Paiwan's Piuma Meets Puyuma's Puyuma in Hunting Ceremony
Written by Zih Gao     Photography by: Huang Sin Yi / Zih Gao  

Principal Jheng Yu Mei (first left) leads children to enjoy the Puyuma culture.

The skilled dancing of the young and strong people shows the masculine beauty.

The young people are learning to coordinates themselves with clear beats and traditional dancing.

        Entering the street, though abrupt skyrocketing firecrackers were exploding in the heavy traffic, Puyuma people were still having fun in the traditional event. Children were already performing traditional singing and dancing when the line of people arrived at the activity center. While I was concentrating on taking photos, the leader of the singing children exclaimed "Zih Gao! Mr. Lai Yue Han!" As I heard it, I searched in my memory of Puyuma friends, I matched the leader and said "Oh, my Principal." (She is Principal Jheng Yu Mei, a colleague of mine during the national teaching material research project for indigenous elementary schools in Sansia.) Seeing her, as a head of a school, lead children to enjoy the culture of Puyuma, I felt a warmth in my heart and it lingered. The changing beats of traditional dancing accompanied by traditional singing and four-step dancing accompanied by modern singing attracted the attention of more and more people. The young people who received initiation training learned how to coordinate themselves with traditional singing and beautiful, rhythmic dancing to reach a harmonious performance. With circles and repeated songs and dances, the lively scene gradually reached its climax.