President Chen Shui-bian (
The president said that with their distinctive traits and cultural features, and unequivocal tribe identification, the Thao people were worthy of being designated a major indigenous tribe.
PHOTO: YU WEN-YU, TAIPEI TIMES
The Thao tribe, which has settled for several generations in Tehuashe (
The Executive Yuan last month approved the tribe's designation as the nation's 10th major tribe, while President Chen made it formal at a grand ceremony yesterday.
"Taiwan is a beautiful nation rich in culture. The exchanges and integration among the nation's various cultures has allowed a kind of dynamism to flourish here," Chen said.
Chen said the Thao people have become more united since the devastating 921 earthquake in 1999 and that yesterday's proclamation was in part a reply to their calls to be regarded as a new indigenous tribe.
The president said the proclamation also marked a new beginning in the way the government will address the concerns of Aboriginal tribes.
On June 19 last year, hundreds of Thao people returned to their homeland of Kuanghua Island (
Historical documents show that the KMT is principally responsible for the near extinction of the Thao by forcing its people to leave their ancestral lands to live in another community for the past 30 years.
However, former premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) under the old KMT administration, promised DPP Aboriginal lawmaker Payen Talu (巴燕達魯) on Nov. 17, 1999 that the government would grant the Thao a plot of state-owned land.
During yesterday's ceremony, Chen helped unveil a big wooden carving showing members of the Thao tribe pursuing white deer.
He then presided over a mass wedding ceremony of 27 Aboriginal couples and offered them Aboriginal works of art as wedding gifts.
The Thao have joined the list of major indigenous peoples in Taiwan, which consists of the Atayal (泰雅), Saisiyat (賽夏), Bunun (
In 1998, the number of indigenous people in Taiwan was just over than 396,000.
The Amis is the largest group, accounting for over one-third of the nation's indigenous population, followed by the Atayal and Paiwan.
The Yamis, with less than 4,500 members, was the smallest of the major indigenous groups before the Thao tribe was included.
GET TO SAFETY: Authorities were scrambling to evacuate nearly 700 people in Hualien County to prepare for overflow from a natural dam formed by a previous typhoon Typhoon Podul yesterday intensified and accelerated as it neared Taiwan, with the impact expected to be felt overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, while the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration announced that schools and government offices in most areas of southern and eastern Taiwan would be closed today. The affected regions are Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi City, and Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as the outlying Penghu County. As of 10pm last night, the storm was about 370km east-southeast of Taitung County, moving west-northwest at 27kph, CWA data showed. With a radius of 120km, Podul is carrying maximum sustained
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday criticized the nuclear energy referendum scheduled for Saturday next week, saying that holding the plebiscite before the government can conduct safety evaluations is a denial of the public’s right to make informed decisions. Lai, who is also the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), made the comments at the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting at its headquarters in Taipei. ‘NO’ “I will go to the ballot box on Saturday next week to cast a ‘no’ vote, as we all should do,” he said as he called on the public to reject the proposition to reactivate the decommissioned
US President Donald Trump on Friday said that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) told him China would not invade Taiwan while Trump is in office. Trump made the remarks in an interview with Fox News, ahead of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “I will tell you, you know, you have a very similar thing with President Xi of China and Taiwan, but I don’t believe there’s any way it’s going to happen as long as I’m here. We’ll see,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News’ Special Report. “He told me: ‘I will never do
EXCEPTIONS: Some people could be allowed to reclaim citizenship for humanitarian reasons or because of their contributions to the nation, the interior ministry said Taiwan would soon unveil new rules banning Taiwanese residents of China from reclaiming their citizenship if they participated in Beijing’s propaganda activities, the Ministry of the Interior said on Monday. The measures were drafted following President William Lai’s (賴清德) March 13 directive that the government counter China’s espionage and influence campaigns aimed at undermining Taiwan’s sovereignty, the ministry said in a preview of the rules. The changes would affect Taiwanese who lost their citizenship after becoming permanent residents of China or obtaining passports issued by China, it said. Under the measures, former Taiwanese nationals living in China who had made statements denying the
RSS