Black Curses Of Taiwan Hill Tribes (台湾高山族的咒术)

Taiwanese hill tribes have their own forms of black curses which are lesser known by people outside of that region.

There are basically four forms of black magic used by these hill tribes.

The first one is using birds of white colours to carry the curse. The shaman will recite below mantra to one or a group of birds and then he/she will release the birds. And these birds will fly to the target’s house or they would perch onto the person’s shoulder. If this happens, then the shaman’s curse would have taken effect.

The mantra I have with me sounds like this:

Kalu walu ni hum, luwa sani sa hum, phei anluwani hum, kalu caosa wa hum… (49x)

The second form is using bamboo to curse the enemy, in this case a piece of green bamboo is used by shaman. The shaman would hold the bamboo and recites the abve mantra for 49x. After that, he/she shall insert the bamboo into a human manikin made of rice stalks. This rice stalk manikin is then buried in front of the person’s house and the victim will suffer from stomach ache.

The third form of black curse uses fire and ginger as mediums. The shaman will first make a manikin out of soil and then he will insert a piece of ginger into the stomach of the manikin. After that the said shaman will hold the manikin with his/her left hand and holds a burning white candle in his/her right hand. The shaman then moves the candle flame across the soil manikin while reciting the above mantra.

The purpose of the candle flame is to send heat into the victim’s body while the ginger is to inflict pain.

The fourth form of curse is using cemetery soils:

A shaman first goes to a grave of a person who have died from untimely death at night, he/she then recites below mantra 3 times:

Om peiwalalu, saniwalu lawani nie.

After that, some soils on the grave is collected into a container and the shaman will return to his/her altar to perform further ritual.

At the shaman’s altar, he/she would recite mantra sounds like:

Rupa walalu saniwaka wani hum (3x)

After the empowerment ritual, the soil is kept under the shaman’s altar until it is to be used.

When the shaman wishes to curse someone, then he/she shall retrieve some soil and recites the below mantra:

Ru om wani peiwani samiru nipeila hum (3x)

The soil is to be thrown on the road where the target will pass through or in front of the person’s house. If the curse is effective, the victim will fall sick or having very bad luck.

It does not matter if you like to scorn at these curses as merely superstitions now days… In old times people would just blame on someone of throwing black curses if anyone in a village fell sick; in many cases, people were killed by foundationless allegations.