9 Meaningful Ways to Experience Aboriginal Culture in Taiwan

November 25, 2024

Nick Kembel posing with four Taiwanese aboriginal youths

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Many visitors to Taiwan want to experience Taiwanese indigenous culture. However, most aboriginal villages in Taiwan are remote and not easy to reach. And even if you manage to find your way to one, you can’t exactly just show up and expect to have a meaningful encounter.

So, for this article, I’ve prepared a list of ideas for ways to meet Taiwanese aboriginal people and observe or participate in their culture in a more memorable way.

In my time in Taiwan, I’ve managed to meet, drink with, and even teach many local aboriginals. I’ve also been lucky enough to participate in a few of their festivals. I’ll be sharing those personal experiences as well in this article.

Table of Contents

Taiwanese Aboriginals Introduction

A large upright stone monolith and a few smaller ones beside it in a grassy field with circular fence around it — Ancient “moon rocks” in Taitung (Beinan Archaeological Site)

Human inhabitation in Taiwan goes back as far as 30,000 years, as evidenced by artifacts found in the Baxian Caves in Taitung. At that time, the Taiwan Strait was an exposed plain connecting Taiwan to the mainland.

The ancestors of today’s native peoples in Taiwan were likely a later migration.

From around 5000 to 1500 BC, these Austronesian people sailed out from Taiwan to populate dozens of other islands across the Pacific, including Indonesia and the Philippines, making it as far as Hawaii and Madagascar. They are the world’s most widely distributed language group.

A group of young Taiwanese aboriginal men posing for the camera — Group of aboriginal youths my family and I met while driving around Taitung

As the Chinese, Japanese, and several European groups arrived in Taiwan, they were often met with hostility by the aboriginals, sometimes losing the heads in the process. Over time, some aboriginals were assimilated into Han culture, while many tribes were pushed up into the mountains.

During the Japanese colonial period, aboriginals led an uprising against the Japanese, called the Wushe Incident, which has been portrayed in the two-part film Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, sometimes called the “Braveheart of Taiwan”.

Today, there are 16 recognized Austronesian tribes in Taiwan. They number 600,000 in total, which is about 2.6% of Taiwan’s population.

Fun Fact: The Taiwanese pop star A-Mei (阿妹), one of the most famous people from Taiwan, is of aboriginal (Puyuma) descent.

Not So Fun Fact: The indigenous chanting sample in the 1994 Enigma hit “Return to Innocence” is from a song by an elderly Taiwanese aboriginal (Amis) couple. The couple were never paid for it and even tried to sue the band, but never got anything.

Read more facts about Taiwan here.

A teenage Taiwanese aboriginal boy wearing black shirt, striped shawl, and red headband, with colorful blue eyes — Aboriginal youths I photographed during a volunteer project in Hsinchu

Portrait of a teenage Taiwanese aboriginal girl wearing red costume and head band, looking to the side

The 16 Recognized Tribes

Portrait of a Taiwanese Atayal aboriginal woman — Atayal woman in Hsinchu

Here is a map showing where the currently recognized 16 indigenous tribes of Taiwan mainly live today.

Some that you are most likely to encounter as a traveler in Taiwan include the Atayal tribe (in Wulai), the Truku or Taroko tribe (in Taroko Gorge), the Amis tribe (Hualien and Taitung), and the Thao tribe (Sun Moon Lake).

The most remote is the Tao tribe (Orchid Island), who are known for their white loin cloths, hand-carved canoes, underground houses, and their Flying Fish Festival in spring.

The Tao don’t like being photographed – I took the below photo at an aboriginal festival at Sun Moon Lake, and the dancers are indeed aboriginal but most likely not Tao.

A group of male Taiwanese aboriginal dancers holding hands and dancing in a line — Dancers in Tao loin cloths

A group of white and red hand-carved canoes on a rocky beach on Taiwan's Orchid Island — Tao canoes on Orchid Island

A traditional house that is almost totally underground — Traditional Tao underground house on Orchid Island

Other Taiwanese aboriginal tribes include the Bunun (Taitung), Saaroa and Kanakanavu (Kaohsiung), Kavalan and Sakizaya (Hualien), Paiwan (Taitung and Pingtung), Puyuma (Taitung), Rukai (Pingtung), Saisiyat (Hsinchu and Miaoli), Seediq (Nantou and Hualien), and Tsou (Nantou and Chiayi, including Alishan region).

