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What is the species that Kavalan People make their Clothes..........???
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Good question Yuri
As far as I know there is only one old lady who still knows how to do it, and she is teaching youngsters from the local schools what she knows, which is all good. But I think she has forgotten what species to use, or perhaps she never knew, because she is using any species she is given, which are generally cultivated species from local fruit plantations.
I don’t think this is what they would have used in the past, and I know that
Musa balbisiana was the species used in the far south of Taiwan and in Chiayi, in west central Taiwan. But I have been unable to find
Musa balbisiana in the east of Taiwan around Ilan or Hualien, and here the only species naturally occurring are
Musa itinerans var. formosana and
Musa itinerans var. kavalanensis, which I am sure they must have used for cloth manufacture.
Musa balbisiana var. liukiuensis is the species used in the Ryukyu of Japan.
Interestingly, I have conducted a lot of research on Lanyu Island for different palm species and also bananas there. And I’ve questioned the local Yami people of Lanyu. They’ve told me stories of the old days where they would fight with other villages on the island wearing armour fashioned from palm leaves. Other than these garments, and ceremonial garments the only clothing they ever wore was a loincloth woven from banana fibres. I’ve learnt of places on the coast where the ladies would work the banana fibre with sea-water, and I’ve been shown on two separate occasions the species of banana they cultivated in the mountains for this purpose. The species is
Musa insularimontana.
Musa insularimontana is in my opinion another itinerans species, it differs from
Musa itinerans var. formosana only in the smaller sized plants and the seeds which are more than twice the size.
No banana species could have reached Lanyu island unaided, and there are no native species of banana on Lanyu, or any of the Batanes, or indeed any of the Ryukyu or Japanese Islands. Only Taiwan island, the Philippines and Mainland China are the only local places with native banana species. And for this reason I consider
Musa insularimontana a species introduced to Lanyu from Taiwan, and introduced for the manufacture of banana cloth.
Regards,
Phil