Preface |
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"The Truku tribe lives with knives and their manufacture technology" said comfortably by M'mah Yioudan; the King of Trukuk knife-maker. |
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M'mah was born in the TonLan mountain within the County of Hualien. The Trukuk tribe is one of the genuine local mountaineers. The Trukuk men learned fighting and hunting skills against cliffy environment also for living since childhood, thus become handy and are named as Tarzan. |
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The
original Truku tribe developed the knife manufacture via prey exchange
and trading with Han people, and subsequently learned to modify the
knife technology from the Japanese colonists. The revised manufacture
had created hunting knives which are particularly
useful in Truku's daily life. Accordingly the Truku became the best
knife maker among others.
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In addition to the hunting and living with knives , it also given a culture meaning. A new born baby is bestowed a knife by the seniors as blessing. The Truku men carry knife in all kinds of ceremonies as respect, including wedding. The groom gives a Shan-knife to his brother-in-law as gift. The knife must be carried by the left waist so they shake right-hand with others as friendship and peace. Meanwhile the Trukuk has no own writing characters and cannot record the promise or agreements with others. Therefore the knife is used to express the promise keeping by stabbing knife into the negotiation table. The knife is also used as defense weapons, thus the knives became part of the Truku's culture, apart from living. M'mah learned
to forg knives from his father and grandfather, and became the
third generation of best knife-maker. The sparks produced from the iron-casting
process impressed M'mah and made him as a decent Truku.
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To date the hand-made knife technique is being gradually replaced by the delicate machines and the TonLan knife makers are fading out over time. On the other hand the remaining knife makers are also facing difficulty in passing technique to the next generation. |
Nevertheless, M'mah keeps up his life with knife making and has passed it on to the first son; the fourth generation of best knife maker. The 40-year career in keeping technique from falling has made M'mah a reputation and his spirit maintains eternally among locals and the area. In the following page, we will take you further into M'mah's odyssey in his eternal knives ... |
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