Orchid Island
Encyclopedia
Orchid Island is a 45-km² volcanic island off the southeastern coast of Taiwan island and separated from the Batanes
of the Philippines
by the Bashi Channel
of the Luzon Strait
. It is governed as Lanyu Township of Taitung County
. The island is home to the Tao
, an ethnic minority group who migrated to the island from the Batan Archipelago
800 years ago. The island is known to them as Ponso no Tao or Pongso no Tawo (island of the people) or Irala. The island is also known as Botel Tobago.
ese charts as Tabako-shima in the early 17th century and Tabaco Xima on a French map of 1654. The Chinese who had no contact with the inhabitants of the island, called it Hongtouyu (紅頭嶼 Red-headed island), from which it was called Kōtō-sho during Japanese rule of Taiwan
. The Japanese government declared the island an ethnological research area off-limits to the public. This restriction remained in effect when the Republic of China
took over in 1945, but was lifted in 1967. It was because of the restriction that the Tao have the best preserved traditions among the Taiwanese aborigines
. Since then, schools were built on the island and education in Mandarin
became compulsory. Tourism to the island has also increased. The island is known by the Ami as Buturu and by the Puyuma as Botol.
On January 19, 1946, the island was designated as Hongtouyu Township (紅頭嶼鄉 "Red-headed Island") of Taitung County. November 24 of that year, it was renamed to Lan Yu, or Orchid Island, after the local Phalaenopsis
orchids.
is the only airline to offer flights to Orchid Island. The flight duration is half an hour and the daily frequency is dependent on weather conditions. Ferry trips to the island is available from Taitung's Fukang harbor.
The rock on the island is volcanic tholeiite
andesite
, and volcanic explosive fragments. The volcano erupted in Miocene
to Miocene
period. It is part of the Luzon Volcanic Arc
. Magma was formed from underthrusting oceanic crust
under compression about 20 km deep. The andesite rock contains some visible crystals of pyroxene
or amphibole
. The geochemistry
of the rock shows it is enriched in sodium, magnesium and nickel, but depleted in iron aluminium, potassium titanium and strontium.
of the Republic of China
selected Long Men (龍門) at the southern tip of Orchid Island as the site to build a "temporary" nuclear waste disposal facility. In reality, it was intended to store as much as 340,000 barrels (18,000 tons) of nuclear waste over a period of 50 years. The government deceived the Tao district commissioner, who was illiterate, that the government wanted to build a fish cannery and needed his signature to approve the project. In 1978 a harbor was built and construction of the nuclear storage facility began in 1980. During this whole time, the government continued its deception on the islanders until the island's churchgoers found out the truth from mainland Taiwan
news reports. Shipments of low and mid-level nuclear waste began arriving in May 1982 from Taiwan's three nuclear power plants operated by state-owned Taipower
. There are 97,672 barrels (over 4,800 tons) stored on the island in 23 concrete trenches without permission.
The situation gained nationwide publicity in 1991 when Kuo Jian-ping, a Presbyterian missionary, with the support of anti-nuclear groups, held demonstrations in Taipei
and handed a letter to Taipower making three demands: to stop the expansion of the second phase of construction on the waste site; the immediate stoppage of all nuclear shipments to Orchid Island; and the complete shutdown of the storage site by June 30, 1991. Taipower only complied with the first demand. It later complied with the second demand in 1996, but operation of the nuclear storage site still continues. The Executive Yuan
is expected to find a final destination for the nuclear waste and to complete construction of a storage site by 2016. The government has been negotiatiating with Russia
, the People's Republic of China
, North Korea
, and Solomon Islands
for the transferring and storage of Taiwan's nuclear waste.
In 2002, over half of the island population protested in front of the nuclear storage facility over the government's failure to keep its pledge to remove 100,000 barrels of low-level nuclear waste from the island . Premier Yu Shyi-kun
apologized in legislature over the government's failures to keep good on its pledges and that he could not say when and how the nuclear waste will be removed from the island given the difficulties of finding an alternative site. Taipower on the other hand asked the islanders to extend the storage arrangement for another nine years in exchange for NT$200 million (US$5.7 million).
