New discoveries shed light on some of the earliest humans to settle in Taiwan

A combination of ancient knowledge and modern research techniques may be closing the gap between who some of the earliest people to settle in Taiwan could have been and its current residents. The key to the earliest chapters of Taiwan’s history may lie in the stories and traditions of groups like the Saisiyat Indigenous people.

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Indigenous knowledge, along with the newest discoveries, could peel back the story of some of the earliest humans to settle in present-day Taiwan.

It wasn’t until around 400 years ago that the first Chinese settlers arrived — just a few years after the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts.

Before that, Taiwan was home to Indigenous Austronesian peoples. Over time, some sailed away, settling in other parts of Southeast Asia or even as far away as Madagascar, New Zealand and Hawaii.

Others have remained to this day — and now makeup 16 officially recognized Indigenous groups in Taiwan.

One of those groups, the Saisiyat, is known throughout Taiwan for maintaining an ancient spiritual connection through stories and rituals passed down over countless generations. That connection and new scientific discoveries may help unravel a mysterious chapter of Taiwan’s past. 

Although the Saisiyat village of Wufeng is only three hours away from the bustle of Taipei’s capital, it can feel like a different world. 

Every two years around fall, visitors to Wufeng find the air cool and misty but thick with smoke from ritual fires and the fermented tang of homemade millet wine.

Every two years around fall, Indigenous Saisiyat people celebrate the Pas Ta’ay ceremony with ritual fires, songs and dances.Ashish Valentine/The World

At a parade ground within the mountain village on a recent November day, dozens of people locked arms as they danced in a giant circle. Within their belief system, they were not alone. The Saisiyat believe that during this festival, they’re surrounded by spirits known as the Koko Ta’ay: a people their ancestors shared this place with a very long time ago. 

“They are really short, they have dark skin and some people say they have magic,” said Away Maya Titiyon, whose mother is Saisiyat and father is from New Zealand. She’s been attending this Pas Ta’ay ceremony every other year since she was a child.

Now she’s old enough to contribute, including by helping outsiders learn how to be respectful and not offend the Koko Ta’ay.

“Everyone has to be careful, and cannot have bad moods, cannot fight with each other and cannot throw stones at an empty place because they might hit the spirits,” Tityon explained. 

Members of the Indigenous Saisiyat community members perform a series of songs alongside ritual dances.Ashish Valentine/The World

For several days, the Saisiyat welcomed the Koko Ta’ay’s spirits into their village. 

They dance from evening until morning, offer millet wine and food and sing songs that contain the knowledge the Koko Ta’ay gave to their ancestors.

“The 16 songs include all the traditional plants we have,” Tityon said. “ The Koko Ta’ay taught our people how to grow millet and how to weave.”

But tradition says the Koko Ta’ay also have a mischievous side.  

Volunteers tied silvergrass around festival participants’ arms as protection from harmful spirits. Even equipment like sound recorders and cameras, as well as cars and scooters, needed protection as the Koko Ta’ay spirits were said to be able to interfere with anything mechanical. 

Away Maya Tityon (left) ties silvergrass around the head of a participant in order to protect him from spirits during the Pas Ta’ay ceremony.Ashish Valentine/The World

Until recently, most of what researchers knew about the Koko Ta’ay came from stories. 

“A long time ago, our ancestors lived on this mountain,” said Ataw a Bong, an elder and a former school principal. “One day, they started hearing strange noises, possibly music.”

The Saisiyat people realized they were songs coming from a neighboring group of people — the Koko Ta’ay — and the two realized they could learn much from each other. From the Koko Ta’ay, the Saisiyat learned skills like weaving and planting crops.

Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last forever. 

Legend says that when the Koko Ta’ay came to the village one day, a Bong explained, some of the Saisiyat made a large cut at the bottom of a tree that the Koko Ta’ay used as a bridge to cross the river to get home, causing it to collapse and kill many Koko Ta’ay. After this, life got tough for the Saisiyat.

Saisiyat elder and former school principal Ataw a Bong stands in front of the Pas Ta’ay ceremonial grounds during the daytime.Ashish Valentine/The World

Rains would either be extra heavy or not arrive at all. Babies began to die, and crops failed.

