The technique of making banana silk yarn, a craft that is exclusive to the Kavalan community, has been recognized as part of the intangible cultural heritage of Hualien County.
The Kavalan are the only Aboriginal community in the nation with the skills to make fabric from banana plants, a technique that has been passed down from one generation to the next.
According to traditional stories, banana fiber was adopted as an alternative to sisal to make fabric, because bananas can be grown all year round.
Photo: Hua Meng-ching, Taipei Times
Thanks to a group of women in Pate Rungan Village in Hualien’s Fengbin Township (豐濱), this craft has been preserved.
The fabric is on display at the LALABAN handicraft shop, which was established in Pate Rungan by the Hualien Kavalan Development Association in 2005.
The souvenir shop mixes creativity with the traditional craft, and sells not only fabric and clothing, but also stationery and household decorations made from banana fiber.
Hualien County Department of Culture director Chen Shu-mei (陳淑美) said that the fabric is the third cultural asset to be designated by the county government as an intangible cultural heritage of the region.
The others are the weaving of men’s clothing by the Bunun people and a Bunun Sowing Festival song known as Pasibutbut, she said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS