For those of you with an interest in Taiwan Aboriginal stuff
 

As some of you may have noticed I have a passion for and have been researching Taiwanese Aboriginal (yuanzhumin) blades for some time now. I'm Taiwanese which makes this very close to my heart. I've been trying to get a laraw and saving up ever since I knew about them. Get yourself some food & drink, cause this post is a long one..... and riddled with Chinese and Atayal terms and names, so beware...

On my last trip to Taiwan...

me and my father found one vendor who sells aboriginal blades. The maker and his sons are from 銅門, 花蓮 (Tong-men, Hualien). They make a wide-variety of traditional aboriginal blades and a Han Chinese partner of his sells a select range, and mails within Taiwan.
They are often referred to as 番刀 (fan-dao, savage knife), or 山刀 (shan-dao, mountain knife). The second common name is there because many of the surviving tribes are ones that live in the mountainous areas... the ones on the plains have long since been assimilated, inter-married with, or killed off. I am part Hoklo, part Siraya, part Hunanese, and part Hubeinese.

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9411/16108095.jpg

This dao is the one I got from that vendor while I was in Taiwan. As my reviews have said, it's a decent blade... but doesn't hold an edge well enough and feels like a chunk of metal, not too well balanced. Just to let ya'll know, 原住民 (yuan zhu min - original people) is a term for Taiwanese aborigines. Some call them Ping-pu, meaning from the flatlands/plains, but that comes from a time when Chinese categorized aborigines based on whether they lived on the plains or in the mountains. Many people who have aboriginal blades now use them like machetes. In Taiwan the traditional machete-blade of the Chinese is the 開山刀 (Opening Mountain Knife). It is a sickle-like billhook-type blade. Very useful - but not quite as versatile or hefty as a yuanzhumin blade. They are often sold side-by-side by street vendors who sell outdoors tools and cutlery. In the okd days it is said that an Aboriginal hunter could survive in the mountains for months with just his knife and some salt.

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/8084/50742419.jpg

Towards the end of the Taiwan-trip, my father and I went to 烏來鄉 (Wulai). It is the southernmost part of the Taipei County, but the northernmost Atayal village. We visited the Atayal museum there, which was very good, though the collection was small. An Atayal/Tayal woman called MeiLu gave us a tour. She's a weaver. After a VERY informative tour, we asked about blades and she said that Atayal blades were made privately by local smiths for family, close-friends, and tribesmen. Outsiders rarely get close to having one... I did learn some things about the blades though. The open scabbard of course, allows the man to check his blade for rust, and lets water out easily (tropics rain a lot). The big flare on the dao-chiao or butt-end of the sheath has a two-fold purpose. If you are an aboriginal huntsman out in the mountains and you need some dry material to start your fire but all the ground and the local wood is wet, you can use it to help start the fire. Still, it'll be a wet, smoky one - but better than none. Secondly, they'd drill a little hole on the bottom edge of the flare and put the hair of their fallen enemy in it. As if headhunting (mgaga) wasn't enough, now you have a visual mark of how many this warrior killed. I have a feeling that once he's out of space he'll either get a bigger sheath, or just stop... after-all if you've killed more than 10 people, you're doin' pretty good. One sheath there showed 9... a pretty accomplished headhunter must have owned it. Many blades have a chisel-grind which works well with open scabbards and is easy to maintain. Many also have hollow-metal handles which allow for hafting on a shaft to make a spear. The straight laraw would make good thrusting spears, the curved ones would make decent hewing spears. Wooden handles tend to be more comfortable, but in the tropics will eventually rot away and need to be replaced.

The story could end there...

but it didn't. I got back to the USA and after some time, decided to do research to try to find these "local smiths". I knew it wasn't going to be easy since I don't read/write much Mandarin Chinese, I don't remember much Taiwanese, and I don't know Hakka, Toisan/Cantonese, and squliq Atayal. On top of that, it'd normally take some connections to know of these things. After surfing the web for what seemed to be several days I came across two promising leads... An old KuoMingTang Nationalist veteran and a Serbian-American living in Wulai. I'm going to leave names out of this but if I accidentally let it slip once, o well...

