Sandimen Township is a
mountain indigenous township in
Pingtung County
Pingtung County is a county located in southern Taiwan. It has a warm tropical monsoon climate and is known for its agriculture and tourism. Kenting National Park, Taiwan's oldest national park, is located in the county. The county seat is Pin ...
,
Taiwan Province,
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
. The population of the township consists mainly of the
Paiwan people with a substantial
Rukai minority.
Names
Ethnic Chinese settlers adapted the original
Paiwan name into
Hokkien (; or ). Under Japanese rule the name was . Following the
handover of Taiwan from Japan to the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
in 1945, the area became Sandimeng Township () but the name was changed again in 1947 to Sandi Township () but the Taiwanese pronunciation of ''Soaⁿ-tē-mn̂g'' continued to be commonly used.
In August 1992, the township assumed its current name.
History
During the
Japanese era, Sandimen was grouped with modern-day
Majia Township
Majia Township () is a mountain indigenous township in Pingtung County, Taiwan. The area is known as Makazayazaya (瑪家雑牙雑牙社) in the Paiwan language, and the Taiwanese mountain pitviper (''Ovophis monticola makazayazaya'') is named af ...
and
Wutai Township as , which was governed under of
Takao Prefecture. Following the
Kuomintang takeover of Taiwan in 1945, Sandimen was assigned to