Visiting the natives
January. It's winter in Moscow. There is no snow, not cold, not warm. Grey sky. It is quite difficult to find a smile on the faces of citizens in public transport. Jayapura is a city in the north of West Irian, Papua New Guinea, the easternmost province of Indonesia. Eternal summer is in full swing. We are here, we are looking for a way to the Papuans.
In the center of the island there is the Baliem Valley. Planes fly here from the city. There is “civilization” here. The journey takes about 30 minutes. An old Boeing. We walk across the field to the plane. They took off, crossed the ridge and landed immediately. An ordinary town. Only instead of an airport there is a barn made of chain-link mesh. Baggage is handed out directly from the loader, and when the plane lands on the tarmac, the siren is turned on so that children, motorcyclists, pigs and cows have time to run away.
Everything is brought here by air; there are no land roads. This is probably why already in Wamena, where we arrived, you can see naked Papuans, women with bare breasts and a traditional market on the outskirts of the village. The expressions on the faces of the local population do not convey emotions. These are Melanesians, they belong to their own Australoid race. We are not them. They are not us. Even the Indonesians, who themselves are “non-locals” here, seem like “our own” to us.
Another half hour by car, and then we put our backpacks on our shoulders and wade through a stormy mountain tropical river. It's raining. Not cold, not hot. Pine trees can be seen here and there. Equator, Indonesia..?
The backpacks contain only personal equipment, clothing, sleeping bags and travel mats. We did not take tents, since we planned to spend the night in local villages. Although we took the lightest and most comfortable backpacks for such a hike, it was not easy to walk in such a climate without the habit. Therefore, passing through the huts of the Papuans, we hired porters who, for a modest remuneration, carried our luggage onto their shoulders.
You cannot do without sleeping bags when spending the night in local houses, built in the shape of a circle from boards and covered with thatch. Insects, rats and other nasty things ran all over us all night. Therefore, despite the warm climate, sleeping bags were very useful. We took Alexika with us. The reason is simple - minimum weight with maximum quality.
Navigating through villages and hamlets in Papua is not easy. It seems that we are walking along a path, quite wide and well-trodden. We reach the village. In front of us is a stone fence more than a meter high. He has a staircase made of logs. We climb up it and go down along the same structure. At the very bottom of such a wall there is a narrow passage through which domestic pigs can run. The history of the design is as follows. Before white missionaries came to these parts, the Papuan tribes fought with each other. They lived in the Stone Age. That is why they surrounded their villages with a stone fence. They didn’t know how to make gates; they used stairs that could simply be removed at night.
By the middle of the second day, almost all of our backpacks were on the shoulders of the natives. Stone axes and bows, which are still used by the men of the Dani tribe, began to fall into our hands. Actually, in addition to such weapons, the only thing you can see on them is a bean pod placed on the male genital organ. This is sexual protection! At one end it is attached with a rope around the waist, and at the other - around the testicles.
Women have a different ritual. The very stone axes that we saw in the hands of the aborigines have a direct purpose. They are used to cut off the phalanges of the fingers of the fair sex. This event is tied to the death of one of her relatives. A relative dies - down with the phalanx. We saw grandmothers who only had stumps instead of fingers. A big family means big sacrifices. By the way, almost without fingers, they perfectly weave string bags. After all, there are no pockets for coins and cigarettes on the bean pod. And cigarettes in these parts are almost the main currency. (Indonesia is a Muslim country, alcohol is not held in high esteem here).
The goal of our hike was to reach settlements where there is no electricity. This means no television, no Hollywood films, no advertising, no brainwashing. This means there is preservation of local traditions and culture. Around us are thatched huts, men with pods on their sore spots, and women with chopped off fingers. Children... Their faces and expressions are no different from adults. Such men who have not yet grown up. The only difference is the snot. White snot on a black face. Well, at night the rain was beating on the roofs of the huts, and rats were running around our sleeping bags. Toilet - for small needs anywhere, for big needs - anywhere behind the village fence.
The way back is short, but more difficult and dangerous. Along the path along the stormy river. Suspension bridges made of vines that can only be crossed alone. After rain the soil is slippery. One wrong step and he fell into the abyss. By the way, along the entire route I was the only one who did not give my backpack to the porters. It contained a map of the area, a navigator, and a first aid kit. I didn’t want to see all this contents flying into the water along with one of the Papuans, so from the very beginning I decided to carry everything myself.