Some tribes, such as the Ketagalan (Taipei region) are essentially extinct, while tribes such as the Siraya (Tainan region) are not official recognized but their language and culture are making a comeback.

A Taiwanese Truku aboriginal man seating at a wooden table doing some weaving — Truku man I met who was weaving souvenirs to sell in Taroko Gorge

My Experiences with Taiwanese Aboriginals

Nick Kembel with a Chinese man dressed in aboriginal clothing in Wulai — Me with a Han Chinese man dressed up as an aboriginal to sell things, Wulai Old Street

Some of my first interactions with Taiwanese aboriginals when I first came to Taiwan were at popular market streets like Wulai Old Street in New Taipei City and Ita Thao on Sun Moon Lake. These were my first times trying aboriginal millet wine (小米酒 or xiao mi jiu).

But I was surprised to find that some of the market vendors at these places were actually Han Taiwanese, sometimes even dressed up in aboriginal clothing!

A group of Taiwanese aboriginals dancing in a big circle with red attire and a bonfire in the foreground — All-night aboriginal dance of the Saisiyat tribe in Hsinchu

In my second year in Taiwan, I was lucky enough to participate in the biennial Pasta’ay Ritual of the Saisiyat tribe in Hsinchu and Miaoli, which I’ll be further describing in this article. I was introduced to this by a fellow foreigner in Taiwan who is married to an aboriginal.

At the festival, I had to do a purification ceremony before gong in, then I got to watch them sing and dance in a special spiral formation for the whole night. In my first book (Taiwan in the Eyes of a Foreigner, 2011), I wrote:

Around 10 PM the dancers invite the entire crowd up to join in. The circle has now morphed into a spiral, and somehow I find myself very close to the center of it. Men are positioned throughout to guide the dance, first moving everybody inward, making the spiral tighter and tighter, with people running in closer and closer. Once we cannot possibly get any closer together, everybody jumps and shouts “Ai! Ai! Ai! Ai!” and then runs back out again. The spiral moves outward as fast as everyone can run, and our arms stretch out as far as they can physically handle…Just about everyone in the crowd of several hundred are drunk.

A spiral of aboriginal dancers wearing red costumes on a dirt yard with some shacks behind and mountains beyond — Still dancing after the sun came up

In the same year, I was also invited to participate in a volunteer project run by a few expat artists in collaboration with Barry Martison (author of Song of Orchid Island), a priest living in Qingquan, an Atayal village high in the mountains of Hsinchu.

Myself and several other expats went up to Qingquan a few times to teach art and photography to the kids there. Later, we helped to sell the children’s artwork at an auction in Taipei and the funds went towards a new community center in the village.

Some of my photography was used in this Taipei Times article about the project.

Some aboriginal kids in Qingquan village, one holding up a camera to take a photo — We taught photography and art to aboriginal children

Some Taiwanese aboriginal kids posing for the camera — The children came to Taipei to exhibit their art

Aboriginal youth artwork on display at an auction in Taipei — Their artwork for sale to raise funds

Vertical image of Taiwanese youths kneeling on the ground and playing wooden instruments — They performed music at the event

A few years later, my friends and I attended a massive joint harvest festival among all the Amis tribes in Hualien.

There we saw numerous song and dance performances, elder tribespeople dressed in their finest regalia, and huge boars being roasted over fires.

Some Taiwanese aboriginals doing a dance performance on a stage in Hualien with a harbor and palm trees in the background — Amis Harvest Festival in Hualien

A taiwanese aboriginal young man wearing performance costume and tall white hat of feathers, holding hands with other performers to his left and ride, and blurred crowds of observers behind — Aboriginal performer at Amis Harvest Festival in Hualien

Portrait of an elderly Taiwanese aboriginal man in traditional costume with a large round hatg with feathers — Aboriginal elder at Amis Harvest Festival

A whole wild boar cut in half and roasting sideways on a metal rack — Roasting wild boar at Amis Harvest Festival

Besides these notable festivals, some of my best interactions with Taiwanese aboriginals have been beside random swimming holes in rivers around the country, where my friends and I enjoy trying (and usually failing) to match the aboriginals’ cliff jumping skills, and at music festivals in Taitung (I’ll introduce some of those festivals below).

As an example of a typical interaction, at one old music festival in Taiwan called Peace Festival, my friends and I were having some beers at a picnic table.

