DUONA VILLAGE (2)

Following the series of photos started yesterday, here are some more views the Duona village in the mountains of southern Taiwan.

This village is very quiet during the week but at the week-end many people leave polluted Kaohsiung (second biggest city) and its hectic pace of life to go to Duona and enjoy the tranquillity and pure air as well as the hot springs.

The inhabitants of Duona are Rukai. “Recent research about Taiwanese Aborigines suggests their ancestors may have been living on the islands for approximately 8000 years before major Han Chinese immigration began in the 17th century.

The Taiwanese Aborigines are Austronesian peoples, with linguistic and genetic ties to other Austronesian ethnic groups, such as peoples of the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Madagascar and Oceania.

For centuries, Taiwan’s aboriginal people experienced economic competition and military conflict with a series of colonizing people. Centralized government policies designed to foster language shift and cultural assimilation, as well as continued contact with the colonizers through trade, intermarriage and other dispassionate intercultural processes, have resulted in varying degrees of language death and loss of original cultural identity. For example, of the approximately 26 known languages of the Taiwanese Aborigines (collectively referred to as the Formosan languages), at least ten are extinct, five are moribund and several are to some degree endangered. These languages are of unique historical significance, since most historical linguists consider Taiwan to be the original homeland of the Austronesian language family.” (Wikipedia)

I’m encouraged by your comments on my previous photos. It’s nice to know some people are interested in finding out about other cultures.

Today’s offering is the main street and some views of the village, street and people.

f14 1/50th sec zoom at 21mm multi segment metering polarising filter slight crop (top and bottom)

Have a pleasant evening,

Jean-Noël

Camera:	Nikon D50 Check out Nikon Nation!
Lens:	SIGMA 17-70mm Macro
Recording media:	JPEG (digital)

Title:	DUONA VILLAGE (2)
Username:	JN_CHATELAIN_PHOTOGRAPHY
Uploaded:	19 Mar 2009 - 6:16 PM
Tags:	Architecture, Landscape / travel
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