Many visitors to Taiwan want to experience Taiwanese indigenous culture. However, most Indigenous 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 Indigenous 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 Indigenous people. 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.
Meet Taiwan’s Indigenous People
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.
Note about language: The term “Aboriginal”, which was used for a long time to refer to Taiwan’s Indigenous people, is no longer considered appropriate. The people themselves have asked to be called Indigenous and have changed their institution names to reflect that. The word should be capitalized.
As the Chinese, Japanese, and several European groups arrived in Taiwan, they were often met with hostility by the Indigenous people, sometimes losing the heads in the process. Over time, some of these Natives were assimilated into Han culture, while many groups were pushed up into the mountains.
During the Japanese colonial period, Indigenous people 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 peoples 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 Indigenous (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 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.
The 16 Recognized Peoples
Here is a map showing where the currently recognized 16 indigenous groups of Taiwan mainly live today.
Some that you are most likely to encounter as a traveler in Taiwan include the Atayal (in Wulai), the Truku or Taroko (in Taroko Gorge), the Pangcah/Amis (Hualien and Taitung), and the Thao (Sun Moon Lake).
The most remote is the Tao (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 Indigenous festival at Sun Moon Lake, and the dancers are indeed Indigenous but most likely not Tao.
Other Taiwanese Indigenous peoples 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 groups, such as the Ketagalan (Taipei region) are essentially extinct, while people such as the Siraya (Tainan region) are not official recognized but their language and culture are making a comeback.
My Experiences with Taiwanese Indigenous People
Some of my first interactions with Taiwan’s Indigenous people 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 Indigenous 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 Indigenous clothing!
In my second year in Taiwan, I was lucky enough to participate in the biennial Pasta’ay Ritual of the Saisiyat people 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 Indigenous woman.
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.
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.
A few years later, my friends and I attended a massive joint harvest festival among all the Amis communities in Hualien.
There we saw numerous song and dance performances, elderly leaders dressed in their finest regalia, and huge boars being roasted over fires.
Besides these notable festivals, some of my best interactions with Taiwanese Indigenous people have been beside random swimming holes in rivers around the country, where my friends and I enjoy trying (and usually failing) to match their 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 Indigenous woman from a group 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 Indigenous people in Taiwan and experience their culture.
Taste Indigenous Food
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 Indigenous 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.
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 Indigenous foods:
- Wulai Old Street (Atayal): The closest Indigenous village to Taipei, easily done as a half-day trip. See my Wulai guide.
- Ita Thao village, Sun Moon Lake (Thao): Daytime food street on one of the two main villages on the lake. See my Sun Moon Lake guide.
- Dongdamen Night Market, Hualien (Pangcah/Amis): Taiwan’s only night market with a significant number of Indigenous food stalls. See my Dongdamen night market guide.
- Yupasu Restaurant, Chiayi (Tsou): Excellent food with beautiful view, near Eryanping Trail but best to drive. See my Chiayi guide.
- Indigenous foods served at Malasang Hunting School (Klook / KKday) in Hualien and Bunun Leisure Farm (Klook) in Taitung
- Indigenous restaurants in Taipei (Hasila), Hualien (Mu Ming or Liu Liu Sha), Taitung (Puyuma/Beinan) (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 Rukai 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.
- Try flying fish, a specialty of Orchid Island, but you can also find it on Green Island and on the mainland of Taitung county. You may find whole deep fried ones or it can be used in other dishes, including flying fish roe sausages.
And Drink their Wine!
Besides Taiwanese Indigenous food, you shouldn’t miss tasting Taiwanese Indigenous wine.
Don’t be scared – this is nothing like the crazy strong (58%) sorghum wine (kaohliang) firewater which is favored by many Taiwanese.
Taiwanese Indigenous 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 Indigenous people 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.
Pretty much all the places I mentioned above for trying Indiginous 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 Indigienous ingredients like maqaw. I recommend the stall called Indigenous Drunk (原醉, here), but there are several others.
Do an Indiginous Cooking Class
Before we move on from the topic of food & drink, there’s one more experience you can consider: doing an Indiginous cooking class.
The easiest one for travelers is the Karenko (Amis) cooking class in Taipei (Klook / Cookly). The school’s original cooking class is here in Hualien (Klook / KKday / Cookly).
