Toakoham or Dashi, Take Your Pick

Toakoham is actually Dashi (大水) while Tien Liek is the old name of Chungli. Chungli is now pronounced Tien Liong, so we can see how the pronunciation of Taiwanese is changing. Instead of going back and adding these points to the last post, I’ve decided to write a new one. I’m doing more of the Aboriginal language name game for towns and adding a correction for the information I gave about Taoyuan. There’s still nothing new on Neili (內壢). 


Toakoham is an Aboriginal word, either from Ketalgan (凱達格蘭) or Atayal (泰雅), meaning “big stream.” Big Stream is Dashi (大水), a place outside of Taoyuan. I’ve written about Toakoham before, when discussing Owen Rutter’s 1922 account of Taiwanese cannibalism, which he gives in Through Formosa: An Account of Japan’s Island Colony: "The Chinese atrocities [in Taiwan], however, far exceeded any committed by the [Aborigines]. The latter took heads, it is true, but the Chinese ate and even traded in their victims flesh. After killing an [Aborigine], the head was commonly severed from the body and exhibited to those who were not on hand to witness the prior display of slaughter and mutilation. The body was then either divided among its captors and eaten, or sold to wealthy Chinese and even to high officials, who disposed of it in a like manner. The kidney, liver, heart, and soles of the feet were considered the most desirable portions, and were ordinarily cut up into small pieces, boiled and eaten somewhat in the form of soup. The flesh and bones were boiled, and the former made into a sort of jelly. The Chinese profess to believe, in accordance with an old superstition, that the eating of savage flesh will give them strength and courage…. During the outbreak of 1891 [Aboriginal] flesh was brought in – in baskets – the same as pork, and sold like pork in the open markets of Toakoham (大溪) before the eyes of all, foreigners included; some of the flesh was even sent to Amoy (廈門) to be placed on sale there" (Rutter 224-5). At that time, I still was figuring Toakoham was Taoyuan.

Mr. Su, who runs Citycat’s Railway Web site http://www.citycat.hdud.idv.tw, informs me that Dashi got its name in 1920, while Taiwan was a colony of Japan. Prior to being called Dashi, the town was Dakuchien (大姑嵌) and then Lin Castle (林城堡) for the chateau the wealthy Lin family (林本源家) of Panchiao kept in the area. The Lins built this home in 1865 as a retreat, a place they could go whenever clan warfare in Taipei between Taiwanese who imagined and sometimes knew they came from Zhangzhou (漳州) and those imagining and sometimes knowing they came from Chuanzhou (泉州) became too intense. In 1886, Taiwan Governor Liu Mingchuan (劉銘傳) relabeled the town Dakukung (大嵙崁) and it stuck until the Japanese came along.

When I ask people in Taiwan where the Aborigines went, I’m often told “to the mountains.” I’m starting to believe a lot of Aborigines didn’t go anywhere. Rather, they mingled with Chinese immigrants and stayed right where they have stayed for thousands of years. Taiwan’s history didn’t begin in 1624 with the arrival of the Dutch ships bearing Chinese settlers. Taiwan’s people, towns, roads, languages and customs have been around much longer than that. This happens to be one of the reasons I’m interested in finding out the Aboriginal names of places.