Tayal Ancestral Spirit Belief (Utux)

Atayal origin legends come in different traditions. One says that at Pinsbkan (around today's Ruiyan, in Ren'ai Township, Nantou) a great rock split open and the first Atayal ancestors stepped out; another tradition names Mount Papak Waqa as the ancestors' place of origin. The first ancestors taught their descendants to hunt, weave, and farm, and set down gaga for the people. The best-known Atayal tradition is facial tattooing (patas): a man had to prove his courage in headhunting and a woman had to master weaving before earning the right to the tattoo that marked adulthood and honor. But the tattoo's meaning reached beyond this world. The Atayal believe that after death the soul walks toward the "Rainbow Bridge" (Hongu Utux), and on its far side lies the land of the ancestors. The ancestral spirits guard the bridge, and only souls who kept gaga all their lives and earned the right to the facial tattoo may cross it and meet their ancestors again. The lines on a person's face became, in this way, a passage home to the ancestors.

Atayal worship centers on prayer to the ancestral spirits. There are no fixed temples; rites take place in the community's gathering house or out in the mountains and forests. Millet wine is essential, along with meat — pork, or game such as muntjac. An elder leads the people in praying to the ancestors, reporting the community's affairs, large and small, to Utux and asking for guidance and protection. It is less a petition to a deity than descendants quietly talking with the ancestors who have always been watching over them.

The most important Atayal ceremony is the Ancestral Spirit Ceremony (Ma'aho, also called Smyus), held after the millet harvest, with each community choosing its own date. The whole community gathers, and elders lead them in offering newly harvested millet and millet wine to the ancestral spirits, giving thanks for a year of protection and renewing the bond with those who came before.