After some discussion in typed Mandarin, the veteran referred me to his aboriginal friend who said that's he wouldn't mind showing me, but that I'd have to go with him to the place. That sounded a lot like the smiths in Tong-men (meaning copper-gate). I saw pictures of his blades, and yes, they were of the same style as the Copper-gate blades. So that lead led me right back to Hualien...

The Serbian-American proved much more helpful. Since he also spoke english it was very helpful. He taught me that in squliq Atayal language, the term for the big blade was laraw, la-row, where ow is like in cow. The small blades are known as puli, pronounced boo-lee. He told me one smith is in 新店 (Shing-dian) and another in 桃園 大溪 (DaSi, Tao-yuan).... maybe one in San-xhia. The one is DaSi may be Hakka but seems to have been making Atayal blades for the tribesmen for some time now. Today they use spring steel and nails to make blades and arrowheads (and fishing spears). Seems like there's a very limited amount of hunting still going on... and that the blades are not illegal, but not entirely legal... We talked about a lot of things, one of the biggest was of course Atayal culture and their blades. Eventually this led me to his friend Watan Kahat.

Now that's his Atayal name but he's actually a Hakka (Kejia). He's a professor/scholar and very close to the Atayal. Infact, he is so learned in that culture, and such a good craftsman, that many Atayal youths go to him to fix their wording. He also makes Jew's harps, traditional baskets, sheaths for knives, etc. The Hakka people are "guest-people", sort of like the Gypsies/Roma of China. Many of them went to Taiwan in search of new land to settle and fortify. However the Hoklo (Fujianese-origin) were a lot more numerous and many of the Hakka were driven towards the mountains. Many of them live in Taoyuan, Hualien, and Ilan. After some discussion he finally agreed to sell me a Laraw and I was sent pictures. Eventually the deal went through and it was mailed to me. All in all, I spent $四四四, must be lucky. :) In anycase, here's some photos of people and their laraw...

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6528/80356919.jpg

It's just one kind of aboriginal big blade in Taiwan, but all follow two basic patterns, curved and straight. But there are fat bellied ones for butchery, slightly curved straight ones, occasional straight ones that resemble the curved ones but are good for stabbing, short straight ones for chopping... etc.etc.

Here's some old ones from the Yang-Grevot collection

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2595/sadfghj.jpg

Now I have the laraw...

I must have looked like a dumb-happy kid when I first held it. It came with a nice traditionally woven bag, and a traditionally woven but modern dyed rammie (a type of plant fiber) sling on the sheath. Watan made the sheath... I don't know the maker of the blade. It's pretty curved, like a bengkulu, so I imagine saber-cuts will come out of this guy like smoke out of a car. It's pretty hefty, but very well balanced. The edge is scary-sharp. It slices through paper like a swordfish cuts through the sea. I'll probably use it for outdoors stuff, but I have no doubts it can slash through necks. When I have tested it out more, I'll post a review in this thread. The big-ass sheath might be an issue, and the sling isn't good for running through the woods... so I might make a new sheath sometime.

Have any questions? Ask away! :D

And here is MY laraw!
 

The pictures, what you've all been waiting for... :rolleyes:

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/3679/46625454.jpg

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/8895/63291548.jpg

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/933/37526089.jpg

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/3598/27750486.jpg

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/489/94382378.jpg

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/15/48306845.jpg

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9849/sdfghjgfdsasdf.jpg

I also obtain my larow(s) from an Atayal smith in Tong-Men. :D
But your pieces are far more impressive with woven thing on handle.

And, yes, finding the place needs a bit of work. :p

Thank you for the interesting write up and congratulations on a successful quest. That laraw is stunning!

Me jealous? No way :D:D:D

Two questions, though. One is whether that hollow handle is welded shut or not. It may sound like a goofy question, but does it ring like a bell when you hit it? I have one of those cheap Cold Steel Bushman knives that has a hollow handle, and it actually makes a decent cowbell.

