From Takow to Kaohsiung

Taroko / Truku (太魯閣), Hualien County

Taroko Gorge and the Taroko National Park both derive from Japanese-era pronunciation of Qing-dynasty Chinese transliteration of the local Aboriginal group’s name, Truku (太魯閣; Mdn. Tailuge).

According to legend, ancestors of the Truku arrived by rowcing boats (literally “driftwood”) from what is today southern China or Southeast Asia, making land and settling on the fertile plains somewhere between today’s Taichung and Tainan,. After defeat in conflicts with other plains-dwelling indigenous peoples, however, they migrated to mountainous areas of central Taiwan, firstly in a place they called Ayran (愛蘭; Mdn. Ailan; to the west of today’s Puli), and subsequently deeper and deeper into the mountains. They eventually settled at Truku Truwan (德鹿灣; Mdn. Deluwan; today’s Hezuo Village 合作村 [in June 2021 forllowing a campaign by local people, the village name was changed to 德鹿谷村 (Mdn. Delugu Village) to reflect earlier tradition*], Ren’ai Township, Nantou County), a terraced area overlooking three river valleys, the Ayug Lqsan, Ayug Busi, and Ayug Brayaw.

Truku derives from Tru Ruku (“three living places”). From here they expanded to other areas to farm and hunt** including, in the 17th and 18th centuries, to the high mountains of Qilai (奇萊), Nenggao (能高), and Hehuan (合歡) in the Central Mountain Range (中央山脈的) and, from there, down to Hualien in eastern Taiwan.

This new area in the east, is what Han-Chinese immigrants and, later, Japanese colonial authorities, referred to as Truku, albeit in Chinese transliterations such as 大魯閣 (Mdn. Daluge) and 太魯閣 (Mdn. Tailuge), the latter being pronounced in Japanese as Taroko. While this is still the standard romanization for the popular tourist destinations, “Truku” is also becoming more common following increasing autonomy by Taiwan’s indigenous peoples over recent decades.

Confrontations with the Japanese colonial authorites, who reclassified much Truku territory as government land, led to Xincheng Incident (新城事件; see Xincheng) of in 1896, Weili Incident (威里事件) of 1906, and Truku Incident (太魯閣事件) of 1914. Following the last of these, when around 3~5,000 Truku with perhaps 2,000 firearms were defeated by as many as 15~20,000 Japanese soldiers, Truku living in high mountains were forced to migrate down to various low-lying villages.

Today the Truku are mainly settled in Xiulin (秀林), Wanrong (萬榮), and Zhuoxi (卓溪) townships, and in Qingfeng (慶豐), Nanhua (南華), and Fuxing (福興) villages in Ji’an (吉安) Township, all in Hualien County. Official recognition as a separate ethinic group dates from 2004, before which, like the related Seediq people, they were previously considered a subgroup of the Atayal (泰雅; Mdn. Taiya), and by January 2020, the Truku had a population of about 32,333 people.

Text and photos copyright Jiyue Publications 2022

* See Ren-ai Township Household Registration Office bulletin June 23, 2021

** More details at Council of Indigenous Peoples