Makatao people

Makatao people

Makatao, Tao
Makatao man and woman in Chinese painting.
Total population
More than 20,000
Regions with significant populations
Pingtung, Taitung in Taiwan
Languages
Makatao, Taiwanese, Mandarin
Religion
Animism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Siraya, Taivoan, Taiwanese Aborigines

The Makatao people (Chinese: 馬卡道族), also written Makatau or Makattau, are an indigenous people in Taiwan. The Makatao originally settled around lowland Kaohsiung in Southern Taiwan, later largely migrating to Pingtung and even further to Taitung in the early 19th century due to the influx of Chinese immigrants.

The indigenous people allegedly historically called themselves Tau or Makatao^[1] according to Japanese anthropologist, Inō Kanori, around the early 20th century, but other researchers considered them to be part of the Siraya or their language as part of Sirayaic from Tainan to Kaohsiung to Pingtung County. Presently, the Makatao people living across the lowland plains of Pingtung County do not know or no longer know anymore the original meaning of this name, "Makatao", and no one recalls any ancestor calling themselves "Makatao", but nevertheless this formal respectful collective name for the community is accepted within the community, but normally, Makatao villagers of the Pingtung plain refer to themselves in Taiwanese Hokkien Chinese: 山脚人; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: soaⁿ-kha-lâng; lit. 'people living at the foot of the mountain' or in Taiwanese Mandarin Chinese: 平埔族; pinyin: Píngpǔzú; lit. 'plains tribe'.^[2]