Eventually, two of the surviving elders of the Koko Ta’ay appeared at the Saisiyat village. They told them that the only way to stop what was happening was to hold a ceremony for the Koko Ta’ay spirits every two years.

It’s hard to pinpoint when it began, but since then, without fail, the Saisiyat have honored their promise.

Many Indigenous groups in Taiwan have stories about similar peoples. 

In the Philippines, next door to Taiwan, there are ethnic groups that slightly match descriptions of the Koko Ta’ay, like the Aeta people of Luzon.

Former school principal and elder Ataw a Bong reads from a book on the Pas Ta’ay ritual that he contributed to writing. Ashish Valentine/The World

Researchers sometimes label these groups  “Negrito peoples” — a term that comes from Spanish colonization. But for the longest time in Taiwan, there wasn’t any physical proof that Negrito peoples lived there. 

That changed thanks to a team led by Taiwanese archaeologist Hung Hsiao-Chun at Australian National University. As an undergraduate at National Taiwan University over two decades ago, Hung remembers seeing a 6,000-year-old human skeleton at the anthropology museum.

“I saw that it was very small and broken,” Hung said. “It was placed alone in a display cabinet. Every time I saw it, I always had an indescribable special feeling.”

Three years ago, Hung returned with a team and compared those bones with a large database of known human populations. Her team concluded that the closest living match to the bones are the Negrito peoples in the Philippines. It was the first physical evidence that Negrito peoples lived in Taiwan and may have shared the island with the Austronesian peoples. 

Hung Hsiao-Chun (left) and Tobie Openshaw (right) pose together. Hung’s team worked to produce the first evidence that Negrito peoples inhabited Taiwan. Tobie Openshaw is a filmmaker and researcher who’s been working with Indigenous communities in Taiwan for over a decade.Courtesy of Tobie Openshaw

Hung said that based on the evidence available, these peoples arrived in Taiwan at least 7,000 years ago and could have still been around as recently as the 1800s.

For Hung, the case is closed. These Negrito peoples were the basis for the Koko Ta’ay story. But she’s not the only researcher involved. And not everyone is so confident. 

Tobie Openshaw is a filmmaker and researcher who’s been working with Indigenous communities in Taiwan for over a decade. Earlier this year, Openshaw co-edited a book called “Seeking the Koko Ta’ay.” It pulls together Hung’s findings alongside all the latest research into who the people in the Koko Ta’ay stories could have been. 

“I think it’s important to point out I’m not in any way stating that there was a sizable population of Negrito people in Taiwan and they are the origins of the Koko Ta’ay story,” Openshaw said. “For me it’s really just, before we had no evidence, and now we have something.” 

But Openshaw explained that Taiwan’s hot, humid climate is a major reason why it’s so difficult to prove the stories.

“Bone material tends to decay very quickly there,” Openshaw said. “That’s why we only have a few places with archaeological finds over 5,000 years old.”  

Regardless of the evidence, he added, stories like these show Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples already know they weren’t the first people to arrive on the island. 

“They do not say we were here first,” he said. “They just say, we were here before you,” referring to the Han Chinese who make up over 90% of Taiwan’s population. 

For his part, the elder Ataw a bong welcomes the curiosity of outside researchers but doesn’t believe the Saisiyats’ story of the Koko Ta’ay needs to be proven. 

“We don’t really want to use scientific methods to dig deep into it,” a Bong said. “Because we know the story. If we take that approach, what if our people start dying? As far as we’re concerned, if there’s no Pas Ta’ay, there will be no Saisiyat people.”

On the last day of the apology ritual, dozens of Saisiyat elders gathered at the river where they believe the Koko Ta’ay drowned so long ago. They carried offerings of fish, pork liver and millet wine. 

An elder thanked the Koko Ta’ay for visiting and promised to see them again in two years. 

Whether researchers one day find proof for the Koko Ta’ay stories or not, the Saisiyat will honor them and their spirits for many more years to come.

Austin Pope contributed translation for this story.

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