Best,

F

The hollow hilt is a socket for an "extender". If the thing weld shut how he can get a spear? :D

Hi Puff,

The Bushman handle is just folded into a socket, and the seam is not welded. It looked like the sarow handle is welded into a cone. I'm of two minds about whether welding the seam is a good idea or not, and I wanted to confirm the taiwanese design.

Best,

F

The Tong-men ones are decent, but are not as good quality. Maybe they will make high quality ones for certain people or on special order? The one I got from Tong-men doesn't even compare to the laraw I got more recently. I wonder if other tribes also have 'unknown' blacksmiths who make them blades privately. My guess is the Paiwan and Amis who still have larger populations might have them. They have the straighter blades.

Like these:
http://taipics.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/abo5.jpg


The hollow handle's seam disappears past the rattan wrapping so I think it does get welding further towards the blade, but at the every butt end the seam can be seen. It does ring a bit like a bell. :D Hope that helps.

Very interesting and informative post. I did, however, edit your link to the website. You cannot post links to commercial sites on these forums. That is for the Swap Forum only.

Thanks, sorry for that! :eek: :)

Does anyone have info on this?



Also, if anyone has laraw and other yuanzhumin blades, I'm sure the rest of us would love to see 'em.

I can see the Paiwan tribe members with their knifes, but, on the other hand, I don't see any knife pics on this thread. Is it only me ?

You cannot see them?! That's weird...
I have the photos on flickr if you'd like to see them, but they are smaller...
here's is the .link

KuKulzA28, thanks for this thread, and I really enjoyed reading it.

What continues to intrigue me is that how come some of the northern Luzon (Philippines) bolos look almost exactly the same, as pointed out by Dajak for instance here?

Of course one logical explanation is that the Austronesian migration to the Philippines came by way of Taiwan (see invasion route below of your great-great-xxx grandfathers).

Which points to the fact that we are distantly related, and so you should give me your laraw as a way of further cementing our common cultural heritage ;) :D

PS - By the way and as we all know, aside from archeology one other solid proof of this Austronesian migration theory is linguistics. The languages of the subject peoples are related to each other.

Yes Migueldiaz, we're really really distant relatives, in a way. As for cementing our common cultural heritage.... I'd rather sell my laptop, cellphone, clothes, and be a little hungry than give you my laraw. It was hard enough to get, and it is a heritage thing too. ;)

It is amazing isn't it? Our austronesian heritage traveled far and wide. My S.Chinese side traveled far and wide too! A big reason why there's chinatowns in almost every country! :D

As for blades...
Taiwanese aboriginal blades tend to have chisel grinds and open scabbards. The Amis and Paiwanese blades are straight. Many have open-socket handles. In Bhutan they have the same style straight blades and open scabbards. The Ifugao/Btonoc/etc. have Pinalug and Hinalung that have open socket handles and open scabbards. Talibon and garabs from Samar often have chisel grind /single bevel edges. Dayaks and Iban Mandaus and parangs are often single beveled as well, though with the concave/convex attribute.

Even some work blades from southern China and Japan have similar attributes as the Taiwanese aboriginal blades, though it may go the other way.

Very interesting.





EDIT: Yuanzhumin you can see the photos?

Just a thought...

The open scabbard and hollow hilt does not appear in most Northern Luzon peoples and along the entire path of the Austronesian migration. It only appears in the Ifugao and nearby areas (e.g. Kalanguya, I believe through Ifugao influence), but not Kalinga, Isneg, Tinguian, etc.

Can we without any doubt directly relate the similarity of the weapons (open scabbard, hollow hilt) between some groups of Northern Luzon (Philippines) and Formosa to the Austronesian migration? Or is it possible that the spread of such weapon types occured long after the Austronesian migration?

What is the earliest record on the existence of the open scabbard and hollow hilt in Formosa? It is mentioned in Formosa oral tradition before recorded history? Knowing this may provide a clue as to how old or ancient this weapon has been existence (or how recent it is)?