The Shenshan (Rukai) people in Wutai township, Pingtung, also offer 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 Indigenous Village
Since most Indigenous 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 (Klook / KKday), often considered Taiwan’s most remote village and the last one to get power. It is also Taiwan’s only cooperative community.
HelloTaitung also offers several options for visiting Indigenous communities in Taitung. On your own, you could show up at Bunun Leisure Farm (Bunun) 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 Indigenous 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 Indigenous Village
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 Indigenous village to Taipei. Most hotels there even have hot spring facilities, but note that few of them are actually owned by Indigenous people. Wulai has a free Atayal museum and 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 remote Indigenous 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.
In Hualien, I’ve stayed at Songyue Guesthouse (Booking / Agoda) in the Amis 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 tourist 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 village. This is a Bunun-run tourist farm with a few cabins and activities on site for visitors.
Visit a Museum Focused on Indigenous People
There are numerous Indigenous museums across Taiwan. Here are some of the best ones, going clockwise around Taiwan.
- Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, Taipei: Small museum next to National Palace Museum, with combo ticket available (also read about the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum in Chiayi, but it doesn’t have Indigenous exhibits)
- Ketagalan Museum: Free museum in Beitou (closed Mondays) focused on the Ketagalan, the original occupants of Taipei region
- Wulai Atayal Museum: Free museum in Wulai focused on the Atayal, including images of their signature facial tattoos
- Hualien Indigenous Wild Vegetables Center: Center and garden with native 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
- Formosan Aboriginal Culture Museum, Sun Moon Lake (Klook / KKDay): Theme park and cultural museum with dance performances and cherry blossoms.
- Kalapaw Performance Center, Ita Thao, Sun Moon Lake: Community center for the Thao, an almost-extinct Taiwanese Indigenous group, with daily performances and activities. Find the performance schedule and learn more here.
- Taiwan Indigenous Culture Park, Pingtung: Large Indigenous 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 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. Buy tickets here.
Participate in an Indigenous Festival
While this won’t be super easy to accomplish, observing or participating in a Taiwanese Indigenous 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 Indigenous festivals in Taiwan. The most memorable was the Pasta’ay Ritual of the Saisiyat in Hsinchu and Miaoli.
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.
In Hualien, the Amis Harvest Festival takes place in summer, but each community 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 Indigenous ceremonies include the Ear Shooting Festival of the Bunun people and the Flying Fish Festival of the Tao people 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 Indigenous flavor to them, including 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, Indigenous 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 Indigenous Activity
In Taitung city, Paiwan people members will teach you how to make Indigenous glass beads and a bracelet in this DIY activity (Klook).
The activity is easy and kid-friendly.
Learn Indigenous Hunting Skills
One final way that you can experience Taiwanese Indigenous culture is by trying the Malasang Indgenous People School Experience in Hualien (Klook / KKday).
The experience includes learning survival skills like starting a fire, archery, slingshot, and other hunting skills. You also get to try some Indigenous foods.
At the Bunun Leisure Farm in Taitung (Klook), you can also learn archery, watch dance performances, and taste Indigenous foods.
Both of these are kid-friendly.
Thanks a lot, this was very useful – will try to do the daytrip to Wulai when I go next month.
The info and links are very useful, especially for my trip to Taitung in March. I didn’t realize that there were so many ways, in so many places, to exp Aboriginal culture. Xiexie.
What a comprehensive and detailed writeup. With so many choices, it’s hard to focus, and one may over-invest or under-invest their time.
I wonder if u could do something along the lines of Rick Steves where he adds like 1 to 4 diamond ratings. The 4 digamond are the must-see and it decreases from there. He even puts together a suggested itinierary by day. So in summary, what would be the top 4-diamond places / activities in this list ?
Good point, there are a lot of choices here. I find it a little tough to oversimplify everything to a 4-point rating. For example, the absolute top experience would probably be to participate one of the festivals, like Pasta’ay. But, it only happens once per 2 years, hard to find info about, and difficult to get there. For visitors with kids, then doing something like the cooking class, hunting skills experience in Hualien, or activities at the Bunun Leisure Farm in Taitung would be my top recommendations. For trying Indigenous food, then Wulai, Ita Thao (Sun Moon Lake), and Hualien (Dadongmen Night Market) are the most convenient for visitors.