Lesser Orchid Island (Wade-Giles
: Hsiao Lan Yü; Pinyin
: Xiao Lanyu; Little Botel-Tobago), an uninhabited volcanic islet near the main Orchid Island, is the southernmost point of Taitung County. It has been the target of military airplane's target practice. It is home to a critically endangered endemic orchid, Phalaenopsis equestris f. aurea
.
Batanes
The Province of Batanes , also called the Batanes Islands, is a Philippine province comprising ten islands that are located in the Luzon Strait between the islands of Luzon and Taiwan...
of the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
by the Bashi Channel
Bashi Channel
The Bashi Channel is a strait between the Y'Ami Island of the Philippines and Orchid Island of Taiwan. It is characterized by windy storms during the rainy period, June to December. It is a part of the Pacific Ocean....
of the Luzon Strait
Luzon Strait
The Luzon Strait is the strait between the island country of Taiwan and Luzon island of the Philippines. The strait thereby connects the Philippine Sea to the South China Sea in the western Pacific Ocean....
. It is governed as Lanyu Township of Taitung County
Taitung County
Taitung County is a county in eastern Taiwan. The name means "Eastern Taiwan". Taitung County is also known as 後山 by many of the locals, meaning behind the mountains or the back mountains. Taitung is officially administered as a county of Taiwan, Republic of China.Taitung runs along the south east...
. The island is home to the Tao
Tao people
The Tao , originally recognized as Yami , are a Taiwanese aboriginal people, native to tiny outlying Orchid Island in Taiwan. The Tao are an Austronesian people linguistically and culturally closer to the Ivatan people of the Batanes islands in the Philippines than to other aboriginal peoples on...
, an ethnic minority group who migrated to the island from the Batan Archipelago
Batanes
The Province of Batanes , also called the Batanes Islands, is a Philippine province comprising ten islands that are located in the Luzon Strait between the islands of Luzon and Taiwan...
800 years ago. The island is known to them as Ponso no Tao or Pongso no Tawo (island of the people) or Irala. The island is also known as Botel Tobago.
History
The island was first mapped on JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese charts as Tabako-shima in the early 17th century and Tabaco Xima on a French map of 1654. The Chinese who had no contact with the inhabitants of the island, called it Hongtouyu (紅頭嶼 Red-headed island), from which it was called Kōtō-sho during Japanese rule of Taiwan
Taiwan under Japanese rule
Between 1895 and 1945, Taiwan was a dependency of the Empire of Japan. The expansion into Taiwan was a part of Imperial Japan's general policy of southward expansion during the late 19th century....
. The Japanese government declared the island an ethnological research area off-limits to the public. This restriction remained in effect when the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
took over in 1945, but was lifted in 1967. It was because of the restriction that the Tao have the best preserved traditions among the Taiwanese aborigines
Taiwanese aborigines
Taiwanese aborigines is the term commonly applied in reference to the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. Although Taiwanese indigenous groups hold a variety of creation myths, recent research suggests their ancestors may have been living on the islands for approximately 8,000 years before major Han...
. Since then, schools were built on the island and education in Mandarin
Taiwanese Mandarin
Taiwanese Mandarin is a variant of Mandarin derived from the official Standard Mandarin spoken in Taiwan Area of the Republic of China . The latter's standard lect is known in Taiwan as 國語 , based on the phonology of the Beijing dialect together with the grammar of Vernacular Chinese...
became compulsory. Tourism to the island has also increased. The island is known by the Ami as Buturu and by the Puyuma as Botol.
On January 19, 1946, the island was designated as Hongtouyu Township (紅頭嶼鄉 "Red-headed Island") of Taitung County. November 24 of that year, it was renamed to Lan Yu, or Orchid Island, after the local Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis Blume , abbreviated Phal in the horticultural trade, is an orchid genus of approximately 60 species. Phalaenopsis is one of the most popular orchids in the trade, through the development of many artificial hybrids....
orchids.
