A Taiwanese/Formosan tribal gun

yuanzhumin · 22nd February 2006, 04:39 PM

Hello all of you

I have followed regularly these last few months your very interesting exchanges on the tribal world weapons, mostly blades. I’d like to share with you pictures of a Taiwanese tribal gun, hoping that any of you, fellow forum members, could bring additional infos on this weapon to help me complete what I already know.

On the following pics, you can see a gun that I have collected two or three months ago and that is a typical remodeled one used by the plain and mountain aboriginal tribes of Taiwan till the beginning of the 20th c. To show it in its context, I have displayed pictures of tribal men holding the same kind of gun. On one photo taken at the end of the 19th c., we see warriors/hunters of the Pingpu, a generic term to describe the people from the plain aboriginal tribes.Nearly all of them have the same kind of gun in their hands. On the other pic (the first guy on the right) and the drawing (all of the three), we see warriors/hunters of the famous Paiwan mountain tribe holding the same kind of gun.

This kind of gun was traded or taken from the foreigners as the tribes didn’t have the knowledge to make them. The tribesmen were just redesigning them, mostly the wooden structure. So I would like to know if someone could tell me where, originally, was produced the metallic part of this gun precisely ? Was it initially Dutch, Spanish, what I suspect, or other ? The firing mecanism seems to me quite old and appears to be dating before the 19th century. Am I wrong ? Could someone give me some infos on this ? And my last question, as I’m ignorant in the matter of collecting firearms, what should I do to preserve this gun ? Should I just keep it in its rust as a show of its authenticity or should I try to cover it with a product and which one ?

Thank you very much in advance for any answer.
Best,
Yuanzhumin

22nd February 2006, 04:39 PM	#1
yuanzhumin Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Ex-Taipei, Taiwan, now in Shanghai, China Posts: 180	A Taiwanese/Formosan tribal gun Hello all of you I have followed regularly these last few months your very interesting exchanges on the tribal world weapons, mostly blades. I’d like to share with you pictures of a Taiwanese tribal gun, hoping that any of you, fellow forum members, could bring additional infos on this weapon to help me complete what I already know. On the following pics, you can see a gun that I have collected two or three months ago and that is a typical remodeled one used by the plain and mountain aboriginal tribes of Taiwan till the beginning of the 20th c. To show it in its context, I have displayed pictures of tribal men holding the same kind of gun. On one photo taken at the end of the 19th c., we see warriors/hunters of the Pingpu, a generic term to describe the people from the plain aboriginal tribes.Nearly all of them have the same kind of gun in their hands. On the other pic (the first guy on the right) and the drawing (all of the three), we see warriors/hunters of the famous Paiwan mountain tribe holding the same kind of gun. This kind of gun was traded or taken from the foreigners as the tribes didn’t have the knowledge to make them. The tribesmen were just redesigning them, mostly the wooden structure. So I would like to know if someone could tell me where, originally, was produced the metallic part of this gun precisely ? Was it initially Dutch, Spanish, what I suspect, or other ? The firing mecanism seems to me quite old and appears to be dating before the 19th century. Am I wrong ? Could someone give me some infos on this ? And my last question, as I’m ignorant in the matter of collecting firearms, what should I do to preserve this gun ? Should I just keep it in its rust as a show of its authenticity or should I try to cover it with a product and which one ? Thank you very much in advance for any answer. Best, Yuanzhumin Attached Images