Lanyu Island Lanyu, Orchid Island or Botel Tobago, the home of the Tao (also known as Yami), is an austerely beautiful little island. Situated in the western Pacific off southeastern Taiwan, it lies 70 kilometers from Oluanpi to the west and over 60 kilometers from Lutao or Green Island to the north. Southeast of Lanyu, at a distance of 5.5 kilometers, lies the uninhabited island of Little Lanyu or Jiteywan.
Lanyu is an old volcanic island, and its coastline is fringed with coral reefs jutting up from the sea. Its total area covers 45.7 square kilometers with a hilly topography rising to several impressive peaks. The nine main ranges of hills radiate out in an irregular fashion, the tallest peak being that of Hung-t`ou Mountain with an elevation of 548 meters. Due to the topography of the land, the rivers and streams tend to radiate out from the center, and with their steeply inclining courses they are both short and swift flowing. The water level changes markedly according to rainfall. The climate is hot and humid all year round, with plentiful rainfall and no obvious dry season. The island is exposed to the wind, and has a northeasterly wind from September to April and a southwesterly wind from May to August. In summer tropical typhoons are frequent.
The Tao (formally known as the Yami) Administratively, Lanyu belongs to Taitung county. According to the 2000 statistics, the population stood at 3,861 persons. There are six villages, and travelling clockwise from the south these are Imorod, Iratay, Yayo, Iraralay, Iranomilek and Ivalino.
The Tao lead a life in which fishing and agriculture are of equal importance. They have their own indigenous lunar calendar, and they carry out various kinds of productive work and ritual activities at fixed times of the year. Their agriculture is mainly devoted to cultivating root vegetables, and their arable land may be classified into wet fields, dry fields and hillside fields. The wet fields are used for growing wet taro, the dry fields for dry taro, and the hillside fields are sown in rotation with millet, yams and sweet potato. Living as they do surrounded by the sea their fishing techniques are well developed, although they tend to favour the immediate coastal waters. Using a variety of techniques they fish for the numerous coral reef fish and, between about March and June, for the migratory fish such as flying fish and tuna that pass the island borne on the Kuroshio current. Fishing boats are an important tool in their lives, and there are both large and small types. The large fishing boats are built by fishing associations formed from men of a common lineage, who carry out the fishing together and share the catch between them. The crewman seated in the prow of the boat rows with two oars, the helmsman steers the boat with a single large oar, and the rest of the crew occupying the centre positions may consist of four, six or eight men each rowing with a single oar. The small type of fishing boats tends to be owned on a household basis, although they may also be built in common by brothers from separate households or by other relatives or friends, who carry out the fishing together and share the catch between them. Such small boats may be crewed by one man, two men or three men, each rowing with a pair of oars. Both large and small boats alike may be either decorated with carved geometrical patterns in low relief or left plain. Boats to be decorated with carvings are built in the summer under a grass shelter erected outside the house of the construction foreman ( the member of the crew most experienced in placing the pegs joining the planks), and once the work is complete a magnificent launching ceremony is held. Boats to be left plain are built in wintertime in the boathouses by the seashore, and no launching ceremony is held.
The Tao villages are sited on gently sloping foothills close to the shore, looking out over the sea. Surrounding the villages are broad areas of wet and dry fields under cultivation. The houses are grouped fairly close together. Each main dwelling is erected in a shallow pit which is stepped slightly following the slope of the terrain, and the earth which has been removed from the pit is piled up around so that only a portion of the roof is visible from outside. In front and to one side of the main dwelling there lies a workshop, which is built above ground but incorporates an underground area used for storage. On the other side lies the elevated rest house, and there may also be a childbirth hut and a millet granary. The ground-level courtyard in front of the main dwelling is paved with flat, round stones with short grass growing in between, and it includes two to four upright stones for supporting the back when resting. This courtyard is also where the fishdrying frames are erected. The main dwelling is surrounded by walls of stones, the tops of which form pathways (special pathways are used when conducting a burial or when setting out or returning from fishing for migratory fish). These walls are beautified by planting evergreen plants such as Vaccinium fig, Asiatic centella and Hydrocotyle formosana, which grow along the stones. To the vessels and tools that they make, the Yami often add carved designs in relief which impart to them a certain beauty beyond practical requirements. Their work is allocated to particular seasons and months, and they work in cooperation with each other, the work being shared out according to age. Mature males carry out the work of constructing the fields, boat building, fishing, house building, basketry, metalwork and making pottery. Womenfolk have the tasks of tending the fields, gathering taro, cooking, and weaving cloth. The exacting and technically demanding work of making gold breast ornaments, making silver helmets and joining boat planks with wooden pegs is carried out by older persons with experience and technical skill. These older persons are generally respected and are put forward to manage the irrigation channels, lead milletsowing groups and guide the others in respecting the taboos of the flying-fish season.
