踏溯台南

踏溯台南

文學院 通識教育課程

Migration and Settlement of the Siraya Tribe

Route Introduction

 

 

Kuwa

 

     Kuwa means "Ancestral House," which is the place where the Sirayan worship ancestors. The Siraya beliefs are animistic. There are five minor clan Kuwas and one major public Kuwas. Five minor clans Kuwa was set up by five families in the early days of the tribe's founding to offer sacrifices to the family's deity "Alimu." The major Kuwa is the religious center of the tribe; it worships "Alimu" and "Ang-Zo." An Agrimony stick in the urns and full of sacred water symbolizes how the Siraya worships their ancestors. It is different from the common worship of the Han people's deity. Furthermore, what the Sirayan worshipped is not the urns or flowers, but to communicate with the deity through the sacred water in the urns and incantation.