Siraya in John Thomson’s photos
湯姆生照片中的西拉雅
1 min readMar 23, 2017
Pingpu (the title at the time) in John Thomson’s photos are mainly Siraya people. Siraya is part of Austronesian peoples, who live in southern Taiwan, and was the first tribe being affected when foreigner intruded. Under impact of foreign forces for generations, Siraya nowadays is not being admitted of their indigenous identity by the country, and even their language is nearly extinct.
湯姆生照片中記錄的平埔（當時稱呼）大多是後來的西拉雅族。居住於南台灣一帶的西拉雅屬於南島語族，是台灣早期外來勢力入侵時首當其衝的民族。歷經數代外來勢力衝擊之下，現今的西拉雅不但連身份都不被國家承認，甚至連語言都瀕臨消失。
