The Kavalan (

endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...

; "people living in the plain"; ) or Kuvalan are an

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

. Most of them moved to the coastal area of

Hualien County Hualien County ( Mandarin Wade–Giles: Hua¹-lien² Hsien⁴; Pīnyīn: ''Huālián Xiàn''; Hokkien POJ: ''Hoa-lian-koān'' or ''Hoa-liân-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Fâ-lièn-yen''; Amis: ''Kalingko'') is a county on the east coast of Taiwan. I ...

and

Taitung County Taitung County (; Mandarin pinyin: ''Táidōng Xiàn''; Hokkien POJ: ''Tâi-tang-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Thòi-tûng-yen''; Paiwan: ''Valangaw'';lit:Eastern part of Taiwan) is the third largest county in Taiwan, located primarily on the island ...

in the 19th century due to encroachment by Han settlers. Their language is also known as Kavalan. Currently, the largest settlement of Kavalan is Xinshe ( Kavalan: ) Village in Fengbin Township,

History

Legend has it that the Kavalan arrived by

sea The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...

from the

east East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

and that when they saw the stunning beauty of this location, they decided then and there to settle this bountiful land. The newly arrived Kavalan fought many battles against the local

Atayal people The Atayal (), also known as the Tayal and the Tayan, are a Taiwanese indigenous people. The Atayal people number around 90,000, approximately 15.9% of Taiwan's total indigenous population, making them the third-largest indigenous group. The pre ...

, and in the end the Kavalan drove the Atayal into the mountains — true to their name "Kavalan", which means "flatland people". That name subsequently morphed into "Hamalan", ultimately yielding the modern-day

Yilan City Yilan City ( Mandarin pinyin: ''Yílán Shì''; Hokkien POJ: ''Gî-lân-chhī'') is a county-administered city and the county seat of Yilan County, Taiwan Province, Republic of China. The city lies on the north side of the Lanyang River. H ...

. They were referred as 36 Kavalan tribes (蛤仔難三十六社), although there were more than 60. In the past, tribes north of the Lanyang River were called Sai-sè-hoan (西勢番) while those south of the river were Tang-sè-hoan (東勢番). The earliest record of the Kavalan in history was in 1632, when a Spanish ship went astray to this area by a

typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...

. More clear record came in 1650 by the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

(VOC). Reportedly, at some point there was a Spanish province of in the area. Han Chinese tried to settle in the area as early as 1768. However, settlement did not succeed until 1796, when established the first village (now

Toucheng Toucheng Township () is an urban township in Yilan County, Taiwan. The township includes Guishan Island and Guiluan Island in the Philippine Sea. The Senkaku Islands, known in Mandarin as the Diaoyu Islands, are claimed as part of the townshi ...

). Eventually, many more

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive v ...

entered this area and the life of Kavalan was forced to change. Many of them moved to Beipu Village (in Sincheng Township of

) between 1830 and 1840.

Karewan incident

In 1878, the Kavalan, and their Sakizaya allies, fought a devastating battle against

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

invaders after a dispute with Qing officials led to a local uprising. This event ended in disaster for both communities with many of their members slaughtered in the (also known as the “Galeewan Incident” or “Kalyawan Battle”). Others were displaced by Han settlers. The remaining Sakizaya, meanwhile, were forced to blend with other peoples, such as the Amis, with the intention of protecting their identity.

References

{{Taiwanese indigenous peoples Taiwanese indigenous peoples Ethnic groups in Taiwan

History

Karewan incident

See also

Further reading

References