Tao social organisation is based on the concept of patrilineal lineages. Such lineages apply to all organisation relating to housing, land ownership, land use and production. Affinal kin relationships also come into play in marriage taboos, cooperative
work, the distribution of gifts, and responsibility for avenging blood debts .Another social unit is the village, but there is no single overall authority, in other words the Tao have no chief. Nevertheless, they do have several systems to ensure natural social harmony and control, such as respect for older people, wealth competition, and collective responsibilities and taboos. Their concepts regarding economics and property are quite well developed, with economic adjustment being achieved through the presentation of gifts, the fair distribution of food and property, and holding generous feasts. At the same time private and public property rights are protected by such means as taboos, signs of ownership, fair distribution and collective enjoyment of common land.
In sum, the Tao are a peaceful and contented people who have managed to create a lively society for themselves despite the harshness of their environment. Their achievement is a testament to man's greatness.
Tao Domestic Buildings i) The Main Dwelling
A Tao main dwelling lies below the level of the courtyard in front of it. Usually entrance to the dwelling is via two steps in the stone wall lining the house-pit, between which and the front of the dwelling itself there is a buffer space. Tao houses may have either two, three or four doorway spaces along their width. Four-doorway houses have a verandah at the front, leading through to a central chamber and then to a rear chamber, while the twoand three-doorway types only have a verandah and a rear chamber. The floor level rises stepwise as you proceed from the front to the back, so that the verandah, central chamber and rear chamber each lie on a different level. Between the verandah and the central chamber there are four sliding doors fitted over the four doorway spaces, each about 70 cm square. The central chamber is paved with thick wooden floorboards, and at the eastern end are situated the cooking stoves for everyday use, with a storage chest built into the western end. Four further doorway spaces lead through from the central chamber into the rear chamber, but these are not fitted with doors. The rear chamber is divided into two parts, a front half paved with thick wooden floorboards and a rear half with an earth floor. A tapering house post decorated with goathorn designs in relief stands in the centre of the rear chamber. The eastern half of the earth-floored area contains racks for storage, while the western half is where the cooking stoves are located which are used for cooking migratory fish. A drainage channel is let into the buffer area in front of the house, so that even in heavy rain the house-pit never floods.
ii) The Workshop
The workshop is built above ground, with an underground chamber. It is single, oblong room with wooden floorboards. In the villages in the northern part of Lanyu the workshops stand level with the ground, but in the southern part of the island they are raised about 60 cm above ground level. Down each side are four posts to support the roof structure, with a central post at each end to support the ridge pole. All these posts extend downards past the underground chamber into the ground. The side walls of the structure above ground are double, consisting of an inner wall of wooden planks laid horizontally and fastened on to the wall posts, with an outer wall consisting of stones or planks covered with grass thatch. The space of about 60 cm between the inner and outer walls is used for storage. Inside the workshop is ceilings of wooden planks, and around the walls and beneath the ceiling are fitted storage racks. Both the wall planks and the central posts are decorated with relief carvings. At the entrance the floorboards extend outwards to form a platform which may be removed for access to the underground chamber. Stone steps lead down into the underground chamber, whose sides are lined with stone walls close to the upright posts. Some workshops have a doorway at the rear of the underground chamber, which has an earth floor.
In addition to providing storage space for tools and materials, the main function of the workshop is as a place where work of various kinds may be carried out. It is also the place where guests are entertained and where groups of people gather to sing together as social entertainment or as part of an important ritual. The workshop may also serve as a temporary dwelling place, and millet may be pounded in the underground chamber.
iii) The Elevated Rest House
The elevated rest house is positioned where there is an unrestricted view over the sea and where it will catch the cooling breeze. It serves as a place where the Tao rest and chat together. Of oblong construction, its grass thatched roof may be supported by four, six or eight upright posts. It has a wooden planked floor and stands some 30 to 60 cm above ground level, with the taller types having a simple hewn ladder for access. Only those elevated rest houses with six or more posts require a ceremony at their completion.
iv) Childbirth Hut (House of Good Fortune)
This serves as a dwelling place for newly married couples before they have set themselves up in an independent household. It is normally built in the immediate vicinity of a main dwelling and is of simple construction with a rectangular roof, a single doorway, and simple fittings including a board bed and a cooking stove. If childbirth results in the birth of a son, a bamboo pole with a crab tied to it is erected outside the hut as a sign.