An elderly aboriginal woman from a group of aboriginals drinking at a nearby table plopped down beside us. She was chewing so much betel nut that specs of it shot out when she spoke. She told my American friend (in broken Mandarin) that he’s very handsome and insisted that he should meet her sister, who she said was single and “very sexy!”

My friend mentioned that he had a girlfriend, who was in fact sitting right next to him. The lady exclaimed, “Don’t worry, that doesn’t matter, because you aren’t married!” and she burst into laughter.

Ways to Experience Taiwanese Indigenous Culture

For visiting travelers on a short time frame, here are some easy ways that you can plan to meet aboriginals in Taiwan and experience their culture.

Taste Aboriginal Food

An elderly aboriginal couple behind a food stall, posing for the camera, with bamboo tubes of sticky rice on the table, and large menu of items listed in Mandarin — Aboriginal food stall in Hsinchu

It is said that food is a gateway to people’s culture, so experience Taiwanese indigenous culture by tasting their food!

Some dishes commonly associated with Taiwanese aboriginal culture include grilled boar meat (烤山豬肉), bamboo tubes stuffed with sticky rice (竹筒飯), salted fish (鹽魚), flying fish (飛魚), and various mountain greens.

A full meal on a table in a restaurant, with rice dish, whole fish with macaw, whole roasted chicken, and bottles of millet wine — Meal in an aboriginal restaurant: roasted chicken, mountain greens, fish with maqaw peppercorns, and millet wine

You’ll also find the use of unique spices such as maqaw (馬告 or magao in Mandarin), which tastes like a citrusy peppercorn. Note the black maqaw peppercorns on the fish in the above photo.

Here are some of the best (and most easily accessible for travelers) places in Taiwan to sample aboriginal foods:

Wulai Old Street (Atayal tribe): The closest aboriginal village to Taipei, easily done as a half-day trip. See my Wulai guide.
Ita Thao village, Sun Moon Lake (Thao tribe): Daytime food street on one of the two main villages on the lake. See my Sun Moon Lake guide.
Dongdamen Night Market, Hualien (Amis Tribe): Taiwan’s only night market with a significant number of aboriginal food stalls. See my Dongdamen night market guide.
Yupasu Restaurant, Chiayi (Tsou Tribe): Excellent food with beautiful view, near Eryanping Trail but best to drive. See my Chiayi guide.

Some bundles of rice wrapped in large leaves and steamed, with one of them opened — Rice and millet steamed in leaves at Bunun Leisure Farm

Aboriginal foods served at Malasang Hunting School (Klook / KKday) in Hualien and Bunun Leisure Farm (Klook) in Taitung
Aboriginal restaurants in Taipei (Hasila), Hualien (Mu Ming or Liu Liu Sha), Taitung (Puyuma/Beinan tribe) (Dalu’an near the ferry to Green Island, 阿里岸 in the city, or 俩吆久 and 原始部落 in the mountains), or Kaohsiung (Urban).
New trend of upscale indigenous fusion cuisine such as Akame in Pingtung – the chef is from the Rukai tribe and trained by Taiwan’s most famous chef, Andre Chiang. Booking is essential – seats are released at 12 am on the first day of month for the month after next, and you need to drive. See my Pingtung guide.

Two heads of roasted boars — Roasted boar, Wulai Old Street

And Drink their Wine!

A Taiwanese woman in a cocktail standing in a night market, wearing mask but you can tell she's smiling, holding up a bottle of millet wine, and the photographer's hand in the shot holding a shot glass of the wine — Me having a shot of aboriginal millet wine in Dongdamen Night Market

Besides Taiwanese aboriginal food, you shouldn’t miss tasting Taiwanese aboriginal wine.

Don’t be scared – this is nothing like the crazy strong (58%) sorghum wine (kaohliang) firewater which is favored by many Taiwanese.

A vendor with many bottles of aboriginal millet wine and woman standing behind the stall — Aboriginal millet wine stall in Ita Thao

Taiwanese aboriginal wine, called xiaomijiu (小米酒) in Mandarin, is made from millet and has a similar strength to regular (grape) wine, although you can find distilled ones with a higher percentage. It is usually cloudy and naturally sweet.

Millet wine tastes great on its own, while local aboriginals have told me several times that they enjoy mixing it with beer – I can confirm, the combination works! At Ita Thao in Sun Moon Lake, I’ve even seen a slushie version of it.

