Phallus worshippers?
During his explanation before we set out, our party's leader Liu Huan-yue, chairman of the Taiwan Folk Cultural Society, had solemnly taken four or five stones out of canvas bags. The round stones were carved with female genitalia, while the long ones were shaped like phalluses. They were excavated in the 1970s from fields at Niushihshui near Tsailiao Village, Tsuochen Rural Township, by Chen Chun-mu, who was one of the first people outside academia to engage in Pingpu research. At the time when the stones were discovered, people inferred that the Pingpu tribes may have venerated sexual organs, but because no such artifacts were found later at other locations, this idea is still in doubt.
In the past the Siraya, one of the nine Pingpu tribes, were the undisputed masters of southern Taiwan. They comprised the four large communities of Hsinkang, Hsiaolung, Matou and Tamuchiang, and two subtribes, the Makato and the Taivoran. According to the "Register of Households in Taiwanese Tribal Settlements" drawn up by the Dutch East India Company, in 1655 there were some 15,000 Siraya, accounting for a full one-third of the total Pingpu population.
However, from the 17th century onwards, wave after wave of immigrants flooded onto this peaceful, happy land through the harbor at Tainan, encroaching on the Sirayas' living space. Those Siraya who did not retreat further and further south or into the mountains accepted the rule of the incoming political authority and were subsequently assimilated.
Careering furiously along in Liu Huan-yue's 3.2-liter jeep, we set out to retrace the path of the Sirayas' migration and cultivation, and seek out the shrines around which their political and religious life once centered. Our planned final destination for today is Tsuchu Temple in Neimen Rural Township, Kaohsiung County.
Amid the dust which billows up behind us, for no particular reason we sense an incongruity of time and space: when a tribe of 1000 people was on the move, did the yellow dust also rise up around them in the same way?
Not far from the junction of Provincial Highway 20 and County Road 178, we arrive at the Taizu Laojun Temple at Hsitsaikou.
With its ferroconcrete walls faced with yellow tiles and its aluminium-framed screen doors, if it hadn't been for the glittering incense-burner outside the doors perhaps we would have mistaken it for an ordinary house. The marble altar is shared by the Taoist spirits Tiangonglu and Fude Zhengsheng, and by the Siraya guardian spirits Taizu and Laojun, who are represented by sacred urns (fat-bellied, small-mouthed pots). On the offering table is a pair of wooden divining blocks and a vessel of Taizu Laojun spirit water. Evidently the Siraya spirits and Han deities are in "cohabitation."
Someone asks: "Isn't the ancestral spirit the Siraya worship called 'Alizu'? Why are the ones here called 'Taizu Laojun'? It sounds like the Taoist 'Li Laojun' [Laozi]."
In fact, "Alizu" is simply a generic name. Different tribal groups have different terms of address for their Alizu, and the legends which generally surround them have also developed differently and uniquely in different localities. An old man told us that before Laojun and Taizu became spirits, their relationship was that of father-in-law and daughter-in-law. The father-in-law passed away, and not long afterwards the daughter-in-law died of a broken heart. The villagers thought that the two had been having an incestuous relationship and so buried them both in the same coffin. But later natural disasters made everyone realize that they had mistakenly sullied their reputation.
Taizu and Laojun should normally be worshipped on a low pedestal on the ground, but in an era when the lottery game dajiale is rampant, they have been chosen as youyinggong (a Han Chinese name for lonely and wandering spirits which respond to prayers), and invited up onto the altar. Punters offer cigarettes and use a tray of sand to pick lucky numbers. How many realize that this youyinggong which local people say has such extraordinary powers is in fact a "barbarian Buddha"!
The visitors' flashguns flash continuously at a sheet of paper on the wall. Driven by curiosity, we too go across to look. On it is written:
"Dear Believers: (1) When praying to Taizu and Laojun, a sincere heart is all you need; please dedicate your incense to Tiangonglu and Fude Zheng-shen. (2) Please present cigarettes, wine and areca nuts to Taizu and Laojun; please burn your gold spirit money for Fude Zhengshen to keep your whole family safe. Taizu Management Committee.
Fortunately this temple management committee has taken the trouble to stick up for Taizu by telling everyone the correct way to venerate her. But doesn't this highlight even more the weak position of Taizu and Laojun in the face of Han cultural beliefs?
Chen Chun-mu, who is known as the "fossil granddad," lives in nearby Pingyang Village, in the mountains further up County Road 178. He appears very pleased at our visit and on the one hand invites everyone to eat newly-ripened longans, and on the other brings out his collection of newspaper cuttings. The camp participants' questions come out one after another.
"When did you start researching the Pingpu? When you were a child were you in the same class with Pingpu children? Did you see them worshipping bottles? Can you tell us any stories? . . ."
"Ever since I was little I heard the old folk say there were Pingpu 'barbarians,' and I went to school with them. They were great singers, but they weren't very good at maths. . . . Nowadays they don't even know they're Pingpu." He brings out a faded and yellowed black-and-white photograph. "For instance, this one with her hair up is an aborigine woman. She died a few years ago. Her son has moved to Yungkang now. He doesn't know anything . . . . Our old folk also said that under the Japanese, they stood Alizu down on the ground to worship, and they changed the water on the 1st and 15th of each lunar month, and on Alizu's birthday they'd send three groups of people to fetch seawater."
But Uncle Chun-mu doesn't have the old lady's son's new address--another Siraya has vanished into Han Chinese society.
(top) In Chipeishua, apart from the commonly owned "Great Shrine," there are also five smaller private shrines. Pictured here is the Central Shrine in the center of the village.