayan language. Copies of the Dutch missionaries' translation of theBook of Matthew into Sirayan have survived, and several of the manuscripts arebilingual, with side-by-side Sirayan andChinese versions of the contents.[6]
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