Thao people
Thao/Ngan young man of Sun Moon Lake, Nantou, Taiwan ca 1904
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 626 (2008) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Taiwan | |
| Languages | |
| Mandarin, Taiwanese, Thao | |
| Religion | |
| Animism, Buddhism |
The Thau/Ngan (Chinese: 邵族; pinyin: Sào zú) are a small group of Taiwanese aborigines who have lived near Sun Moon Lake (Lake Candidius) in central Taiwan for at least a century, and probably since the time of the Qing dynasty. In the year 2000 the Thao/Ngan tribe numbered only 281, making them the smallest of all of the recognized aboriginal tribes in Taiwan (a number of aboriginal tribes, both smaller and larger than the Thau in population remain unrecognized by the Taiwanese governing authorities).
They are the smallest of the Taiwanese aborigine group in terms of population and the smallest ethnic group in Taiwan. Despite their small group size, the Thau/Ngan have retained their customs, beliefs and traditional culture and language until now, though they have been assimilated into mainstream Chinese culture as well. Most of the members of this ethnic group work today as menial workers, cooks and vendors in the tourism industry at Sun Moon Lake. The Chi-Chi earthquake of 1999 damaged or destroyed 80% of the houses of the Thau/Ngan tribe and made many of them lose employment.
The Thau/Ngan people have their own language, the Thau language, which is nearly extinct and spoken by only a few, mostly elders, of the (already small) Thau ethnic population. The language has been sinicized. Most people who speak Thau are bilingual or trilingual and can speak Mandarin Chinese and/or Taiwanese as well. The Thao/Ngan language is classified as a Paiwan language, and a Formosan language which is a geographical subgroup of the much larger Austronesian language family. The Thau language has loanwords from the Bunun language, spoken by the Bunun ethnic group of which the Thao/Ngan tribe cooperated with as well as intermarried.
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