By
Wu Siu Yan
12 Mar 2003
Dimensions Communications has produced a TV program, called "Music and Dances of Taiwan Indigenous People". (This program was broadcasted by the Open University of Hong Kong on TV, so I came to know of it.)
Songs of the Mountains, Dances of the Sea : Music and Dances of Taiwan's Indigenous People.
In what follows, I assume that you have read my previous articles, as well as the Bible, so that you have good knowledge of customs of Israel, and also the Book of Mormon, so that you know the relationship between Mayans, American Indians, Polynesians, Hawaiians, New Zealand Maoris, Australia aborigines, .... |
The Taiwan indigenous people also perform POW-POW, their own version,
- after harvest, OR
- after winning a battle.
They would form into a circle, hand in hand, singing praise, and having slight step movements. Some tribes would even decorate themselves with feathers like that of American Indians !
After observing their dances and songs, which resemble POW-POW of American Indians, my opinion is that POW-POW came from the Festivals of the Israelites.
GOD taught the Israelites to celebrate many Festivals -- Feast of Passover, Feast of Weeks, Feast of In-gathering, ...
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LORD : When you come into the land which I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest; and he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, that you may find acceptance; on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. .... And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your GOD : it is a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. And you shall count from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven full weeks shall they be, counting fifty days to the morrow after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a cereal offering of new grain to the LORD. ... And you shall make a proclamation on the same day; you shall hold a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work; .... " |
The Israelites would not eat bread until they have offered it first, to LORD. 50 days after that day, they celebrate the Feast of Weeks. And sometimes later, after they have reaped all their grain, they celebrate the Feast of In-gathering.
In the Festivals, they rest, they share food with their poor neighbour, and most importantly, they give thanks to GOD.
Therefore I think the Mayans also would have given thanks to GOD after a battle, after GOD gives them victory, and on festivals.
Some Mayans made a ship, and set sail from near Panama, and they are the Hawaiians, Polynesians, New Zealand Maoris, Australia aborigines, .... as well as the indigenous mountain people of Taiwan (note : they look like half Indians/Polynesians, half Chinese, hence they must have inter-married with Chinese from the mainland.)
Indigenous People of TaiwanThey constitute a very small percentage of the people of Taiwan, about 2%. They live mainly in the mountains, as well as on the East Coast. They are the tribes,
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If you can access to that TV program, I sincerely wish you would pay special attention to the POW-POW of the Tsou tribe -- they formed into a circle, and sing very slowly SOLEMN PRAISE to GOD who gives them victory.
The native Americans have forgotten GOD -- the Great Spirit and the Creator of Earth -- for a long time, and because their character suffer wanting, their form of POW-POW has much degenerated. Only from the indigenous tribe of Taiwan, especially the tribe of Tsou, could one get a true meaning of POW-POW, and the way the ancient Israelites would celebrate their festivals.
(Note : However, POW-POW of indigenous Taiwanese is not perfect, they only know "ha-he", ... (original should be "Hallelujah"), and that they came from an ancient language which they could not understand now. They have no idea that they are descendants of Lehi/Nephi/.... nor their true cultural root).