Sun, Oct 16, 2016 page3

• NTU returns ancestors’ spirits to settlement

  FORGOTTEN: A stone pillar believed to contain ancestral spirits was found by a researcher in 1929 after the Aluvuan people moved to a new settlement

  • By Sean Lin / Staff reporter
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  The Paiwan community’s Vungalid Settlement (望嘉部落) in Pingtung County and National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday held a “homecoming” ritual for spirits of residents’ ancestors thought to reside inside a 300-year-old stone pillar stored at the university.

  Dozens of Vungalid youth and Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) attended the ritual at the university’s Museum of Anthropology, where future Vungalid chief Lo Chun-chieh (羅俊傑) and university officials exchanged ceremonial knives and drank rice wine from a wooden vessel.

  Prior to forging the bond, Vungalid leaders and priests held a seance to ask for their ancestors’ consent to return to the community from a “double-sided carved stone pillar” — the term used by the museum to describe the object — believed by residents to be the dwelling of their ancestors’ spirits.

  

  Vungalid youth and Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chiun, right, attended a “homecoming” ritual at National Taiwan University’s Museum of Anthropology.

  Photo: Taipei Times

  Priests laid offerings — including a piglet, betel nuts and rice wine — on an altar and performed a divination ceremony, which showed their ancestors agreed to return to the settlement.

  University Department of Anthropology professor Hu Chia-yu (胡家瑜) said the pillar, which the Bureau of Cultural Heritage last year designated a national treasure, was found abandoned in front of the former home of an Aluvuan chief by a researcher at the university, then known as Taihoku Imperial University, in 1929 near Nandawushan (南大武山).

  The Aluvuan people had moved far away, because their village could no longer accommodate their growing population, Hu said.

  The researcher had the pillar transported back to the university for display, and the artifact had faded from the Aluvuan people’s memory, she said, adding that it was likely left behind due to its unwieldiness, as wooden artifacts had been transported to their new settlement, which later became the Vungalid Settlement.

  As part of a review to have the pillar designated a national treasure, Hu said that in November 2014 she embarked on a mission to seek the permission of the Vungalid people.

  By researching “Tjaluvuan,” the name of the Aluvuan chief and his ancestors, Hu and her team found the Lo family, whose Aboriginal name, Tjivuluwan, she said was evidence that they were the descendants of the Aluvuan chief.

  The Vungalid later requested that the university return their ancestors’ spirits, Hu said, adding that Vungalid elders had told her their ancestors had appeared in their dreams and told them they wanted to go home.

  The Vungalid created a replica of the stone pillar at their settlement in Pingtung to house their ancestors’ spirits, Hu said.

  At the ceremony, young Vungalid men and women joined hands and danced in a circle to celebrate the cooperative venture and the homecoming of their ancestors’ spirits.

  The ritual served as a reminder to the government that it should respect and protect all of the nation’s cultures, Cheng said, adding that she was inspired to see so many young Vungalid demonstrating a strong desire to learn about their culture.

  “A culture must have its roots,” she said. “Only by knowing who we are can we find our standing in this world.”
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