 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 818 (2020) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Taiwan | |
| Languages | |
| Mandarin,Taiwanese Hokkien,Thao[1] | |
| Religion | |
| Animism,Buddhism |
TheThao/Ngan (Chinese:邵;pinyin:Shào) are a small group ofTaiwanese indigenous peoples who have lived nearSun Moon Lake (Zintun, Lake Candidius) in centralTaiwan for at least a century, and probably since the time of theQing dynasty. The Thao/Ngan people numbered around 800, making them one of the smallest of all of the recognized indigenous peoples in Taiwan (a number of indigenous peoples, both smaller and larger than the Thao in population, remain unrecognized by the Taiwanese government).[2]
Despite their small group size, the Thao/Ngan have retained their customs, beliefs and traditional culture and language until now, though they have been assimilated into mainstream culture as well. Most of the members of this ethnic group work in thetourism industry at Sun Moon Lake. TheChi-Chi earthquake of 1999 damaged or destroyed 80% of the houses of the Thao/Ngan.
The Thao/Ngan people have their own language, theThao language, which isnearly extinct and spoken by only a few, mostly elders, of the (already small) Thao ethnic population. The language has beensinicized. Most people who speak Thao are bilingual or trilingual and can speakMandarin Chinese and/orTaiwanese as well. The Thao/Ngan language part of theAustronesian language family, and is classified aWestern Plains Formosan language - the last surviving of that group, which was once spoken across the center-western plains of Taiwan before being supplanted bySinitic languages. The Western Plains Formosan languages have been proposed to form part of aNorthern Formosan branch of Austronesian along with aboriginal languages of northern Taiwan. The Thao language hasloanwords from theBunun language, spoken by theBunun ethnic group of which the Thao/Ngan cooperated with as well as intermarried.
According to Thao oral history, the Thao people originally live inChiayi, later moved toAlishan Range, before eventually settling around Sun Moon Lake as well asLalu Island in the middle of the lake. According to the legend, they saw adeer and wanted to eat it, so they chased it until they arrived in the side of Sun Moon lake. Then the deer ran into the water, leaving the Thao by themselves. They could only wait. The Thao people then slept at Sun Moon Lake. One of theelders dreamed of a fairy in a white cloak. He said to them "I am the deer that led you here. This place is your promised land. Please don't leave, becausegenerations will come."
The Thao clothing style is known for its use ofgeometric patterns, and its use of brown, blue, gray and black. The dagobun is a famous Thao clothing, made of a cloth knitted with flaxyarn anddog fur.
Women’s traditional clothing mainly consists of a head scarf, a sleeved blouse, acorset, a waist skirt, a belt, knee breeches, and a crown made of flowers and plants. The head scarf used to be made of blackcotton, but it is now more commonly made of red and black strips of cloth, withsequins and pearls sewn onto it. Small beadedtassels are hanging from the sideburns, with a belt fastened to the back of the head. Thecorset is a one-piece garment that functions as a skirt and is made of two rectangular pieces of cotton that reach to the knees and are fastened diagonally to each other over the left and right shoulders, and then tied with a belt.
Men’s traditional clothing consists of headgear, headwear, chest wear, vest, skirt, breech-less trousers, andleather shoes. It is made ofleather,linen andbark.
On 15 August 2001, theExecutive Yuan (Council) of Taiwan officially recognized the Thao/Ngan as the tenth ethnic group among Taiwan's Indigenous peoples. The Thao have been mistakenly regarded as the "Tsou" (a separate and different ethnic group of Aboriginals) since the time of Japanese occupation. The error was caused by both a misunderstanding of the legend saying that "the ancestors of Thao were from the mountainAlishan (Mountain A Li)" and the similar pronunciation of ‘Thao/Ngan’ and ‘Tsou’. Thus, the domain of the Thaos/Ngans had been registered as "Tsous from the flatlands of the mountains" under the nine ethnic groups of Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples.
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