About

In Guangfu, Hualien, lives Tafalong — an Amis (Pangcah) settlement more than 1,500 years old, one of the oldest and largest Amis communities in Taiwan. At its heart stands the ancestral shrine (kakita'an), the core of Tafalong's spiritual life and cultural transmission. Within it are kept ceremonial vessels and the symbols of the ancestral spirits, handed down through the generations, while the shrine's pillars are carved with exquisite wooden motifs recounting the Amis creation myths and the stories of the ancestors — a precious treasure of Taiwan's indigenous art. The grandest event of the year is the Harvest Festival (Ilisin) held in July and August, when the whole community gathers to sing and dance, offering their respect to the kawas (ancestral spirits) and giving thanks for the protection of the people and the gifts of the natural world. The festival's songs and dances, its shared feasting, and its rigorous age-grade system reveal the full depth of Amis social structure and culture.

History

Tafalong's history reaches back more than 1,500 years — after the ancestors of the Amis migrated into the East Rift Valley, this was among the earliest large settlements they founded. In the Amis language 'Tafalong' means 'white crab,' a name said to come from the white crabs once abundant in the local streams. The ancestral shrine (kakita'an) is the spiritual core of the community, and in both its form and its rituals it preserves the most ancient of Amis traditions. During the Japanese colonial era, Japanese scholars carried out detailed ethnological surveys here, leaving behind valuable records. In recent years the people of Tafalong have thrown themselves into cultural revitalization — restoring the shrine, singing the old songs anew, reviving traditional crafts, and developing the 'Tafalong Cultural Park' — turning this ancient settlement into a model of indigenous cultural preservation in Taiwan.

Tafalong Ancestral Shrine

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