A hand holding a cup of slushy millet wine with dome lid and straw and aboriginal designs on it — Slushie millet wine at Sun Moon Lake

An aboriginal man standing in front of cart of wine bottles — Aboriginal millet wine vendor in Wulai

Pretty much all the places I mentioned above for trying aboriginal food also sell these wines. Often there are stalls where you can sample several kinds before buying a bottle. I’ve also seen other wines and distilled liquor at these stalls, such as distilled taro liquor.

At Dongdamen Night Market in Hualien, there are several cocktail stands where they make cocktails with millet wine and aboriginal ingredients like maqaw. I recommend the stall called Aboriginal Drunk (原醉, here), but there are several others.

Do an Aboriginal Cooking Class

Close up of an aboriginal Taiwanese dish, which is chunks of fried pork and onion served in a bamboo tube — Aboriginal salted pork in bamboo tube

Before we move on from the topic of food & drink, there’s one more experience you can consider: doing an aboriginal cooking class.

The easiest one for travelers is the Karenko (Amis tribe) cooking class in Taipei (Klook / Cookly). The school’s original cooking class is here in Hualien (Klook / KKday / Cookly).

The Shenshan (Rukai) tribe in Wutai township, Pingtung, also offers the Wutai cooking class (Klook, read more about it here), but you need to drive to Wutai on your own (1.5 hours from Kaoshiung).

The Taitung-government page HelloTaitung also lists several food-related tours and experiences in Taitung.

Take a Tour to an Aboriginal Village

A female Taiwanese aboriginal farmer walking between crops on a farm — Aboriginal-run organic farm I visited at Bunun Leisure Farm

Since most aboriginal villages are not easy to get to, especially by public transportation, it makes sense to visit one with a local guide.

That way you can also learn more about their culture while visiting, instead of just showing up on your own with no way to communicate with them.

From Hsinchu, you can do this day tour to Smangus village of the Atayal tribe (Klook / KKday), often considered Taiwan’s most remote aboriginal village and the last one to get power. It is also Taiwan’s only cooperative community.

HelloTaitung also offers several options for visiting aboriginal communities in Taitung. On your own, you could show up at Bunun Leisure Farm (Bunun tribe) and do this activity package – they are accustomed to foreign visitors. It’s a short taxi ride from Luye train station.

Last but not least, you can arrange custom tours to aboriginal communities through local operators such as Life of Taiwan. Read more about them in my guide to the best tour packages in Taiwan.

Spend a night in an Aboriginal Village

Blue-green river in Wulai with some buildings alongside it — Wulai is the easiest aboriginal village to spend a night in

Instead of just popping in for a couple hours, why not spend the night?

The easiest option is to spend the night in Wulai, the closest aboriginal village to Taipei. Most hotels there even have hot spring facilities, but note that few of them are actually owned by aboriginals. Wulai has a free Atayal museum and aboriginal foods on Wulai Old Street. See my Wulai guide.

If you’d like to incorporate hiking, then Taiwan Outdoors has some two-day treks which include spending the night in aboriginal villages. Here’s one for Smangus in Hsinchu and another Tjuvecekadan in Pingtung.

With a car, you could visit Smangus on your own. It’s a long, winding drive, with some walking required when you get there. Besides meeting members of the cooperative community, you can hike to some waterfalls through forests with giant trees.

A man and woman jumping off a small cliff into clear green-blue water — Cliff jumping in Sanzhan River

In Hualien, I’ve stayed at Songyue Guesthouse (Booking / Agoda) in the Amis aboriginal village of Sanzhan, which is not far from Xincheng station (one station before Hualien) and the entrance to Taroko Gorge.

Don’t expect much in terms of aboriginal experiences in the community, but there are some lovely swimming spots in the river, and in hot weather, the village is a starting point for river tracing tours like this.

In Taitung, you can spend the night at Bunun Leisure Farm near Luye. See their rooms here and use the QR code to contact them on LINE. I spent the night there once – just note that the rooms aren’t in an actual aboriginal village. This is a Bunun-run tourist farm with a few cabins and activities on site for visitors.

Visit a Museum Focused on Aborigines

Looking up at the front of an aboriginal museum in Beitou, Taipei — Ketagalan Culture Center, Beitou

There are numerous aboriginal museums across Taiwan. Here are some of the best ones, going clockwise around Taiwan.

Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, Taipei: Small aboriginal-focused museum next to National Palace Museum, with combo ticket available
Ketagalan Museum: Free museum in Beitou (closed Mondays) focused on the Ketagalan tribe, the original occupants of Taipei region
Wulai Atayal Museum: Free museum in Wulai focused on the Atayal tribe, including images of their signature facial tattoos

A museum display showing images of Taiwanese Atayal aborigines with facial tattoos — Atayal Museum in Wulai

Hualien Indigenous Wild Vegetables Center: Center and garden with aboriginal plants, with guided English tours (300 per person) available on the spot.
Bunun Leisure Farm, Taitung: Farm with activities, cultural displays such as weaving, and occasional performances
Amis Folk Center, Taitung: Outdoor museum with mock villages and performances.
Beinan Archaeological Site, Taitung: Open archaeological site with ancient “moon rock” monoliths, walking distance from Taitung train station

Some Taiwanese aboriginals standing in a circle doing a dance performance — Dance performance at Bunun Leisure Farm

Some female aboriginal dancers performing at Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village — Dance performance at Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village

Some male Taiwanese aborigines with basket-like hats and ceremonial outfits — Performers at Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village

Formosan Aboriginal Culture Museum, Sun Moon Lake (Klook / KKDay): Theme park and aboriginal culture museum with dance performances and cherry blossoms
Taiwan Indigenous Culture Park, Pingtung: Large aboriginal culture park, but need to drive there.
National Museum of Taiwan History, Tainan: Excellent museum covering Taiwan’s history, including an exhibition dedicated to the indigenous people.
Yuyupas Cultural Park, Chiayi: Tsou tribe park near Shizhuo (en route to Alishan) with tea plantations, but best to drive and to time your visit with one of the daily performances.

The Kalapaw Performance Center of the Thao tribe at Ita Thao village, Sun Moon Lake used to have performances including their signature pestle and mortar dance. This tribe is on the verge of extinction and unfortunately the center no longer seems to be open.

Three Taiwanese aboriginal woman doing a traditional dance with large mortar and pestle on a performance stage with aboriginal designs behind — Rare pestle and morar dance of the Thao tribe

Participate in an Aboriginal Festival

While this won’t be super easy to accomplish, observing or participating in a Taiwanese aboriginal festival is perhaps the most rewarding experience on this whole list.

As I described above, I have had the pleasure of participating in a few aboriginal festivals in Taiwan. The most memorable was the Pasta’ay Ritual of the Saisiyat tribe in Hsinchu and Miaoli.

The backs of three Taiwanese aboriginals as they do a dance, with red costumes covered in decorations and chimes — Dancers at Pasta’ay Ritual

The bi-annual November event (2024, 2026, and so on) includes ritual purifications, a circular peace dance that goes on all night, and consuming lots of millet wine.

They do it to commemorate an ancient tribe of short, dark-skinned people that they killed off in a conflict. The 2024 event already happened, but if you are serious about joining the next one, here’s a group for it.

A long line of costumed aboriginals at an Amis Harvest Festival — Dancers at Amis harvest festival

In Hualien, the Amis Harvest Festival takes place in summer, but each tribe has their own events, on different dates every year, and they are quite difficult to find out about or attend. You could try contacting IslandLife Taiwan, who are based in the region, and see if they can help.

Other Taiwanese aboriginal ceremonies include the Ear Shooting Festival of the Bunun tribe and the Flying Fish Festival of the Tao tribe on Orchid Island, but it is difficult to participate in these without a local guide.

In Taitung, there are often regular music festivals, usually on one of the coastal parks, which have a strong aboriginal flavor to them, including aboriginal art and musical performances.

Some examples are:

Taiwan East Coast Land Arts Festival in summer
Taitung Sound Art Festival in October
Amis Music Festival in October
Taiwan Pasiwali Festival in November, the largest and best-known one

If you’re staying in Taitung city, aboriginal musicians sometimes perform at Railway Art Village. You could also be lucky to catch something at the Sugar Factory in Dulan, which is a small surfing and arts community.

Do a DIY Aboriginal Activity

In Taitung city, Paiwan tribe members will teach you how to make aboriginal glass beads and a bracelet in this DIY activity (Klook).

The activity is easy and kid-friendly.

Learn how to Hunt with Aborigines

One final way that you can experience Taiwanese aboriginal culture is by trying the Malasang Aboriginal Hunting Experience in Hualien (Klook / KKday).

The experience includes learning survival skills like starting a fire, archery, and slingshot. You also get to try some aboriginal foods.

At the Bunun Leisure Farm in Taitung (Klook), you can also learn archery, watch dance performances, and taste aboriginal foods.

Both of these are kid-friendly.