天大的發現！！原來唐朝已經有泰雅扗京市，並且讀書有成，為唐玄宗的侍讀(老師)！

其人幼年貧苦，博覽群經，武則天時舉進士，登文學優贍科。曾任縣尉、監察御史、光祿卿等官，清正平恕。舊唐書曰，「雖居吏職而篤學，手不釋卷，謙虛謹慎，深為玄宗所禮。」果然Tayal balay!!

何以知其為泰雅族？因為其名為馬懷素：Mahuway su!感恩、感恩！！

好了好了，很冷，下次不敢。

不過，我看，下次還是會再犯。

昨晚烏來1C，屋頂結霜！真難得！再冷的話，我可能要找找看，我到底還有襪子嗎？可是好像沒有鞋子...
ooooh! 1 C in Wulai overnight and frost on our roof! I think I have some socks somewhere, and I may still have a pair of shoes? If it gets any colder, I may need them.
or not. If bare feet are good enough for the dogs, they’re good enough for me, at least as long as there's no snow on the ground. I wish!

好像今天臺北縣改成新北市。今天嗎？上網查，找不到甚麼新聞。也罷。我本來想看有沒有新聞解釋為甚麼要這樣大費周章改制，因為我實扗不懂。

祝大家行憲紀念日快樂。

Apparently today Taipei County becomes New Taipei City. Why, I have no idea, and there's nothing about it in the online news. Oh well. Happy Constitution Day to one and all.

ptasan Abus

Facial tattoos have long been an important Tayal institution, but to bring them under control, the Japanese warlords banned the practice during their occupation of Taiwan. There has been much talk of reviving the tradition, but for men, the qualification was headhunting, which has also been banned. Other qualifications have been suggested, such as success at hunting (otherwise known as poaching) boar.

Abus, a Wulai Tayal, has long wanted to have his face tattooed, and I have egged him on for years. He has always been wary of the taboos connected with the tattoo, but finally, he thought of a way to get around that. Traditional tattoos for men were vertical. He got horizontal tattoos.

He said, "祖先哪有甚麼麻醉藥？沒有，要忍！所以我去文面的時候，我就不用麻醉，我就忍。Mxan balay!!很痛！！Our ancestors had no anesthetics, so when I got my tattoos done, I refused anesthetic. It hurt!!"

(I took this photo the other night with my cell phone. I’ll try to get a better one, with a camera during the daytime, and post it.)

忍！忍！要忍耐！只要再忍耐四天，就不需要被霹靂轟炸，到哪裏都播放最難聽的聖誕節垃圾音樂！！

Only four more days and we will, for another year, be free from the constant bombardment of vulgar Xmas music. Be strong!

大約十年前吧，颱風吹倒了一棵櫻花樹。我鋸一節一節，每節長四尺，扛回家放，想等它穩定了看怎麼雕。可是大概沒放好吧，蛀掉了。

沒辦法，放著放著；最近買了一個燒木柴熱水爐，就想把朽櫻燒掉。拿鋸子鋸時發現，外面一層爛了，可是裏面的紅心，堅硬如石，很難鋸。

劣材一蛀就壞到底。好材，經風吹雨打，或許外層有些蛀，卻不損內扗的堅實。

人生也如此。

About ten years ago, a typhoon blew down a large cherry tree nearby. I cut it into sections about four feet long and brought it home to cure, and then carve. I must not have stored it properly, because it rotted.

I left it where I put it. Recently we bought a wood burning water heater, so I figured I might as well saw up the cherry wood and burn it. When I put saw to wood, I discovered that even though the outside had rotted, the heart was red and rock hard.

Through years of hostile conditions, inferior wood rots to the core. On the surface, good wood may not look great, but its heart is stronger than before.

People are like that, too.

