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Truku people worship
their Utux (ancestors’ spirits). They believe Utux control everything. Of
course, there are good Utux and evil Utux. The people that die naturally will
become good Utux, and the people that die in accidents, they will become demonic
Utux. As the demonic Utux cannot return to the world of spirits and be
worshipped by people, they will bring people disasters, such as illness, haunt
them, etc.
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Grandma asks us to
follow Ga-Ya
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The eye of ancestral
spirits
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In the mind of Truku
people, most good spirits are Utux, the guardian of the descendants. The
ancestors’ spirits guard over and punish the descendants as well, depending on
whether they obey the ancestors’ “Gaya,” i.e. moral standards and taboos in
rituals, etc. Therefore, for the sake of peace and a good harvest, the tribe’s
people should follow Gaya in order to get away from misfortune. In the past, if
the people broke the Gaya, they could plead the ancestors’ spirits to forgive
them by offering them a pig as a sacrifice.
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Hongye Presbyterian
Church
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Hongye True Jesus Church
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However, at the end
of the Japanese occupation and early Restitution period, Christianity was
introduced to the aborigines. Then, many people of the Truku tribe joined the
Catholic Church, True Jesus Church, Presbyterian Church, etc. The traditional
belief of Gaya no longer played a significant role in their daily life anymore.
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