Ancient empires

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom located in central Taiwan with almost 27 different tribes ruled the island. The Papora was the main ethnic group among others, also there were Babuza, Pazeh, and Taokas people. The King, Kamachat Aslamie, commonly known as Lelien by native people and Tuā-tōo Ông by Ho-lo Taiwanese, which meant the king of the sun. Started from 1540, the kingdom was under his jurisdiction ranged from current Hsinchu to Chiayi. At first time, the king was strong and did not allow Christians to stay at the region nor learned the local languages. Foreigners could merely passed by the area and Chinese businessmen were included.

The kingdom of Middag. Photo credit: Yahoo Taiwan.

After the king died, he passed his power to his nephew to govern the whole area with minister to negotiate with other regions where the Netherlanders occupied. When Netherlanders invaded across the area, the king and his people fought against them with hundreds of people death. After few years later, the new headman was crowned and transferred his jurisdiction to the Dutch , the king lost his sovereignty since then. In 1661 , when the Chinese army Zheng tried to land the island, they were killed and defeated by the King. However, the Zheng asked for help from China and attacked second time, after that they seized the island with ethnic cleaning. In 1732, the kingdom was ended. Now we can hardly find the descendants of Papora, instead the monument of Zheng was built in Tainan where the army landed.

The King of Middag. Photo credit: http://www.taiwancon.com

The kingdom of Tjuauvuuvulj( Tocobocobul ) was another region located in southern and eastern Taiwan from 17 century. It was the kingdom built by Takabolder people with the form of country including tax system, lands, sovereignty and government. The interesting part of this kingdom is that it was formally ended up in 1930 but existed from the Dutch occupation, Zheng era, Ching dynasty and Japanese period. A Lang Yi Mountain Road is the current relics for people to travel around and trace the ancient footprint that our people have once been through. Few years ago, there was a cultural accommodation for the kingdom of Tocobocobul where tourists can stay for few days and appreciate ancient pottery.

Kingdom of Tocobocobul. Photo credit: insight.ipcf.org.tw
The kingdom of Middag ( Purple color) & Tocobocobul( Orange and Pink color). Photo credit: insight.ipcf.org.tw

Like the history in Taiwan, many local people fought, died and lost their autonomy to different foreign powers. Or even fled away from persecution in the past half century, and rooted in other countries in this world. Some people sacrificed themselves but are neglected by locals due to scarce records and the history view of current authority. Right now, some people are still seeking for independence from current system so we can finally be ourselves with our own country. Some people choose to go with the flow and are brainwashed by the Chinese education. In general, Taiwanese are humble and get used to different cultures since long ago. It is proved that our native people are connected with other people such as Southeastern Asians and Hawaiki in New Zealand. Though our history was a book of sadness and colonization, our ancestors fought for anything in order to survive in this island, passing down their wills and spirits to us. So now we can live and educate here easily, which is a gift to us. Hope one day Taiwan can connect with the world by the culture of Oceania.

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