Indigenous Weaving
Profile of a Taroko Weaver
Taiwan Indigenous handicraft artist
Ms Hu Hsiu-lan (Nadolan Naga)
The Taroko
Truku (太魯閣族 in Mandarin Chinese) also Romanized spelling as Taroko – recognized since January 15th, 2004, as the 12th Taiwan indigenous group is related by language and culture to the Seediq of the Atayal language group of the Taiwan Northern Central Range (see Atayal, Seediq, Taroko regions – Map of Formosan Languages). Their population is about 24,000.
More info: The Taroko
Introduction to the Weaver
Ms Nadolan Naga lives in the Xiu-lin Township in Hualien County. It’s a Truku (Taroko) community moved down from the Central Range after a war with the Japanese army in June of 1914. Imperial Governor-General Sakuma ordered soldiers across He-Huan Mountain for a punitive expedition to fight the eastern Truku people. It was the greatest battle since the Japanese occupied Taiwan in 1895. Nadolan Naga’s mother as young lady remembers her journey down for the mountains to settle the present village.
Nadolan in her youth decided to start weaving – a Truku craft that once accomplished demarcates a girl’s “coming of age” to womanhood. Her craft is innovative – moving a weaving tradition of profound cultural symbols into modern fashion ranging from handbags to new styles of clothing. This revitalization of the craft has stimulated her son to carry weaving into youthful modern fashion with a practical function, such as carrier pouches and cloth wraps. Read More: Nadolan Naga and her family
Weaving and Legends - Truku Legend of Rainbow Bridge
In the story of Truku people’s spirit after death is about reaching the land of ancestors over the rainbow bridge. Yet before crossing, they had to wash their hands first. Only those who accomplished hunting skills for men and weaving for women could bleed from their elbows. Those without bleeding from their elbows would fall down to the river to be eaten by crabs.
Therefore, in order to join their ancestors for an enjoyable life after death, the men must learn to hunt and the women to weave – they should not point to the rainbow bridge with their fingers directly, otherwise their fingers will become curved. This legend has been passed down for generations up to the present.
To help the coming generations remember their legends, the Truku craft artist, Nadolan Naga (also named Hsiu-lan Hu in Mandarin Chinese), designs and weaves colorful lines and patterns into clothe. She also adds the diamond figures symbolizing crabs of the stream – a pattern giving protection of the ancestor spirits. A person’s spirit after death could then cross the Rainbow Bridge and reach to the land of ancestors safely.
Read More: Taroko Weaving and Weaving Patterns
Further Information
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