Michael Turton's recent Taipeitimes article raised a few subject matters I have looked at over the last number of years. To which I comfortably relate and ready to comment. "The indigenous ‘culture’ we are offered is truncated, impoverished, unrepresentative and even worse: predictable" (Turton. Taipeitimes) Indigenous promotion/tourism in Taiwan, in my opinion, is unusual . It's done wrapped in a bubble. The intensity is unusual.  Here are a couple of example -  Salami slicing tactics is unusual - A result of desperate attempt of separating and re-grouping something similar into something different.  And a result of keeping everyone happy. No one get left-out and no one complain. Encouragement and indulgence in producing 'made-ups' is unusual.  While most made-ups are harmless and intended to attract and generate international interests -  CAUTION - once these international interests are collected, there will be rightful and curious-minded peoples qu...

Quelang (Keelung) and  Qalang  or Qulijat    (with a number of indigenous variations) should all be the same -  meaning 'Fence' ' 'Territories' 'Protected Land' aka  圍 欄. The 'Q' initial appears a European (Religious) impact (as in Atayal and Paiwan's case).  Indigenous use - Sometimes 'K' sometimes without, sometimes replaced with something else - doesn't matter, the origin should be the same  圍欄   or related. NOT indigenous language but Chinese/Hokkien in origin. More HERE  ,  HERE ,  HERE  and HERE . Naxi Yunnan -  Same 'territories' concept as with Naxi  Yunnan minority.  甑糕 photo taken in Yunnan. The origin of  甑.

  (I) Root Word (Linguistic Origin) Territoires des sauvages (territories of the savages ) Sauvages (Savages) evolved into Smangus under Indigenous interpretation and revitalization. (II) Root Word (Secondary) 櫟  Quercus rugosa (銳葉高山 櫟 ) Smangus evolved into a type of tree  櫟 under indigenous interpretation and revitalization. (III) Indigenous Result Smangus - God's tribe - Atayal Pusu Qhuni - Tree  ( 櫟)  -covered  boulders - Where Seediq emerged in the beginning of time Source Truly Human. Scott Simon (IV) Boulders, Weaving, and Religious Impact. HERE Yuma Taru     Lihang Workshop (野桐工坊) re-build the Atayal weaving tradition with   羅麥瑞修女   ( Maryta Laumann).   (V) Other loanwords used for Atayalic revitalization examples  -  Bale (Germanic)  sama (Hakka)  samat (Hakka)  hu (Chinese/Hokkien)  qcu (Chinese/Hokkien) (VI) This post is also Note 130 HERE .  -------------------------------------...

  ‘Biru’ (Atayal) was invented by Italian Father Alberto Papa 泰雅爾語聖經【sinsman ke Utux kayal biru na Tayal】 Indigenous weaving facts -  1. Tao (Kavalan) banana-fiber-weaving used introduced banana species such as Singapore # Indigenous weaving facts # banana-fiber-weaving facts - introduced banana species # Kavalan # Tao Indigenous banana-fiber-weaving (Introduced banana species such as from Singapore before WWII).  The Tao (and very likely also the Kavalans) used 'Introduced banana species' for fiber weaving - for its strength and length . Introduced species such as from Singapore in 1900s. Under Japanese Administrations before WWII - Taiwan was one of the two places produce banana-fiber- fabric, the other is Okinawa.  2. Mother and Father of Indigenous Weaving # Atayal weaving # Religion Extraordinary Indigenous weaving facts  2.1 羅麥瑞（Maryta Laumann) German Nun is known ‘Mother of Weaving’ among the indigenous.  2.2  Yuma Taru studi...