Transport
The island is accessible by sea or air. Daily AirDaily Air
Daily Air is an airline based in Taipei, Taiwan. It operates scheduled passenger services to offshore islands from Taiwan, as well as helicopter contract services and charters...
is the only airline to offer flights to Orchid Island. The flight duration is half an hour and the daily frequency is dependent on weather conditions. Ferry trips to the island is available from Taitung's Fukang harbor.
Geography
There are eight mountains over 400 m high, the tallest mountain is Mt. Hongtoushan (紅頭山) at 552 m.The rock on the island is volcanic tholeiite
Tholeiite
The tholeiitic magma series is one of two main magma series in igneous rocks, the other magma series being the calc–alkaline. A magma series is a series of compositions that describes the evolution of a mafic magma, which is high in magnesium and iron and produces basalt or gabbro, as it...
andesite
Andesite
Andesite is an extrusive igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between basalt and dacite. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene and/or hornblende. Magnetite,...
, and volcanic explosive fragments. The volcano erupted in Miocene
Miocene
The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...
to Miocene
Miocene
The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...
period. It is part of the Luzon Volcanic Arc
Luzon Volcanic Arc
The Luzon Volcanic Arc is a chain of volcanoes in a north south line across the Luzon Strait from Taiwan to Luzon. It is the northern extension of the Philippine Mobile Belt...
. Magma was formed from underthrusting oceanic crust
Oceanic crust
Oceanic crust is the part of Earth's lithosphere that surfaces in the ocean basins. Oceanic crust is primarily composed of mafic rocks, or sima, which is rich in iron and magnesium...
under compression about 20 km deep. The andesite rock contains some visible crystals of pyroxene
Pyroxene
The pyroxenes are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. They share a common structure consisting of single chains of silica tetrahedra and they crystallize in the monoclinic and orthorhombic systems...
or amphibole
Amphibole
Amphibole is the name of an important group of generally dark-colored rock-forming inosilicate minerals, composed of double chain tetrahedra, linked at the vertices and generally containing ions of iron and/or magnesium in their structures.-Mineralogy:...
. The geochemistry
Geochemistry
The field of geochemistry involves study of the chemical composition of the Earth and other planets, chemical processes and reactions that govern the composition of rocks, water, and soils, and the cycles of matter and energy that transport the Earth's chemical components in time and space, and...
of the rock shows it is enriched in sodium, magnesium and nickel, but depleted in iron aluminium, potassium titanium and strontium.
Economy
The islanders are farmers and fisherman relying on a large annual catch of flying fish and on wet taro, yams, and millet.Nuclear waste controversy
In 1974 the Atomic Energy CommissionAtomic Energy Commission
Many countries have or have had an Atomic Energy Commission. These include:* Australian Atomic Energy Commission * Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission * Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique...
of the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
selected Long Men (龍門) at the southern tip of Orchid Island as the site to build a "temporary" nuclear waste disposal facility. In reality, it was intended to store as much as 340,000 barrels (18,000 tons) of nuclear waste over a period of 50 years. The government deceived the Tao district commissioner, who was illiterate, that the government wanted to build a fish cannery and needed his signature to approve the project. In 1978 a harbor was built and construction of the nuclear storage facility began in 1980. During this whole time, the government continued its deception on the islanders until the island's churchgoers found out the truth from mainland Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
news reports. Shipments of low and mid-level nuclear waste began arriving in May 1982 from Taiwan's three nuclear power plants operated by state-owned Taipower
Taiwan Power Company
The Taiwan Power Company is a state-owned electric power utility providing electric power to Taiwan and off-shore islands of Republic of China. In 1994 a measure which allowed independent power producers to provide up to 20 percent of Taiwan's electricity should have ended the monopoly.- See...
. There are 97,672 barrels (over 4,800 tons) stored on the island in 23 concrete trenches without permission.