實扗沒有感覺到有這個需要，但是臺北縣即將變成新北市。因為改制，所以從前的鄉民代表會一律要廢除，鄉民代表另請高就。

問題是，鄉民代表會的剩餘、還沒花完的經費，鄉民代表怎樣也不肯歸公，所以這陣子就拼著老命將這些經費消耗掉，以免鄉民代表會取消時有多餘的錢要歸公。出國、住高級大飯店，甚麼都有。

納稅人，你賺錢賺的很辛苦，但要知道，鄉民代表要消耗這些公帑，也很辛苦。

官位最高景頗族人，是雲南省副省長黃毅先生。黃先生身兼數職，包括雲南省海峽兩岸交流促進會名譽會長。今帶團來臺訪問，也拜訪臺灣景頗族。可惜閻光明前會長生病住院，不得來。孔大發會長請我們參加；我參加景頗族的活動，當初是緬僑會的簡明有先生介紹的，與幾年不見的長輩朋友見面，很開心。

The Jingpo (景頗, Jinghpaw, Kachin) at the highest level of government office is Mr Huang Yi, the Vice Governor of Yunnan Province. Among his many other offices is Honorary President of the Yunnan Cross Strait Exchange Association. He is in Taiwan now, leading a delegation of the Association.

He made time to visit Mr Zit Hkun Chang Sau (孔大發先生), President of the Taiwan Jingpo Association, who invited us to come along. Former President Xu Lang Ying (閻光明先生) is in the hospital, and unable to come. Mr Chian Mingyou (簡明有先生) of the Burmese – Chinese Association, who first invited me to Jingpo activities six or seven years ago, was along, as was Dr 何翠萍女士 Ho Ts'ui-p'ing, an anthropologist at Academia Sinica who studies the Jingpo. First we met at the 雲南同鄉會 Yunnan Association in Taiwan, and a small group went to a Yunnan restaurant for lunch. Zit Hkun had told me he was going to come in traditional Jingpo dress, but showed up in a dapper suit and tie. I asked what happened to the Jingpo outfit? He said, You can't wear a Jingpo outfit without a sword, and I just couldn't get on the bus wearing a sword, so I decided that rather than come without a sword, I would wear conventional clothing.

Mr Huang had met Zit Hkun some years ago when he (H) led a Jingpo delegation to Taiwan, so they had a lot to catch up on. Zit Hkun also had to catch up on his Jingpo. After so many years in Taiwan, he has lost some of his native language. Huang spoke to him in Jingpo, and Zit Hkun answered in a mixture of Jingpo and Mandarin, causing considerable mirth among the company. Jingpo came back to him very quickly with use.

Mr Chian is Chinese from Burma. He grew up in central Burma speaking Jingpo, and indeed went to Jingpo language schools until he was 12, when his father said, We're Chinese, you have to improve your Chinese language skills.

Huang presented Zit Hkun with a Jingpo turban and bag, as well as books with invaluable records of the Jingpo, including one of the Burma Road from WWII. Dr Ho, who has known Huang for many years, was presented with a scarf ("A Jingpo khatag"). To our surprise, Huang gave a Jingpo hat to me, and a scarf and bag to Chao, along with several books about the Jingpo.

But all in all, I have to say, we sorely missed Lazum wan Bau/金國光先生, who died a year ago. I wish he could have been there.

a proud Jingpo

for more on the Jingpo, please go here: here: here: here: here: here: here: here: and herefrom 2007; here from 2006; here: here from 2005; here from 2004.

for photos, please go to Flickr: here:

and on YouTube, please go to my channel here;: and search "Jingpo".
Originally uploaded by Yugan Dali

Recently I spotted a wasp practicing yoga on a window screen.

點點滴滴的歷史，不是甚麼了不起的偉業，是我們的生活。很容易流過去，淡忘了，拾不回來。

烏來教堂，本來在現在籃球場後，是木造房。後來改建；族人到溪邊撿石頭扛上來，用石砌牆蓋屋。過了若干年，石頭不夠密，下雨會漏水，才改現在的鋼筋水泥。部落的人需要石材，就一個一個的把石頭搬走，現在無剩了。