Exit to the river, crossing back through a muddy mountain stream, meeting a minibus - the feeling that in an instant we were transported from a fairy tale of the past to the real “civilized” present. Within a few hours, the old Boeing, which we were waiting for right on the runway, carried us back to the capital of Indonesian Papua - Jayapura, and from there to modern Bali.
The Dani tribe was discovered by whites in the 30s of the 20th century. In a few more years, bean pods will be traded for Chinese shorts and T-shirts, and the tradition of honoring deceased relatives will be traded for long-running television series. In the south of Papua live the Korowai and Asmat tribes. There are no airfields or electricity there. Missionaries arrived in those parts only in the 80s of the 20th century. No houses are built in those places; people live in trees. For the She-Wolf school of survival, this is a chance, an opportunity to see the world as it was a few hundred years ago, as it has remained for thousands of years. We are preparing the next expedition!
New Year's trip - walk, see the people and volcanoes of Indonesia. The Republic of Indonesia (Republik Indonesia) is a state in Southeast Asia. It is the largest island nation in the world, stretching 5,120 km between Eurasia and Australia. Indonesia is located in the most seismically active zone on the planet and is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Every year, up to 7 thousand earthquakes with a magnitude above 4 are recorded in the region. Indonesia has more than 130 active volcanoes, and a huge number of extinct ones - the country ranks first in the ranking of world volcanism. The current size of the country owes much to the colonial activities of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which managed to unite the islands of the archipelago in the fight against Portugal. Portugal was still able to maintain its sovereignty over part of the island of Timor and now the state of East Timor is located there. The capture of the country by Japan during World War II brought an end to Dutch dominance. Indonesia's official independence was declared on December 27, 1949. Territorial and religious conflicts within independent Indonesia continue to this day.
New Guinea is the second largest island on Earth after Greenland. It is washed by the Pacific Ocean from the south and the Indian Ocean from the north. The west of the island belongs to Indonesia, while the eastern part of the island belongs to Oceania and is home to the state of Papua New Guinea. The island is the largest island divided between countries. In the western part of the island rises the Maoke mountain range, in which the highest point in Indonesia is located - Puncak Jaya (Carstensz) with a height of 5030 m. In the east there are the Bismarck Mountains, whose highest point - Mount Wilhelm - is 4509 m. The longest river of the island is the Fly River. New Guinea is a tropical island and therefore has a very large variety of species. It is home to 11 thousand species of plants, more than 600 unique species of birds, over 400 species of amphibians, 455 species of butterflies and about a hundred known species of mammals. New Guinea is considered one of the wildest and most uninhabited territories. But having been there, you can no longer say that. Roads are being actively built, jungles are being cut down, people are multiplying. There are practically no maps for this region, and those that exist do not reflect the state of the area at all. Where there are white spots on the map, everything has already been dug up and populated.
First look at the island of New Guinea. Islands in Lake Sentani (Danau Sentani, Lake Sentani).
The landing strip is located on the shore of the lake, and there are excellent views when taking off or landing.
Sentani Airport is located right on the shore of the lake, when flying or arriving you can see a stunning view of the lake with islands, hills and houses. Sentani is a small village served by an airport, while the main town of Jayapura is on the ocean coast. I must say that planes here are like buses, they are cheap and fly frequently. There are 684 airports in the country. A reasonably priced ticket can be purchased just before departure. For each flight you need to pay a special fee, which is different everywhere. For domestic flights it is small, but for international flights it is 150,000 rupees ($1 = 8980 Indonesian rupees).
Indonesian child.
Settlement on the shore of Lake Sentani.
Indonesia has a population of about 245 million people. This is 4th place in the world, after China, India and the USA. The ethnic composition of the population is Javanese 40.6%, Sundanese 15%, Madurese 3.3%, as well as Badui, Tengger, Indonesian Malay, Balinese, Minangkabau, Ache, Banjar, Dayak, Makassar, Bugis, Minahans, Galela, Manggarai and others .
Along the shoreline of Lake Sentani and on its islands, houses are built on stilts directly above the water.
The density of houses is quite high - almost the entire coast is populated.
Islands are everywhere here, because Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago. In total, official statistics count 17,804 islands, of which 7,870 are named and 9,634 unnamed, of which about 6,000 are inhabited. They say that there are actually more islands, but it is difficult to simply count them. The largest islands are New Guinea, Kalimantan (Borneo), Sumatra, Sulawesi and Java. The remaining islands have a much smaller area.
