Your first impression of Orchid Island as you wing your way in a small, propeller-driven aircraft across the 62 kilometers of Pacific Ocean that separate it from the city of Taitung on the southeastereen mass rising from the sea. As the airplane draws near, the mass takes on the shape of steep mountains soaring above narrow valleys and rugged coasts. Even closer, and the tiny airstrip appears, perched just above the coastline between the villages of Yayo ("yehyu" in Mandarin Chinese) and Iratay ("yujen," or fisherman).
It seems impossible that an airplane could land on such a small strip of runway; but land it does, and you disembark along with the few other passengers and enter the little terminal building. Before you can exit to the road on the other side of the terminal you are beset by an old and wizened woman either begging for money or offering to sell a few pitiful specimens of seashells. You might also be approached by someone with a taxi or motor scooter to rent.
But if you have made overnight reservations at one of the two hostels on the island, you will be met by a minibus that will whisk you up the road to the Orchid Hotel in Yayo or the Lanyu Hotel in Iratay. Both are small, basic, and expensive for what they offer. But this is Orchid Island; and like its native residents, the Yami, its hotels have not really caught up with the modern age.
First known to the West as Botel Tobago and given the name Hungtou (Redhead) Island by a Ching dynasty commissioner, the island was finally renamed Lanyu (Orchid Island) by the ROC government in 1946 because of the butterfly orchids that once grew there in profusion. The orchids still grow in the mountains, and sometimes they are offered to sale to tourists, but today they have become quite rare.
Two thousand or so Yamis inhabit the 45.7-square-kilometer island. Like the other indigenous peoples of Taiwan (there are a total of nine surviving tribes), the Yamis are of Malayo-Polynesian stock; linguistic studies and their own legends leave little doubt that they reached Taiwan by way of the Batanes island group, which lies in the Bashi Channel midway between southern Taiwan and the northern Philippine island of Luzon. The legends speak of Itabayat and Ibatan, names very similar to those of the two largest islands of the Batanes, and there is even a small island in the group named Yami.
Timeless Simplicity
Due largely to their isolation, the Yamis are the most primitive of Taiwan's aborigines. Although most of the young people prefer to leave their small island home to search for the greater material rewards available in Taiwan, those who remain continue, to a remarkable extent, to follow their old ways.
The basic economy of the island is still subsistence farming and fishing. The men do the building and the fishing, leaving the women to till the fields and take care of the housework. The most important staple food is fish; from the fields come both wet and dry taro, sweet potatoes, yams, and millet. There is paddy rice now too, introduced by the Chinese. Pigs and goats are raised in profusion.
The traditional Yami dwelling is a semi-subterranean house built in a shallow excavation so that only the roof shows. Cool in summer, warm in winter, these ingenious houses are nearly impervious to the fierce typhoons that strike frequently from May through September. On one side of these living quarters is a smaller work house with a board floor and an underground storage space. On the other side of the dwelling is an elevated, roofed platform, situated so that it gives a clear view of the sea and catches the cooling breezes, where the Yamis relax and eat, smoke, chew betel nuts, and visit.
The depressions in which the dwellings are built are neatly walled with stone; the level area in front of each house is covered with stones, and the spaces between houses are paved with stone and serve as pathways. The overall effect is of an extremely efficient, highly practical arrangement that is ideally-suited to the local environment.
Unfortunately, these traditional three-element housing units seem in danger of extinction, replaced by government-built square concrete boxes. The old houses have nearly disappeared from four of the island's six villages; they are preserved in large numbers only in the two villages on the east cost.
Distinctive Transportation
But the most distinctive artifact of the Yami people remains much in evidence: the ingeniously constructed and meticulously decorated canoes that are the pride and joy of almost every household. These come in two sizes: small boats for one-to-three persons that are made by family groups, and large boats holding up to a dozen or so men that are constructed by lineage associations. Boats in either size group may, or may not, be lavishly carved and painted. Every Yami man aspires to build a canoe sometime during his life.
These canoes are fashioned, using the most primitive of tools, of 27 different pieces of wood cut from live trees and held together with pegs. The launching of a decorated boat is an occasion of much celebration and ritual. The other major celebration on Orchid Island is the Flying Fish Festival, held annually at the start of the flying fish season each spring. Despite a determined government effort some years ago to force Yami men to wear bermuda shorts instead of loincloths, which were held to be "inelegant," men can still be seen in their traditional garment. On special occasions, too, you might see a man walking down the road wearing "armor" consisting of a rattan vest and helmet, and perhaps carrying a spear. These days, such accouterments are for decoration only.
The most prized possession of a Yami man, with the possible exception of his boat, is a conical silver helmet that covers the entire head with only small holes left for the eyes. The Yamis do not smelt metal; these helmets are made of strips of silver beaten from Spanish and Japanese coins. They are brought out only on the most festive of occasions.
A 37-mile paved highway circles the island and gives access to all six villages. The road can be walked in a long day, but the more common way to see Orchid Island is to hire a taxi, go on a minibus tour organized by one of the hotels, or rent a motor scooter. The road passes by all of the main sights: rocks shaped like lions, dragons, turtles, a tank, battleships; a group of shallow and not very interesting caves; a low-level radioactive waste storage facility on the southern coast that enthusiastically welcomes visitors. The only beach worth the name is in Imorod (Redhead) Village, in front of the Lanyu Hotel.
The best reason to visit Orchid Island is to explore Yami culture. But take care: many of the island's people have become highly sensitive about being treated like animals in a zoo, so the best thing for the tourist is to be equally sensitive. Photography is a particular sore point, and the local people often demand outrageous fees for taking pictures. Nevertheless, the Yamis are basically a very warm and hospitable people, and the trip is well worth the effort especially since the unique culture of Orchid Island seems to be on the brink of extinction.
Getting There
Formosa Airlines and Taiwan Airlines operate an almost continuous series of flights between Taitung and Orchid Island in the daytime, weather permitting. The flight takes about 25 minutes. There are also scheduled direct flights from Taipei and Kaohsiung, but the schedule is not always reliable.