Taiwanese horn bows???

[Alex S.]

Hi all!
I was just thinking, did the Taiwanese use horn bows? If so, what did they look like? Guessing here, but If they did use bows, I'm guessing they are same as Chinese? Any ideas?

[Alex S.]

Hmm, I guess there isn't such a bow?

[Bede]

Do you mean the native Taiwanese or the Chinese settlers who have been there for many centuries?

[Alex S.]

Well, both actually.
Did the natives use hornbows? What did their bows look like?
Was there any differences between Chinese settler's bows and ones from the mainland?

[Stephen Selby]

The Taiwanese natives used wooden self-bows or occasionally wooden composites. The Chinese settlers are not thought to have brought any hornbows with them. The climate of Taiwan is not suitable for their use.

[Alex S.]

Ahh ok,ok. Kinda like Japan I guess.
Is there any Information on these bows?
The composites sound interesting, would they be of bamboo and wood like Japanese yumi?

Thanks for the info thus far, really interesting.

[Stephen Selby]

I am convinced that I had written something; but now I can't find it. I did do a study a few years back. The National Palace Musem in Taipei confirmed to me that they don't have a single horn bow. On the other hand, when the Japanese disarmed the native Taiwanese durning the Pacific War, they carefully labelled and preserved all the bows and arrows that they confiscated. Those bows are now well-documented and preserved in the Museum of the Academia Sinica in Taipei. However, there is no publication discussing them in detail.

There are several tribes who used bows - primary were the Atayal and Tsou. Two distinctive types were evident: one was the simple or composite bamboo bow, and the other was the black palm self bow. The latter are similar to the bows used in Iryan Jaya and the Pacific Islands (whose Polyniesian population are thought to have originated from Taiwan.)

I am attaching an old photo of a Taiwanese tribesman with his bow.

[Alex S.]

Interesting information Mr. Selby!
I was kinda hoping there would be a hornbow, but bamboo composites seem quite interesting. Are these bows still in use? If not, can they be seen in the museum you mentioned? I plan on flying over to Taipei one of these days and would like to go if its there.

btw isnt yokhua located in Taiwan? Any ideas where he is at the moment?

Alex

[Stephen Selby]

Yokhua is in Taipei. You can send him an ATATNet PM.

To see a good variety of bows, go the to Academia sinica. There is nothing in the Palace Museum and very little in the Provincial Museum. But the Provincial Museum is excellent for a general background to Taiwanese native ethnology.

[Alex S.]

Ive been looking around the web a bit and found these pictures. I'm not sure what species they are made from, but Yokhua kindly gave me some names that these could be made from:
山七里香, 大丁黃, 台灣拓木
He wasn't sure about the English names, neither me unfortunately



This first one looks really similar to a early Japanese yumi. The way the nocks are shaped and tips. The interesting thing about this bow is that the bow is (scalloped?) along the belly. Maybe knots in wood or design? not sure...



This second bow looks like typical longbow, maybe round cross section.



Spear/bow? It seems to have a metal point on one end, but looks quite short for use of a spear.



This last bow looks like it has some sort of pouch in the middle of the string, perhaps its used for pellets of some sort???

Alex

[Hyarmendacil]

The latter are similar to the bows used in Iryan Jaya

Fortunately for English speakers, you can all just say "Papua" now. The Indonesian government officially renamed the place "Province of Papua" in 2000 or even late 1999. Most Indonesians seem to be glad for it because now they no longer have to explain the etymology of "Irian" and all....

[Hyarmendacil]

This first one looks really similar to a early Japanese yumi. The way the nocks are shaped and tips. The interesting thing about this bow is that the bow is (scalloped?) along the belly. Maybe knots in wood or design? not sure...

Is it possible that the points represent bamboo joints? As I recall, most bamboos that are used for bow-making have longer segments than that, but maybe it's not impossible to make a working bow out of bamboo with such short segments.

[Alex S.]

The points seem a bit big for bamboo nodes, however it is possible to make such bow with bamboo. Problem is though, I think you would need quite thick bamboo to make bow with sufficient draw weight. Unless this one is a laminate of more than one piece?

[Hyarmendacil]

Thick, big bamboo staves are easily available, at least here in the tropics--so a laminated design wouldn't be necessary. It'd be plausible and (I think) even preferable, though.