Sirayan

1. not comparablePertaining to the Siraya tribe, an indigenous people of Taiwan.

   Sirayan pragmatism was obviously the key reason that they showed no desire to make a headlong rush into the new faith, but Candidius blamed the inibs for this recalcitrance.

   2008, Chiu Hsin-Hui, The Colonial 'civilizing Process' in Dutch Formosa: 1624 - 1662, →ISBN

   1 more example

   Elements of its culture and language live on, and the association is striving to 'energise the Siraya tribe' and reconstruct the Sirayan language, the last native speaker having died c 1908.

   2010, Steven Crook, Taiwan: The Bradt Travel Guide, →ISBN, page 219

plural Sirayans

1. countableA member of the Siraya tribe.

   In Sirayan society, the Reverend Candidius observed that the Sirayans had a different definition of "sins", which he considered were merely "fanciful inventions" not forbidden by the Law of God.

   2008, Chiu Hsin-Hui, The Colonial 'civilizing Process' in Dutch Formosa: 1624 - 1662, →ISBN, page 135

   1 more example

   Unlike the Han people, who have traditionally preferred to bury their dead at times and in locations they consider auspicious, when a Sirayan died his or her body was first preserved by smoking, the buried under the floor of the family home.

   2010, Steven Crook, Taiwan: The Bradt Travel Guide, →ISBN, page 219

2. uncountableThe traditional language of the Sirayans.

   While texts in Sirayan and other aboriginal languages are lost, there is still a substantial extant corpus of texts in Sinckan and Favorlang.

   2016, Ulrich L. Lehner, Richard A. Muller, A.G. Roeber, The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Theology, 1600-1800, →ISBN