A few /k/-related items I saw and photographed in various museums around Taipei when I visited back in July. This will mostly be things related to Taiwan's indigenous population.First out we have the National Taiwan Museum (not to be confused with the National Palace Museum). Here we have a pair of large knives/machete, #11 from the Truku tribe, Sakahalan village, #12 Bunun tribe, Gatongulan village.
Why's it got "ブヌン族" written on it in Japanese?
Shield. Paiwan tribe, Derwing village
Sheild. Rukai tribe, Haocha village.>>64261790Taiwan was under Japanese rule from 1895-1945, it was likely added to the collections during that time.
Knives, Paiwan tribe.
Ceremonial knife, further details illegible on the photo I took of the sign.
Spears. Paiwan tribe, Cavoali village
Shadow puppets, for the re-telling of recent-ish events.
>>64261802Looks very polynesian desu
Moving over to the Historical Museum, which appears to give the majority of its floorspace to temporary exhibits. When I was there it was about orchids, their cataloguing, and impact on Taiwanese culture. The topmost floor had one of those "about the museum and a museums job"-exhibits where we do find a few /k/-related items.Aboriginal knives.
>>64261838Well spotted. To quote wikipedia:"Taiwanese indigenous peoples are Austronesians, with linguistic, genetic and cultural ties to other Austronesian peoples. Taiwan is the origin and linguistic homeland of the oceanic Austronesian expansion, whose descendant groups today include the majority of the ethnic groups throughout many parts of East and Southeast Asia as well as Oceania and even Africa which includes Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Madagascar, Philippines, Micronesia, Island Melanesia and Polynesia."
Military officer, Tang dynasty. Executed in sancai, "tri-glaze", technique, which was all the rage in the High Tang period (690-756 AD). Likely carrying weapons originally.
Dito
And finally we're off to the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, starting out with a quite modern knife.
Speaks for itself.
Woven ring for holding match cord.
Knife holders.
Mechanical land mine.
Spear.Some of the machetes used by the Taiwanese aboriginals have hollow handles forged in one piece with the blade, ie sockets that allow them to also be mounted as spears (as the museum put it, I would probably just go for a more general "polearm"). Whether this is more or less common with specific tribal groups or a pan-Island thing... dunno, this one's listed as "unknown" for its exact origins.
A more regular spear.
And another one, this time sans scabbard. Labelled Saisyat, which I suspect is the tribe.
>>64261785The Pingpu, Paiwan and Rukai knives made by the indigenous peoples there have always fascinated me because they're really practical, solid jungle survival knives. Unfortunately where I am in the world there's no examples to look at because I'd really like to get a closer look and maybe make one of them. Especially the Pingpu with the hollow handles that you can haft a spear shaft onto.A lot of the SE asian bush knives are also pretty cool too, but I just liked the look of the Taiwan knives as they'd be a bit more utilitarian and practical compared to some others
After a quick break as I discovered that I had missed editing a few photos (the potential pitfalls of doing your editing with a ca 39°C fever I guess): "Spear" (harpoon...?)
A somewhat shy bow trying to hide in behind the rest.
Rukai arrows
"Wrist Ornament"I think they may have out up the wrong sign here.
Long, slender metal necks like on the right here are often meant to be wrapped in something, be it incendiary material or poison. For hunting it'd be the latter.
Puyuma
Paiwan
So with many of these scabbards having one side open, allowing for a good view of the blade, they decide to mount them in a display case (which you could walk around) with a big mirror in the back. Instead of just, you know, leaving the back glass so you could get an actual good look at the back side.
Atayal
And another one.
Puyuma(4chan won't allow a post with identical text within 2 minutes of the previous even if the image is different)
Yami
Replica dinosaur skull, some T-rex-like Chinese find, National Taiwan Museum.And that, alongside my previous batch of photos from the National Palace Museum, is all I have from Taipei. More photos from elsewhere in the pipeline though, let's see if I can get through them before the next trip.Zip archive of this thread's photos (including some less /k/-related stuff form these museum that I didn't post): https://www.mediafire.com/file/s5sdlycqz3nnw2s/Taiwan_-_Taipei_Miscellaneous.zip/file
