Characteristics of Gaoshan Nationality's Clothing

A forehead ornament used by men. There are two ways to make it. One is to use thick cloth as the ground and compose it with shellfish beads; The other is to wear beads alternately and tie them on the forehead and brim.

Crown jewelry, used by men. The headdress of Cao tribe in Taiwan Province added some feathers to the fur hat. Atayal is a dome made of rattan or bearskin with buttons at the bottom. Paiwan is good at making antler crowns and leopard tooth crowns. The Ami are good at making feather crowns and corollas.

Machete, metal handicraft. Popular in Gaoshan nationality area of Taiwan Province Province. Various shapes and lengths. The handle and wooden sheath are beautifully made and decorated. Some are carved with snake patterns, some are arranged side by side in herringbone, or dotted with geometric patterns such as points, lines and triangles, and some are inlaid with shellfish. The man wears it around his waist, which is not only a living appliance, but also an ornament.

Chest ornaments are very popular among Gaoshan people all over Taiwan Province Province. There are two kinds of samples. One is a chest strap, made of grass or cloth, decorated with treasures and hung with chain bags. The other is a chest chain, which is made of shell beads, glass beads, burnt beads and coral. The suture length can be hung on the chest after three or four weeks around the neck. Men's and women's bras are made in a similar way. In the past, the customs of disfigurement, such as plucking hair, cutting teeth, piercing ears, girdling the abdomen and tattooing, were widespread in all branches of Gaoshan nationality. After the mid-1940s, these customs tended to decline gradually, but their residual influence still existed.

Hair removal refers to the removal of body hair, some branches are male, some branches are female, and some branches are hermaphrodite. Men use bamboo clips to pull out, women use fine twine to twist out, and some even use charcoal to burn, and they don't feel pain.

Cutting teeth means pulling out the left and right front teeth or two canine teeth at the age of twelve to sixteen. Some put small iron bars directly on the teeth and knock out the teeth to be extracted with stones. Some branches of the custom of not extracting teeth and missing teeth are willing to dye their teeth black, taking Hei Chi as the beauty.

Ear piercing, especially suitable for paiwan and Ami men. They usually use lead plates, shells and bamboo tubes as earrings, and tie glass beads at one end of the carved bamboo tube with silk thread and tie them to the hair at the back of the head to prevent them from falling off.

Abdominal girding is a special custom of some male branches. The corset belt is made of thick bamboo pieces, with holes drilled at both ends, tied tightly with hemp rope and tied at the back waist. From the age of 12 and 13 to the age of 50 and 60, it is tightly tied around the waist and abdomen day and night, making the chest and legs muscles developed and healthy.

Tattoos, the specific situation of each branch is different, some men and women do not tattoo, and some men and women do not tattoo. Some regard tattoos as beautiful ornaments, while others regard tattoos as a symbol of bravery. Influenced by primitive religion, it is believed that tattoos can be blessed by ancestors' souls and avoid disasters. Besides tattoos, there are tattoos. No matter how you ruin your body, the purpose is the same, beautiful, brave, married, disciplined and respectable. The costumes of Gaoshan people are rich and colorful. Traditional clothing styles include top-down clothes, collared clothes, bras, vests, long-sleeved tops, skirts and so on. Men and women of all ethnic groups attach great importance to decoration, and there are many kinds of ornaments, including crown ornaments, forehead ornaments, ear ornaments, neck ornaments, chest ornaments, waist ornaments, arm ornaments, hand ornaments and foot ornaments. Decorative materials are mostly natural objects, which are quite distinctive. Such as shellfish, shells, glass balls, pig teeth, bear teeth, feathers, hides, bamboo tubes, flowers and so on. Among them, shellfish is the most widely used, not only many jewelry are made directly with it, but also Atayal and Xia Sai people have used it to sew precious shellfish clothes and sew them on tops.

Shell coat is a sleeveless coat made of two linens with a string of shell beads sewn on it. The production method is generally as follows: first, scallops are cut into small slices, then carefully ground into beads, and then tiny scallops are made into strings and sewn on the hem of linen clothes, even the whole body. It is called shell, shell or bead. Each shell garment needs tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of shells. Making shell clothes is very complicated and difficult, and it takes a long time and energy. Therefore, it is a symbol of power and wealth, and used to be the property of chiefs and rich people. At present, only the National Museum of Minzu University of China and the Anthropology Museum of Xiamen University have collections in Chinese mainland.

The clothing of Gaoshan men is generally equipped with a feather crown, a horn crown and a corolla. Generally, women of brotherly nationalities like to take flowers as the crown, while men of Gaoshan nationality take flowers as the crown, which can be said to be a feature. Men in some tribes also wear earrings, headdresses, foot ornaments, armbands and bracelets, which are colorful. The women's dresses of Gaoshan nationality are basically open-chested, and the skirts and sleeves are embroidered with exquisite and beautiful geometric patterns. This cardigan suit is suitable for subtropical climate, which can not only quickly dissipate heat and cool down, but also easily show the plump and solid figure of the upper body of the human body, making people feel lively, free and charming. Women wear knee-length shorts, beads, bracelets, gorgeous belts and garlands around their necks. Its hat is also very distinctive. Men wear rattan hats when they go up the mountain. There is a circular pattern on the top of the hat, which is a symbol of Yamei totem. Gaoshan people like to wear tall silver helmets when offering sacrifices. A silver helmet is a record of wealth accumulation. They cast the silver coins exchanged in kind into silver rings and made helmets, which were handed down from generation to generation and future generations. The heir adds at least one ring to the helmet, and the son divides the silver helmet into rings and distributes them to his son. On this basis, a new helmet was cast and passed down from generation to generation. People often wear this kind of silver helmet when they hold various festivals or launch new boats. This is a symbol of hard work, thrift and wealth. There are still some differences in the costumes of Gaoshan tribes. Clothing is the symbol of culture and the externalization of national aesthetic characteristics. The costumes of Gaoshan ethnic group pursue diversified colors and gorgeous styles.