麻豆 Madou, Tainan

Mádòu (麻豆; lit. “sesame bean”) in Tainan takes its name from the village of Mattau (variously romanized by the 17th-century Dutch colonials), inhabited by plains aborigines of the Siraya (西拉雅) ethnicity.

A slightly alternative version suggests the matta part was Sirayan meaning “eye”, and the au sound at the end may represent the addition of the Chinese 澳 (Mdn. ao) meaning “harbour”. And a more radical interpretation suggests the Sirayan name was actually Toukapta, while the word Madou was a purely Han Chinese introduction.

Initially the name was written 蔴荳, essentially the same characters but with 艹 (botanical semantic elements) added. The modern version was adopted in 1920 during Japanese rule.

In 1950 it became an urban township (鎮), and in 2010 it became a district (區) in the newly combined Tainan city and county.



Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011