Freshwater Lake Sentani is the largest in Papua and is located at an altitude of 75 m. It is quite deep and has a complex shape. The lake was once a bay, but as a result of tectonic forces that raised the mountains (Cyclop Mountain), the bay was fenced off from the ocean and became freshwater.
During World War II, the American Army cleared most of the hills around Lake Sentani of vegetation for early detection of attacks by the Japanese. And now there are still bald tops on the hills. The lake is part of the Cycloops Nature Reserve and is one of the attractions.
New Guinea was once connected to Australia and was separated as a result of rising global sea levels. Therefore, there are many species of animals and plants from Australia on the island. Human settlement occurred at least 45 thousand years BC. e. from Asia. More than a thousand isolated tribes were formed. There were no animals suitable for domestication on the island, and this hindered the development of agriculture and cattle breeding. This contributed to the preservation of the primitive communal system in New Guinea until the present day. The variety of languages and many tribes was due to the isolation of people from each other due to the complex mountainous landscape and the lack of technical means to facilitate communication.
New Guinea was known to Indonesian and Asian sailors many centuries before Europeans saw it. Spanish and Portuguese sailors first discovered it in the early 16th century. In 1526, the Portuguese Don Jorge de Menezes landed on the northwestern coast of the island. He named the lands he discovered Ilhas dos Papuas - "Islands of Papua", from the Malay word meaning "curly". (The local tribes have coarse, curly hair.) Later, in 1545, the Spaniard Inigo Ortiz de Retes passed by the island and named it “New Guinea” because the coast reminded him of the shores of African Guinea. Even later, Spanish merchants began to export gold, silver, coconuts, rubber and precious trees from New Guinea. A significant contribution to the study of the peoples of New Guinea was made by the Russian scientist and traveler N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, who worked on the island in the 70s - 80s of the 19th century. Holland captured western New Guinea in 1828 and incorporated it into the Dutch East Indies and officially annexed it in 1848. In 1884, the rest of the island was divided between the Netherlands, Great Britain and the German Empire. The Netherlands retained the western half of New Guinea, the British acquired the southeast, and the Germans acquired the northeast. The British part was given to Australia in 1906, and the German part became an Australian Mandate of the League of Nations after the First World War.
A street in the local center of civilization - the village of Vamena,
located in the center of the Baliem Valley.
During World War II, New Guinea was occupied by Japan. The Japanese committed such atrocities that the Papuans helped the Allied forces as best they could, transporting equipment and wounded across the entire island. After the war, Indonesia laid claim to the western part of New Guinea, which, however, remained under Dutch administration. In 1961, elections were held and a parliament was created. Then Indonesia, in response to this, sent in its troops and announced the annexation of the western half of the island to Indonesia. The western part of New Guinea, which received the new name West Irian, gradually came under Indonesian influence. In 1963, there was the first attempt to proclaim the independent Republic of West Papua by the local population, which was forcefully suppressed by the Indonesian authorities. Mass deportations of the Papuan population were carried out, and settlers from Java followed in their place. It is estimated that about 300 thousand Papuans died as a result of ethnic cleansing.
A referendum on independence was held in 1969, but instead of a universal vote, the decision was made by specially selected delegates. West Irian became part of Indonesia in August 1969. This injustice led to the formation of the Free Papua Movement (Organisesi Papua Merdeka), which argued that if a full referendum were held, the people would vote for independence from Indonesia. On July 1, 1971, the movement made a new, also unsuccessful, attempt to proclaim the independence of the Republic of West Papua. Since then, this organization has been waging an insurgency against the Indonesian government. Since 1973, the central Indonesian authorities have renamed the province of West Irian to Irian Jaya ("Victory Irian") to perpetuate ownership of the territory. In 1975, eastern New Guinea gained independence from Australia. This is how the state of Papua New Guinea was formed. In 1984, there was another attempt to declare the independence of a territory called the Republic of Western Melanesia, but the leaders of the movement were arrested. The armed struggle continues today.
Western New Guinea is the name of the western part of the island of New Guinea, belonging to Indonesia. There is a lot of confusion with the names, because there are simply too many of them for one thing. West New Guinea was formerly known as Netherlands New Guinea (1895-1962), West New Guinea (1962-1963), West Irian (1963-1973), Irian Jaya , 1973-2001), and Papua (Papua, 2002-2003).
