66話 - Dance and Swing in Harvest Festival

Traditionally, aboriginal tribes would have their own yearly big harvest festival for thanking their ancestor for the splendid harvest on every August or September. We had jointed the end of September one in Taimali. In Taimali, instead of holding each individual one, they held a jointed harvest festival as there were Amis and Paiwan tribes in Taimali.

This yearly festival started with the big sound of artillery from the cut big bamboos. Big bamboos were utilized as the cannons. Here, it shows the aboriginal people’s wisdom of utilizing resources from the nature.

↓Bamboos were utilized as the cannons


↓Ready to fire


Each village formed a dancing group to compete with other villages’ traditional dances. Some of them were even dancing on bare feet on the grass of the elementary tracking field. In some villages, we can even see some villagers walking on the ground with bare feet. Some may say that if you dare to walk with bare feet, you will be closer to the nature. I guess that I am still far away from the nature then.

↓Some were dancing on bare feet






Although I didn’t understand any words of those aboriginal songs, I couldn’t resist to clap my hands, or to move the feet or even the whole body to follow those simple rhythm. Some dancing groups even brought their own singers to perform along with their dances instead of playing music from the CD. I would have to admit that their voices were unbelievable, like the sounds of nature. When they were singing in the opened space, I believed that some didn’t even need any microphones but the audience could still hear their loud and solid voices. It was such the leisure to hear their live concert.

After all the dances, people from one village demonstrated aboriginal traditional swing. The swing was tied on several big and long bamboos. Young guys brought their loved girls to swing. Some girls seemed to enjoy this traditional swing. However, I was worried about the stability and strength of those bamboos.

↓Aboriginal traditional swing: before the festival started, one man climbed up to double check the facility


↓Young man brought his loved girl to swing


↓To swing higher and higher



I think that the ranking for the dancing competition was not the most important thing but for the whole villagers to participate and for the outsiders to see and feel the aboriginal tradition and enthusiasm. Here, I saw closeness and connection between these villagers and neighbors which I didn’t feel it in the big city anymore. It was such an unforgettable experience to see this aboriginal harvest festival.

↓Videos for the Harvest Festival dances