The situation gained nationwide publicity in 1991 when Kuo Jian-ping, a Presbyterian missionary, with the support of anti-nuclear groups, held demonstrations in Taipei
Taipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
and handed a letter to Taipower making three demands: to stop the expansion of the second phase of construction on the waste site; the immediate stoppage of all nuclear shipments to Orchid Island; and the complete shutdown of the storage site by June 30, 1991. Taipower only complied with the first demand. It later complied with the second demand in 1996, but operation of the nuclear storage site still continues. The Executive Yuan
Executive Yuan
The Executive Yuan is the executive branch of the government of the Republic of China , commonly known as "Taiwan".-Organization and structure:...
is expected to find a final destination for the nuclear waste and to complete construction of a storage site by 2016. The government has been negotiatiating with Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
, and Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
for the transferring and storage of Taiwan's nuclear waste.
In 2002, over half of the island population protested in front of the nuclear storage facility over the government's failure to keep its pledge to remove 100,000 barrels of low-level nuclear waste from the island . Premier Yu Shyi-kun
Yu Shyi-kun
Yu Shyi-kun , a Taiwanese politician of the Democratic Progressive Party, is a former chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan. He previously served as Premier of the Republic of China from 2002 to 2005...
apologized in legislature over the government's failures to keep good on its pledges and that he could not say when and how the nuclear waste will be removed from the island given the difficulties of finding an alternative site. Taipower on the other hand asked the islanders to extend the storage arrangement for another nine years in exchange for NT$200 million (US$5.7 million).
Villages
The village communities (社) are: (The asterisks indicate the four current administrative villages (村)| Yami name | Chinese | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Yayu | Yeyou (椰油) | * |
| Iraralay | Langdao (朗島) | * |
| Iranumilk | Dongqing (東清) | * |
| Ivarinu | Yeyin (野銀) | not an administrative village |
| Imourud | Hongtou (紅頭) | * Redhead Village, township seat |
| Iratai | Yuren (漁人) | Incorporated into Imourud Village in 1946 |
| Iwatas | Yiwadasi 伊瓦達斯 | Incorporated into Yayu in 1940 |
Lesser Orchid Island (Wade-Giles
Wade-Giles
Wade–Giles , sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a romanization system for the Mandarin Chinese language. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade during the mid-19th century , and was given completed form with Herbert Giles' Chinese–English dictionary of 1892.Wade–Giles was the most...
: Hsiao Lan Yü; Pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
: Xiao Lanyu; Little Botel-Tobago), an uninhabited volcanic islet near the main Orchid Island, is the southernmost point of Taitung County. It has been the target of military airplane's target practice. It is home to a critically endangered endemic orchid, Phalaenopsis equestris f. aurea
Phalaenopsis equestris
Phalaenopsis equestris is a plant of the orchid genus Phalaenopsis and native to Philippines and Taiwan. The inflorescence has 10 to 15 flowers of about 25 mm diameter....
.
See also
- List of volcanoes in Taiwan
- Green IslandGreen Island, TaiwanGreen Island is a small volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean, about off the eastern coast of Taiwan. In the 19th century it was known as Samasana Island and the Japanese called it Kasho-to . The island is 15.092 km² at high tide and 17.329 km² at low tide...
- the other offshore township of Taitung County - List of islands of the Republic of China
- Tao peopleTao peopleThe Tao , originally recognized as Yami , are a Taiwanese aboriginal people, native to tiny outlying Orchid Island in Taiwan. The Tao are an Austronesian people linguistically and culturally closer to the Ivatan people of the Batanes islands in the Philippines than to other aboriginal peoples on...
External links
- Taiwan Aborigine Monograph Series 2
- Taipei Multicultural Arts Group
- The Yami on Botel Tobago
- Cultural Survival on Orchid Island
- No place for nuclear waste
- Taipower, North Korea strike accord on nuke waste storage
- Nuclear dump dispute on Orchid Island
- Orchid Island: Taiwan's nuclear dumpsite
- Orchid island: Travel and scuba packages