In 2003, the Indonesian government announced that Irian Jaya, previously a single province, would be divided into three provinces: Papua, Central Irian Jaya and Western Irian Jaya. However, this decision was met with significant protests among the local population. As a result of the decision of the Supreme Court of Indonesia, the creation of the province of Central Irian Jaya was canceled. Western Irian Jaya had already been created by that time (2006), but its future is still unclear. On February 7, 2007, it was renamed the province of West Papua. Those. There are now two provinces on the island - Papua and West Papua.
The territory of Western New Guinea - 421981 km 2 - is 22% of the total land area of Indonesia. The main city is the port of Jayapura. The province is located south of the equator and is dominated by mountainous terrain. Western New Guinea is the least populated territory of Indonesia, its population is approximately 1.56 million inhabitants, which gives an average density of 4 people. per 1 sq. km. More than 75% of the population lives in rural areas in small, scattered groups. People travel between cities mainly by plane or sea, but in some places roads have already been built. The main population centers are Jayapura, Manokwari, Soron, Merauke and Biak. Jayapura, the administrative center of the province of Irian Jaya and its largest city, was founded at one time by the Dutch. Sentani Airport is located near this city - our point of entry to the island. About 80% of the population is Papuan- and Melanesic-speaking, the former living in the mountainous areas, the latter along the coast. Their dark skin and curly hair distinguish them from the rest of the Indonesian population. Most Papuans live in small clan groups, isolated from each other. Agriculture is generally based on the cultivation of sweet potatoes. Wild and domestic pigs came to the island from Southeast Asia and had enormous cultural and significance for the people. Relatively recently, many of them lived as if in the Stone Age, walked almost naked, and were decorated with drawings and feathers. Some of the more remote tribes still have little contact with the outside world.
Among the highlands of Papua, the most accessible is the Baliem Valley (Lembah Baliem), located in the central part of the mountains. Here, in small villages scattered throughout the valley, live the Dani, Lani and Yali tribes. The only way to really get here and get out of here is by air. The main carrier from Sentani to Wamena is Trigana Air, but others fly too. A road has already been built to the west coast, but the journey along it takes three days and mainly only cargo is transported. Trails and numerous asphalt roads under construction connect the center of the Wamenu Valley with the rest of the villages. Approximately 300 languages are spoken in Papua, most of which are different from each other. Indonesian, along with local dialects, is used as a common language. Only people who communicate with tourists know English; they are also gradually learning Russian. There are quite a lot of Russian-speaking tourists here. Baliem Valley has become quite a tourist destination in recent times.
The first white man entered the Baliem Valley in 1938. American pilot Richard Archbold flew his seaplane over the snowy ridges and discovered the valley. The green and fertile valley is located at an altitude of over 1554 meters, is about 60 km long and 16 km wide and is surrounded by mountains. The river flows into a large valley from the north and is a wide, calm brown river. Then the river falls into a gorge, in which the raging stream quickly loses height, and below flows into the Arafura Sea on the southwestern coast.
Wamena is the capital of Jayawijaya Regency in the Indonesian province of Papua. This is the largest settlement in the local mountains. According to the data, the population is 10 thousand people, but it seems to me that in reality there are already many times more there. In total, about 300 thousand people live in the Baliem Valley and its surrounding area.
Papuans walk mostly barefoot, including along mountain paths.
And they can climb steep slopes much better than our boots.
Sale of tobacco by a Papuan from a remote village.
One of the few people in Wamena who truly wears national clothes.
In Wamena people no longer walk around naked, although quite recently everyone wore “traditional clothes.” Only a few beggars and visitors from distant villages wear national “clothing” - koteke (a pumpkin worn on the male genital organ). These people literally lived in the Stone Age a couple of decades ago, but now they wear shorts and T-shirts. In some places, the traditional way of life remains, but people here no longer eat people and don’t run around with spears. Although we have seen them with bows - they hunt.
An indoor market was built in Wamena, but the Papuans
If they don’t use it, they sit next to them on the ground. They say it’s more convenient for them.
