A group of six Tao people from Lanyu (Orchid Island) who are rowing one of their traditional fishing boats around Taiwan arrived in Chiayi County on Thursday as they come closer to completing a voyage inspired by a late documentary filmmaker.
The Tao rowed their white, red and black canoe-like wooden boat, called a tatala in the Tao language, into a lake surrounding the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum and were welcomed by Chiayi County chief Weng Chang-liang (???) and museum director Peng Tzu-cheng (???).
There, the Tao warriors displayed their hand-crafted three-seat vessel and shared with museum visitors the unique Tao culture shaped by the Pacific Ocean.
The Tao rower who initiated the voyage, Chang Shih-kai (???) said the trip was inspired by late Taiwanese filmmaker Chi Po-lin (???), who was best known for his 2013 film "Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above" that won Best Documentary at the 2013 Golden Horse Awards.
Chi died in a helicopter crash in October 2017 at the age of 52 while shooting footage for the sequel to his award-winning documentary.
Chang said he made a deal with Chi to row the tatala around Taiwan while the filmmaker shot images of the vessel from the air to show the world the beauty of Taiwan from the land, the sea and the air.
Despite Chi's death, Chang wanted to keep his end of the deal, he said. "This is a mission that I as a member of the boat's crew and my fellow rowers have wanted to accomplish," he wrote in a Facebook post.
They also wanted to become acquainted with Taiwan's 15 other Indigenous tribes in Taiwan through the voyage, he said, "and my desire has been to search for Lanyu people who are scattered around Taiwan proper and their offspring."
"If possible, let them row the boat with me," Chang said.
The tatala Chang's team is using for the 20-day voyage was made in Chiayi with wooden planks from Lanyu, according to Chang, whose wife is from the southern Taiwan county.
Traditionally, the Tao people make their boats using multiple wooden planks shaped with an ax. They join the wooden planks together with dowels and rattan.
Once the structure is completed, they carve patterns and paint them using the traditional colors of red, white, and black.
Because such boats are not made from a single tree trunk or log, they cannot be considered canoes.
Chang's team set off from a beach in Changbin Township in Taitung County on Aug. 12 and rowed their wooden vessel in a northern direction, helped along by the Kuroshio Current, a north-flowing, warm ocean current in the western Pacific.
They then rounded northern Taiwan before rowing southward in the Taiwan Strait. They are scheduled to complete their journey when they reach Pingtung in southern Taiwan on Aug. 31.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel