Where did the Indigenous peoples of Taiwan originally come from? And how long have they inhabited this island?
Long before the massive influx of Han immigrants crossed the strait in the 17th century, this land was already home to numerous Indigenous groups, each with its own distinct language, culture, and traditions.
Yet, Taiwan's story stretches back much further than we might imagine.
At the Baxiandong Caves in Taitung, archaeologists discovered Paleolithic relics dating back 15,000 to 30,000 years, leaving behind concrete evidence of early human activity in Taiwan.
Thousands of years later, a group of people speaking early Austronesian languages embarked on a grand maritime migration, weaving a shared history across Taiwan, the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands.
Today, from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia to Hawaii, New Zealand, Easter Island, and even Madagascar off the eastern coast of Africa, the languages spoken by hundreds of millions of people all belong to the same vast language family—the Austronesian family.
Why do linguists believe that Taiwan was a vital point of origin for the expansion of the Austronesian language family?
What evidence have prehistoric archaeology, linguistics, and ancient DNA left behind?
In this episode of Too Many Murals (壁畫太多), Santai takes you on a journey starting from the Ice Age, following the history of Taiwan's Indigenous peoples all the way to 2026.
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00:00 The Primordial Masters
04:00 The Glacial Epoch
07:49 Ancestors to Half the Globe
13:03 Seventeen Tribes
18:59 A Civilization Without Script
22:57 Vanished Men of the Plains
27:18 The Red-Haired Invaders
31:52 The Great Han Influx
36:33 Fifty Years Under Japanese Rule
41:16 From "Mountain Savages" to Indigenous Peoples
#TaiwanIndigenousPeoples #Austronesian #TaiwanHistory #TooManyMurals