Mala-ta-ngia: Bunun coming of age festival

Beginning with the youngest boys and moving up in age, all the boys of the village took turns shooting, with special attention bestowed on the youngsters as the targets must be hit or it would bode poorly on the length of their lives. The deer’s ear must be hit first, followed by the boar’s ear.

The beliefs were that if the boar’s ear was mistakenly hit first, the child would be afraid of boars when hunting, if the mountain goat’s ear was mistakenly hit, the kid was destined to walk the precarious paths of the goat for his—likely—short hunting years. When the children had finished the adults lined up and took turns shooting at the ears with groups of one, two four or five hunters shooting at the same time.

For the adults the order of targets was unimportant, they chose which beast’s ear to hit first. The earliest hunters used bows and arrows, which over time slowly gave way to rifles.

The mala-ta-ngia ceremony was restricted to males only, females did not participate. After the ceremony finished, the deer’s ear was brought inside and the women, plus chickens and other household animals, were put outside. Once everybody was inside the shaman would bless the ear by singing and waving a torch over it before sticking it in the ceiling.

All the hunters would then give their spoils of the last two months to the shaman who would divide the meat out evenly to all the villagers. If any of the meat was dropped on the floor it was not to be eaten but was offered to the ancestors instead.

Nowadays, the proceedings are of course very different from the rituals practiced hundreds of years ago, and most of the superstitions are useful only for scaring children. Sadly, one prevailing taboo is that women will bring bad luck to a hunt.

Although the women are now allowed to watch the shooting of the ear, and participate in all the other sporting events, they are still not permitted to participate in the actual shooting of the ear or go hunting.

The Bunun are spread out over a large area of Taiwan and every area has their own special way to celebrate their mala-ta-ngia. Next April or May head into the hills to look for a mala-ta-ngia festival and let the friendly tribesmen teach you about their culture.

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