Prices in Wamena are quite high compared to the rest of Indonesia. Water 2l - 20,000, water 19l 115,000, small pack of cookies - 7,000, stew (ham) 17,000, rice 15,000 per kg, potatoes 10,000 per kg, canned fish 23,000, bread - 20,000 rupees. Pedicab 10,000 for short distance, 20,000 rupees for long distance. They drive quite slowly.
Even Papuans who wear ordinary clothes
attract attention
The word "wamena" is translated from the local language as "pig to you."
Perhaps hunters caught wild pigs and brought them to the village in order to exchange them for vegetables.
This is how such an interesting name arose.
In the small village of Kurula, near Wamena,
actively preserve local culture for display to tourists.
It is difficult with names in the Baliem Valley - there are no established spellings, everyone is written by ear at random. Orientation is also hampered by the difference between the local and Indonesian names of the same village. For example, the local name is Kurula, and the Indonesian name is Jiwika. And everyone uses the one they like best. So when you study the map, you need to be prepared to look for names not by the first letters, but by similar sounds.
Red-toothed aunt.
Apparently she chewed tobacco or some local herb.
Feathers are one of the main items of Papuan jewelry.
Birds of paradise feathers are used whenever possible.
The ancient mummy of Vimontok Mabel in the small settlement of Sumpaima, a kilometer north of the village of Kurula.
The age of the mummy is about 280 years.
Papuans make mummies only if the leader of the tribe dies without leaving male heirs. He is mummified, considered alive and continues to perform his duties. To make a mummy, the body is tied with reeds soaked in pork fat, covered with palm leaves and placed near a fire. For about two weeks, wet grass is added to the fire to produce stronger smoke. The mummy is practically obtained by smoking. When ready, the mummy is transferred to the hut, all the lifetime decorations are put on the head, including a crown of bird-of-paradise feathers, animal fangs are inserted into the nostrils, bracelets are put on the hands, and the body is additionally decorated with patterns. This leaves the tribe with a protector and patron. The mummy leader will rule the tribe until his wife dies and his married daughters leave the village. After this, a new leader is chosen. The mummy lives in the men's house, people talk to her, bow down to her, and ask for advice at the gathering of elders. This is eternal life.
In the summer of 2010, my boyfriend invited me to take what he called the most unforgettable trip of my life. And since I was busy with moving and other organizational troubles during this period, I trusted his persuasion to leave the choice and organization of the trip to him. Yes, of course, in the process of preparation, I found out that we were going to Indonesia, and that the format of our vacation would be active and involve hiking conditions.
And only an uncertain bell of understanding rang in my head after I saw with what care he collected a first aid kit, packed matches and a satellite phone.
Well, the backpacks are packed, air mattresses, T-shirts, quick-drying towels are packed, suitable shoes are purchased.
An adventure lies ahead... After a long flight with 4 transfers, we finally reached Wamena in Indonesia. Airport: barracks buildings and one landing strip. On the plane, just before boarding, I was given an introductory course on the history and geography of the region.
New Guinea is the second largest island in the world, after Greenland. It is located in Oceania, more precisely in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The island is almost equally divided between two countries: Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. According to one theory, this is one of the first sites of human migration from Africa, which occurred more than 40,000 years ago.
Despite the fact that the island was discovered by Spanish discoverers back in the 16th century, due to the fact that a huge part of the island is impenetrable jungle, some of its parts remain poorly studied.
During World War II, the island was occupied by the Japanese. By the way, the Papuans, rejected by the atrocities of the Japanese army, showed themselves a lot in helping the allies, fighting alongside Australian soldiers, transporting equipment and the wounded across the entire island.
The region we were planning to visit was discovered by chance during this period. An American military plane crashed in the jungle of the island. The surviving soldiers were surprised when they found themselves visiting a tribe whose existence no one had previously known.
These were people whose development corresponded to the development of humanity in the prehistoric period. These small tribes subsisted primarily on the meat of dead animals and collecting wild plants. Their tools and weapons were made mainly of stone and wood.
We were able to see representatives of three tribes: Dani, Lani, and Yali.
And they looked like this:
To see them, we first drove for several hours from Wamena, and then, equipped with backpacks, we went on a three-week walking tour. We either slept in huts kindly offered to us by the tribal leaders, or pitched a tent.
After the Second World War, missionaries, if I’m not mistaken, American and Australian, began to come to Papua Indonesia with the goal of civilizing the local residents and, of course, for religious purposes. During this period they built a number of schools. Unfortunately, they are all empty now. You can also thank the missionaries for the imported sweet potatoes, from the cultivation of which the majority of the population now lives.