Ok, thanks for your generosity. I'll settle for the said cash equivalent ;) :D

Indeed. Thanks again for sharing the wealth of info :)

Good point, Nonoy. Let's wait for KuKulzA28's further comments ...

:mad: With demanding distant relatives like this... :D

I'm more of a novice at this field of knowledge than many of you but... here goes...

Let me take a few cultural traits that set the aforementioned groups apart. Now keep in mind, nothing is 100% definitive, there are exceptions... CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG! There are several different peoples in Luzon yes? However the Cordilleran tribes are very distinct from the Tagalog/other people. These are people who practice headhunting, village-village warfare, are not sailors, and with what can be considered a lower level of civilization (in terms of infrastructure). The other peoples use distinctly different weaponry, and in Luzon many of these are Spanish influenced, have leather scabbards, and the most popular styles often come from the war with Spain/America and after. The Waray of Samar and Leyte also exhibit blade-characteristics that make them somewhat similar to the others. The people of the Dios Dios and Pulahan where tribal people in the hills. Although converted to Christianity (in many cases) they retained a lot of tribal ways and lived a semi-nomadic life-style. If they had agriculture it was growing hemp for sale. They often lived in the interior and fought with the more financially-savvy coastal people... I'm sure Hokkien Chinese were amongst those. While I doubt a vinta would be strange to a Waray hillman, and I don't think they were headhunters... culturally they share similarities as they have single bevel blades, semi-nomadic thus less infrastructure, village-village warfare, etc. The Kenyah and Kayan and other interior tribal people of Kalimantan/Borneo are another good example. They have modified chisel ground blades, headhunt, are not a seafaring civilization, practice village-village warfare.... and while their longhouses are big, it's not the same level of social and structural infrastructure as can be found in Jogyakarta, Bali, Sulu, Manila, etc. I do not know a lot about the Bhutanese nor the Lepcha people, but the Bhutanese sword is virtually identical to the Paiwanese sword, and the Lepcha people too have open-scabbards.

I DO think the sea-faring aspect is important. Look at Botel Tobago, the Yami island south of Taiwan and north of the Philippines. The Tao people, while genetically related to the Taiwanese aborigines, have more in common with northern Luzon Filipinos. They do not exhibit two traits endemic to Taiwanese Austronesians, and those are headhunting and drinking. They do however exhibit a sea-faring fishing culture... with very close cultural-cousins in Borneo. In fact, in their oral histories, they have gone to Luzon due to war... at one time there was more regular contact. THey are a vestiage of the oceanic culture than moved on from Taiwan, while the present-day aborigines had stayed and developed land-based cultures.

The more infrastructure there is, it seems these attributes also disappear. While headhunting might have been ubiquitous in the distant past, these peoples have had it up till more recently. Also the other Indo-Austronesians seem to have large cities, greater trade networks, and more centralized rule. Their blades tend to follow the patterns of klewang, parang, golok, and pedang. They have outside influences from Chinese, Indians, Malaysian (many are Melayu), etc. They, being more centralized and having larger populations based on a larger trade network, more intensive farming, and fishing - they conduct war differently and certainly not on a village-village level, they did it on a state-state level.


Maybe it is a combination of environment, convergent evolution, and the distribution of ideas... but it seems the biggest of these groups have many things in common underlying their similarities in blade characteristics.

just some thoughts...

Well as the saying goes, you can choose your friends but not your relatives ;) :D

Thanks for that panoramic sweep of the ethnic weapons of the Austronesian world. It's great and I like it :)

I agree that we can see both -- there's a common thread, while at the same time we see distinct local traits ... the unity in diversity and diversity in unity stuff.

Of course the Austronesian peoples' culture/s did not develop in a vacuum. There's the two other neighboring civilizations -- the Chinese and the Indians/Hindu. And when the Europeans came later, what we have is a happy mix of just about everything? :shrug: :)

Well if you insist...
http://knowledgenetwork.thunderbird..../03/graham.jpg
there, we'll pretend I gave you money in that...

