Doors to Diplomacy Participants

Wulai Elementary and Junior High School (2005 CyberFair Project ID 3858)
Taiwan, Taipei County
Official Status: Incomplete: under Development
Teacher:
Category: 8. Local Music and Art Forms

We estimate 7 student(s) from 11 to 12 will work on this entry.

Description of Our Community: Wulai is in the most southern and the highest area of Taipei basin between the Snow Mountains and Chia-Li Mountains. The Tayal rely mainly on rivers to make the boundary of the field. The Tayal in Wulai describe one’s inhabitation as below: ‘Kinhulan maku ga Tranan Wulai.’ (My country is in Wulai, the drainage area of Tranan River.) Wulai belongs to the drainage area of Nan-Shr River, which originates from the Son-Luo Lake in Chi-Lan Mountain, passes on Hapen, Fushan, Xinxian, Wulai, and Zon-Zi, and is confluent with Pei-Shr River into Xindain River in Guashan in Xindain City. Ha-Pen Brook, Chakon Brook, Cha Chiou Loiu Brook, and Ton-Ho Brook are the branches of Nan-Shr River.

Among the Taiwanese aboriginals, the Tayal is praised for its best weave skills. The craftworks are divided into warp, twill, interlace, float, and mixed. The Tayal women sit on the floor, and use a wooden box as the loom to weave. It’s called the horizontal weave.

There are three kinds of clothes of the Tayal: “Lukus Cinpahing” means the clothes with warp knit. The color and the pattern are simple, as the work wear. “Lukus Cinpuluq” are the clothes with more lines and decorations than the work wear, and as for daily life. “Lukus ciraq”, also called “Lukus plmwan”, weaved with warp knit and additional lines, is delicate and complicated. The woman who can make Lukus ciraq/plmwan is named “Knenil balay” (the real woman), otherwise ridiculed as “putut” (the axe), which means the dum-dum.

Project Description: Since the modern textile industry came into Wulai in the age governed by Japan, and numbers of tourists visited Wulai, the Tayal young women no long learned the weave skills. Several years ago, there were a few people who had the weave skills. Fortunately, some women made every endeavor to set up their own workshops. These workshops not only provide the economic support to the individuals and families, but also become the tourism resource in Wulai, and provide a new opportunity to pass on the Tayal weave skills. It’s a “four-win” situation for the individual, family, community, and the race.

The mail purpose of our project is to recommend these particular weave workshops for people discovering this new developing tourism resource, and for children in Wulai realizing the “Knenil balay” (so-called “ the real woman”) in their own communities!

No Project Narrative Yet Submitted