Taiwan Culture

President Lai Praises Tao Sailors for Historic Canoe Voyage to Batanes

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Taiwan President Lai Ching-te praised Indigenous Tao sailors for completing a historic voyage from Orchid Island to the Philippines. The crew were invited to the Presidential Office to be honored for their achievement.

Taiwan-Philippines Indigenous Canoe Voyage

REPORTER:  
President Lai Ching-te has praised Indigenous Tao sailors for completing a historic voyage to the Philippines.

Lai Ching-te (TAIWAN PRESIDENT):  
With courage and wisdom, you arrived safely  
at your destination.  
You also carried forward the 300-year friendship  
between the peoples of two regions.

Taiwan is an important ancestral homeland of  
the Austronesian peoples.

Hundreds of years ago  
our ancestors followed the Kuroshio Current  
the seasonal winds, and the stars  
sailing from Taiwan into the vast Pacific Ocean.

REPORTER:  
The crew paddled a traditional Indigenous wooden canoe from Taiwan’s Orchid Island to Batanes in the Philippines this summer. The journey revived a maritime route that had been unused for centuries. The 60 sailors crossed about 100 nautical miles of the Bashi Channel in just two days. It’s the first time modern-day Taiwan has completed a cross-border voyage using traditional seafaring techniques.