The spirits of the "short people" (達矮) were appeased yesterday after four nights of ritual chanting and dancing in the hills of Hsinchu (新竹) and Miaoli (苗栗).
The Saisiyat tribe (which numbers around 5,000) reckons it wiped out the short people, a race of dark-skinned dwarves that populated Taiwan long ago. Saisiyat tribe members believe if they do not regularly commemorate this event, then they too will die off.
The curse of the short people is laid to rest every two years. Once every 10 years there is a special festival. This year was the occasion of just such a festival. This started in Nanchuang (南庄), Miaoli County, on Friday and ended in Wufeng (五峰), Hsinchu County, yesterday morning.
Today the Saisiyat were expected to have a riverside picnic in Wufeng and finish off the rice wine and glutinous rice cakes that were left over from the festival.
A first impression of the short people festival (矮靈祭) was how commercial it had become in Nanchuang. It was a bit like Disneyland, with hundreds of stalls selling Aboriginal goods and cheap merchandise. There were even amusement arcades and magicians.
There were thousands of people and a tent city had formed in the woods surrounding the open-air theater where the dances were performed.
You had to pay NT$200 for the bus ride to and from the venue and the amplification made it seem like a rock concert at times. The Hakka population appeared to have taken control of the event and commerce seemed uppermost in many people's minds.
Wufeng's festivities began on Saturday and though there were stalls selling rice wine and other Aboriginal goods, business did not seem to be the main focus.
Instead, there was a more spiritual approach to proceedings. Many of the rituals were held in private and the first of the dances were restricted to just Saisiyat tribe members.
Even so, it was madness. An estimated 10,000 people found their way up the mountain and after 10pm everyone was allowed to join in the dances. The open-air arena was packed and the atmosphere was at times claustrophobic.
The next day followed the same pattern, with the rituals and dances starting at 6pm and ending around 7am. Even without amplification you could hear the chants 20km away from Five Finger Mountain.
The final day in Wufeng, Monday, was the most touching, as the Saisiyat clans from Nanchuang joined their brethren in Wufeng. There were fewer tourists, most of whom were back at their desks in Taipei.
As such there was a different vibe. The stamina of the participants was impressive, fueled by mountain food and rice wine. It was a scene that has been repeated for possibly many hundreds of years.
According to legend the short people molested a Saisiyat woman. They were invited to a festival and as they returned home a member of the Chu (朱) family chopped down a tree over which they were traversing to cross a ravine.
Before the last of the short people went east into the mountains, never to be seen again, they imparted their knowledge to the Saisiyat and warned that if they forgot them they too would perish.
Some time afterward there was a plague of some kind and all but one man from the Chu family died. The Hsia (夏) family offered two of its women to the Chu man and eventually they had children and thereby continued the line.
This story and many others were represented on the final night of the festival. The Chu family gave thanks and provided food to the Hsia family, which carried a red-and-white flag during the dances. Only the Hsia family is allowed to carry the flag, which symbolizes blood and purity.
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