The tribes of Papua are polygamous. Women in the family do all the hard work: build huts, raise children, grow potatoes, look after wild pigs, carry water, cook, etc. The role of a man in the family is to reflect. And also, in the event of a war between tribes, to defend their territory. By the way, most often, feuds between tribes occur over stolen piglets or women.
From our trip, we brought various arrows as a souvenir. There are more than a dozen types of them: for piglets, for birds, for fish, separate ones for the enemy, for an unfaithful wife...
The island is home to wide biodiversity.
On the island you can see from 5 to 10 percent of all biological species of the planet, a huge number of endemic species - those that can be found only on this island and nowhere else, thousands of species are still unknown to scientists, more than 200,000 species of insects are supposedly undiscovered, about 20,000 plants, more than 650 species of birds.
INTERESTING FACTS:
1) Cases of religious and ritual cannibalism are still recorded in this region.
2) The Karawai tribes are known for building their huts in the branches of trees. This tribe was not known until 1970. But to see them, you will have to go for a month deep into the jungle (or organize a special helicopter flight, but the difficulty is that it is almost impossible for a helicopter to land in the jungle.)
3) Since 2003, the authorities of Inodencia have prohibited the entry of journalists into the tribal territory for work-related journalistic purposes.
4) In May 2006, tourist guide Paul Raffaele, who led the crew of the Australian TV show 60 Minutes, was allegedly approached by one of the tribesmen who stated that his 6-year-old nephew Wa-Wa ) was accused of being a shaman (according to religious beliefs, a person endowed with special abilities to communicate with spirits and supernatural forces, entering an ecstatic state, and also to cure diseases (witch doctor)). According to local rituals, the boy must become a victim of cannibalism. For obvious reasons, the 60 Minutes team refused to help them.
But Paul Raphael found support in another television company, which agreed to send a team to save the boy. Unfortunately, the entire group was deported from the country by Indonesian authorities before they even reached the tribe (officially due to visa problems). No more information is known about the boy's fate.
And another photo
Yes, I regard the experience of visiting this part of the Earth as unique and amazing. Unfortunately, civilization, slowly but surely, is reaching here, destroying local originality. Presumably, in 10 years, in terms of their culture and organization of life, the Papuans will be little different from modern people. But it's not too late to take a time machine and find yourself in the Stone Age!
HI ALL!
I open my LiveJournal with a post about one of my most unforgettable travels, because this is exactly the side I want you to recognize me: open, a little adventurous, sincere and courageous. This is my first post, so don't judge too harshly!
In the summer of 2010, my boyfriend invited me to take what he called the most unforgettable trip of my life. And since I was busy with moving and other organizational troubles during this period, I trusted his persuasion to leave the choice and organization of the trip to him. Yes, of course, in the process of preparation, I found out that we were going to Indonesia, and that the format of our vacation would be active and involve hiking conditions.
And only an uncertain bell of understanding rang in my head after I saw with what care he collected a first aid kit, packed matches and a satellite phone.
Well, the backpacks are packed, air mattresses, T-shirts, quick-drying towels are packed, suitable shoes are purchased.
An adventure lies ahead... After a long flight with 4 transfers, we finally reached Wamena in Indonesia. Airport: barracks buildings and one landing strip. On the plane, just before boarding, I was given an introductory course on the history and geography of the region.
New Guinia is the second largest island in the world, after Greenland. It is located in Oceania, more precisely in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The island is almost equally divided between two countries: Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. According to one theory, this is one of the first sites of human migration from Africa, which occurred more than 40,000 years ago.
Despite the fact that the island was discovered by Spanish discoverers back in the 16th century, due to the fact that a huge part of the island is impenetrable jungle, some of its parts remain poorly studied.
During World War II, the island was occupied by the Japanese. By the way, the Papuans, rejected by the atrocities of the Japanese army, showed themselves a lot in helping the allies, fighting alongside Australian soldiers, transporting equipment and the wounded across the entire island.
The region we were planning to visit was discovered by chance during this period. An American military plane crashed in the jungle of the island. The surviving soldiers were surprised when they found themselves visiting a tribe whose existence no one had previously known.
These were people whose development corresponded to the development of humanity in the prehistoric period. These small tribes subsisted primarily on the meat of dead animals and collecting wild plants. Their tools and weapons were made mainly of stone and wood.
