A fellow member of this forum recently attracted my attention on an unknown South East Asian shield on sale :-) But it was not from Taiwan. Because he was curious to know more about the shields from this island, I thought that it could be a good opportunity to share with him and all of you a thread on this subject.
Taiwanese aborigine shields are a rare sight. During the nearly 15 years I collected Taiwan aborigines stuff, I only saw 2 shields available on the market. On my whole collection of close to 300 pieces from the Taiwan aborigines, I don't even have one shield. But I still hope I can put my hand on one in the future!
Nic
las
THE TAIWAN ABORIGINES SHIELDS
If you look at the shields in South East Asia, we can see many examples in the museums or the private collections all around the world. Among the Austronesian tribes, these shields are mostly coming from the indigenous tribes of the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. But what about the Taiwanese shields ? What about the Taiwanese aboriginal tribes that have been the cradle of the Austronesian culture that today encompasses most of the Pacific rim?
Of the 14 recognized aboriginal tribes in Taiwan, not many have used shields. The shields were found among the Paiwan mainly, the Puyuma or the Rukai -- that are Paiwanic tribes. The much different Amis, Tsou and Yami tribes used shields also, sometimes, but they were quite different in their shape and built.
The Paiwan shields
No round shape shields (Northern Asia influence), no stick/parade shields like in Australia or no shoulder shields among the Paiwan, but a ‘real’ shield, made in wood (no animal skin or no full rattan).
The Paiwan had a gable roof shape shield that is made usually of two planks, sometimes only one piece of wood, like it is the case for some other South East Asian tribes (Nias, Batak…) that uses also the same very special shape in their shields.
The two planks are usually joined together at the middle by rattan, at an angle of around 140 degrees. This kind of construction is quite flexible in the way that when the shield is hit, the weapons rips on it, offering much less compressive forces.
These shields have a horizontal wooden handle behind, sometimes doubled with a rattan secondary vertical handle, giving to the set of handles a T shape. The wood horizontal handle is slightly curved and attached to the main body with rattan.
In addition, sometimes an additional rattan string is fixed in diagonal to the both tip of the shield in order to hold it on the back or to protect the body in front, while being able to handle the weapons with the both hands (spears, knives).
All Paiwan shields are decorated with traditional or auspicious designs. The zig zag design often found on the upper and lower part of the shield can represent, the snake skin -- the snake being the mythic original ancestors of the Paiwan -- or wild boar tusks, one of the most common game.
Usual other motives are human heads, alined or not, or figures representing powerful protective ancestors. The double circle design, also very common, symbolizes the sun. These designs are sometimes colored.
We can also see sometimes some hunting scenes carved on these shields, with the Formosan deer a favorite motive. The deer is a traditional game, but it is also a kind of vehicle for hunting ritual/shamanic practices.
The other Taiwan tribes shields
The other island shields are quite rare and different.
The Amis are not considered mountains tribes, as are the Paiwan.
They used a long wooden shield, in one piece only. It is slightly concave on the front and with a vertical handle made of an attached curved piece of wood. We have some examples of Paiwan shields in collections today, but only a couple of these Amis shields.
As rare as the Amis shields, we have also Tsou or Bunun shields. Their shield style is completely different from the Amis one and very similar to the Paiwan --obvious influence from their neighbour. It doesn’t seem they used it commonly as there is not much period pictures of them or real samples that were transmitted to us.
The Yami (also called sometimes Tao), from the small Botel Tobago island (Orchid island, Lanyu in Chinese), South East of Taiwan, are the only oceanic culture among the Formosan aborigines. Very different in their way of living, they didn't practice head hunting -- a common ritual among all the Taiwan island tribes.
Because the Yami had frequent wars from one to one of the 5 main villages of the island, they developped an armour made of fish skin -- a very unic concept. They also developped a shield, made of wooden sticks attached together to form a flat and archaic style shield.
Quite wide and high, it was more used a ‘protective barrier’ placed on the ground, in front of the holder, behind which it was easy to hide. The needs were different as the fightings were usually stopped before or as soon as someone was killed or seriously wounded in which case a tribute was given to compensate the family of the deceased.