Thanks! Yes I agree, unity in diversity, diversity in unity...

Yes, Chinese and Hindu cultures... but do not forget other minor influences such as Japanese and Islamic... this is part of what makes these asian/oceanic islands so interesting... just as biologically they have extremely dense and diverse species... culturally and materially, the people are so diverse... from an ethnographic weapons standpoint... you have SO MANY different regional blades, different tribal and ethnic decor and beliefs, so many cross-cultural influences...

Chinese blades attached to Taiwanese aboriginal handles, Spanish guards on Luzon bolos, Indian khanda-handles on pedangs, keris with European dagger hilts, parangs with European guards, Japanese-style swords adapted to Sumatran silat-style handling, discarding the shield for an espada-y-daga style...


It would be interesting if there was a good in-depth comparison between the blades of the Taiwanese aborigines, the Cordillera groups in Luzon, the Waray-waray in the Visayas, and the Dyaks of Borneo. In fact I have no doubt that if 4 members on this forum decided to do that, they have enough prime examples in their collections that it would definitely be possible.

Thanks for the virtual money ... and I'll be (virtually) forever grateful! ;) :D

Yes, the Japanese did interact a lot with Luzon, and of course the Arabs did the same in Mindanao.

And I hope too that other members in the forum can show more Dyak blades which can be demonstrated to be related to some of the Philippine pieces :)

Sorry for not responding sooner!

You better be... or I'll have to pretend headhunting is still a very much alive tradition! :shrug: :D just kidding

Yes, it does seem that the Dayaks, the Filipinos of Luzon and Visayas, as well as Taiwanese aborigines, have very strong cultural similarities... one of those is their blades. It would be interesting if a discussion could be had comparing, contrasting, and taking into account the various influences on these related Austronesian groups... I know for a fact that some of the people here have extensive bolo, sundang, and mandau collections.... the kind that makes you shamelessly drool uncontrollably, green with envy, or awed and impressed. :rolleyes:

here a very old Dayak mandau scabbard ( around 1820) It maybe a small detail but the end of the scabbard looks like the end of Paiwan swords.
I my idea its a part of the more complex boatsymbolic that is widespread among cultures of the whole archipelago.
I don't know much about Taiwan however, ( just bougth the work of Chi-lu ) more or less encouraged by this thread.

Yes it does, great observation! I like your theory. Most people don't know much about Taiwanese ethnographic weapons... many of those with a keen interest in classic Chinese weapons often overlook to the Taiwanese, Fujianese, Hakka, and Cantonese and their own martial arts and versions of Chinese weaponry. Many people don't even know Taiwan has aboriginal people who are the descendants of the earliest travelers of the Austronesian group!

From an ethnographic weapons standpoint, Taiwanese blades help provide a link in relating the different Austronesian peoples... and one may be able to find out what cultural relations are stronger between which groups, etc. :shrug:

link to Taiwanese tribal art
 

http://collectie.tropenmuseum.nl/nBa...rt=ccrelevance


The collection of Taiwanese tribal art in The Royal Tropical Institute Amsterdam. ( In my opinion more interesting than Leiden)

Here is a website I just ran across that might be of interest :)

http://gsh.taiwanschoolnet.org/gsh20...motivation.htm

Thanks for the links!

Yuanzhumin, sorry to hear about your wife breaking her leg.

And thanks for your comments.

Yes, agreed :)

Indeed genetics is another confirming factor in the Austronesian migration, and the related-ness of the subject peoples.

Yes, it's up to Madagascar in the west, and up to Easter Island in the east. That's truly a mind-boggling extent of a migration.

Presently, there's also a on-going project by Filipinos who recently climbed Mt. Everest -- that is, Bajaus built for them a barangay [buh-rung-GUY] (the precolonial boat of the Filipinos) last year, and the Mt. Everest team has been sailing said boat around the country since last year. I think this year they will take the same barangay to Malaysia or Indonesia ... again, to simulate the interisland travel of our peoples back then.