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Sakizaya is the thirteenth aboriginal tribe officially recognized by the government of Republic of China on January 17, 2007. Hualien’s ancient name is Cilai, a homophonic name of Sakizaya. “Sakizaya” is an Ami tribe division whose ancestors lived in the northern part of Huatung Valley. For long enough, the area was named Cilai.
In 1878, the government of Cing Dynasty sent troops to develop mountains and pacify the aboriginal tribes. The joint force of Kavalan and Sakizaya fought against Cing troops, and resulted in Karewan Incident. The master chief of the tribe fell to the Cing troops’ atrocity by lingering death. His wife was also sentenced to death by crushing her body by a giant wooden log. To evade ethnic extermination, Sakizaya fled away from home and disappeared with broken family for 128 years of vagrant journey with their identity hidden. During Japanese occupation, Japanese administrator implemented the ethic classification policy among aboriginal tribes. Afraid of reoccurring of the tragedy, Sakizayan people chose to hide their names and were categorized as Ami tribe. In fact, the languages of the two tribes shared only 30% of similarity. A age-specific ritual of “feeding by the elder” was unique to the Sakizayan, and the Sakizayan set up a ring of thorny bamboo fence at the time when increment of 4 years in term of age came; a practice absent in Ami tribe.
1. Sakizaya was a matriarchal society, and men became son-in-laws who lived in their wives’ home and assumed the role of a son. Spreading on Cilai Plain in Hualian, Sakizaya people both fished and hunted. Because Sakizaya people learned the technique of water farming from Kavanlan people at a very early stage, the record of history of water farming is pretty early.
2. Sakizaya tribe shares a similar age rank system (sral) with Ami tribe; according to Japanese scholars’ field notes, a person advanced to a higher rank for every 5 years during the Japanese occupation (sakor). A male is in his juvenile period (wawa) from his birth to the age of 15 and preparatory period (masatrot) from 15 to 23 years of age, at which period the male live in a youth gathering house (taloan), obeying directions from next superior rank and receiving training for preparations for becoming kapah.
1. General Hierarchy
Sakizaya tribe shares a similar age rank system (sral) with Ami tribe; a person advances to a higher rank for every 5 years. A male is in his juvenile period (wawa) from his birth to the age of 15 and preparatory period (masatrot) from 15 to 23 years of age, at which period the male left home and began to live in a youth gathering house (taloan), obeying directions from next superior rank and receiving training. Finally, the male became an adult (Matrot) and received approval of age rank. At which point of time, friends and relatives would come to congratulate and celebrate. According to traditional customs, males who newly joined age rank must serve labor duties by repairing roads in the tribe. In the meantime, new comers must live alone in mountains to learn the independent life by acquiring foods in the wilderness as a training of personality and willpower. When the time of their striving for virtue had come to an end, they would be recalled back to the tribe. When they returned, they must race by running; those who fell behind
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