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Concept
Siraya people
Summary
The Siraya () people are a Taiwanese indigenous people. The Siraya settled flat coastal plains in the southwest part of the island of Taiwan and corresponding sections of the east coast; the area is identified today with Tainan City and Taitung County. At least four communities make up the group: Mattauw, Soelangh, Baccloangh, and Sinckan. The first four communities correspond to the modern-day districts of Madou, Jiali, Shanhua, and Sinshih, respectively.
The Siraya are Plains indigenous peoples (Pingpu) — that is, occupants of flat coastal regions rather than mountain areas. Like other indigenous peoples of Taiwan they are ethnically and linguistically Austronesian. The name "Taiwan" (historically Taiouwang, and other variants) originated from the Siraya language. The Austronesian language family from which Sirayan belongs includes some of the most spoken languages in the western Pacific particularly Bahasa Indonesia, Javanese, Tagalog (or standardized as Filipino), and Malay.
Taivoan and Makatao used to be considered two communities of the Siraya but are now classified as independent indigenous peoples, based on the latest linguistic discoveries, cultural features, and the indigenous people's self-identification.
After the port in the Siraya area of Taiwan was annexed in 1683 by Qing Dynasty China, a process of gradual acculturation led to the Siraya language falling out of use. Its last recorded regular use was in 1908, after Taiwan was under Japanese rule. The mother tongue of most Siraya families became Hokkien Chinese, with Japanese and Mandarin Chinese learned in schools as the government-mandated lingua franca.
The Siraya maintained many aspects of their culture despite this. A number of families in the Tso-chen, Kou-pei and Chiou-chen-lin of Sinhua Township in particular still identify themselves as Siraya. The family name Wan (萬), often encountered in the region, is a Chinese transliteration of Talavan, a common Siraya surname. A Siraya Culture Association (台南縣平埔族西拉雅文化協會) was established in 1999.
Official source
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