"Voyage to the Oriental Treasure Islands: Dutch Encounters in Eastern Taiwan” is a special exhibition curated by the National Museum of Prehistory in cooperation with 11 domestic and foreign organizations based in the Netherlands, France, and Japan.
Four hundred years ago, Dutch explorers once sought for gold in eastern Taiwan, but were escorted by Puyama tribesmen back to their fort base in Tāi-uân (present-day Tainan) in southern Taiwan after their search efforts proved to be fruitless.
Four hundred years later, the friendship between the Netherlands and Taiwan is revisited in the "Voyage to the Oriental Treasure Islands" exhibition, marked by the attendance of Representative Guy Wittich of the Netherlands Trade & Investment Office at the Jan. 26 opening ceremony. Wittich also presented the museum with a scepter symbolizing trust, love, and peace.
The exhibition also includes a one-to-five scaled-down replica of a 17th-century Dutch wooden ship, as well as 120 artifacts on loan from Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan.
Precious items such as hand-drawn antique maps and nautical charts, gold-inlaid Chinese folding screens, scrolls, silver coins, chinaware, oil paintings, and metallurgy tools unearthed from Orchid Island will help visitors better understand the original Dutch adventurers and how they saw Formosa in the 17th century.