We were able to see representatives of three tribes: Dani, Lani, and Yali.
And they looked like this:
//dariamontreal.livejournal.com
To see them, we first drove for several hours from Wamena, and then, equipped with backpacks, we went on a three-week walking tour. We either slept in huts kindly offered to us by the tribal leaders, or pitched a tent.
//dariamontreal.livejournal.com
//dariamontreal.livejournal.com
After the Second World War, missionaries, if I’m not mistaken, American and Australian, began to come to Papua Indonesia with the goal of civilizing the local residents and, of course, for religious purposes. During this period they built a number of schools. Unfortunately, they are all empty now. You can also thank the missionaries for the imported sweet potatoes, from the cultivation of which the majority of the population now lives.
//dariamontreal.livejournal.com
The tribes of Papua are polygamous. Women in the family do all the hard work: build huts, raise children, grow potatoes, look after wild pigs, carry water, cook, etc. The role of a man in the family is to reflect. And also, in the event of a war between tribes, to defend their territory. By the way, most often, feuds between tribes occur over stolen piglets or women.
From our trip, we brought various arrows as a souvenir. There are more than a dozen types of them: for piglets, for birds, for fish, separate ones for the enemy, for an unfaithful wife...
//dariamontreal.livejournal.com
//dariamontreal.livejournal.com
//dariamontreal.livejournal.com
The island is home to wide biodiversity.
On the island you can see from 5 to 10 percent of all biological species of the planet, a huge number of endemic species - those that can be found only on this island and nowhere else, thousands of species are still unknown to scientists, more than 200,000 species of insects are supposedly undiscovered, about 20,000 plants, more than 650 species of birds.
//dariamontreal.livejournal.com
- Cases of religious and ritual cannibalism are still recorded in this region.
- The Karawai tribes are known for building their huts in the branches of trees. This tribe was not known until 1970. But to see them, you will have to go for a month deep into the jungle (or organize a special helicopter flight, but the difficulty is that it is almost impossible for a helicopter to land in the jungle.)
- Since 2003, the authorities of Inodenza have prohibited the entry of journalists into the tribal territories for work-related journalistic purposes.
- In May 2006, tourist guide Paul Raffaele, who hosted the Australian TV show 60 Minutes, was allegedly approached by a tribal member who said his 6-year-old nephew, Wa-Wa, had been accused of in that he helps evil spirits (he heals witches). According to local rituals, the boy must become a victim of cannibalism. For obvious reasons, the 60 Minutes team refused to help them. But Paul Raphael found support in another television company, which agreed to send a team to save the boy. Unfortunately, the entire group was deported from the country by Indonesian authorities before they even reached the tribe (officially due to visa problems). No more information is known about the boy's fate.
And another photo
//dariamontreal.livejournal.com
//dariamontreal.livejournal.com
//dariamontreal.livejournal.com
July 13th, 2010
What is Papua and where is it located?
Papua is the western part of the island of New Guinea, one of the largest islands in the world. If you look at the political map of the world, you will notice that this island is divided exactly in half almost in a straight line. One part of it is Papua New Guinea, a state that has long been under the control of Australia, the second part is Papua itself, administratively related to Indonesia.
In fact, the island of New Guinea is unique for its inhabitants - the real Papuans live there - those very savage people, terrible on the outside and kind inside. Now, however, they are already heavily mixed with other nationalities from neighboring countries, but there are still areas in Papua, highly isolated and difficult to access, where Papuan culture still exists almost unchanged.
This story will focus specifically on West Papua, the Indonesian part of the island.
If you do not go into details and describe the history of Papua in a nutshell, you will get a picture of the conquest of a backward and undeveloped people by their more advanced neighbors - the Indonesians. Several decades ago, Indonesia forcibly subjugated part of the island in order to take over natural resources, as well as resettle its inhabitants from overcrowded Java to this pristine and sparsely populated oasis. The Papuans, of course, do not agree with this, and say that guerrilla warfare is still going on far in the mountains - the locals periodically take Indonesians hostage. That is why (or maybe just to collect tribute from tourists) the government artificially controls the movements of foreigners within some settlements of Papua and forces everyone arriving on its lands to issue a certain permit (permit, surat jalan in Indonesian) - for money, of course.
Relations between the indigenous people of Papua and the Indonesians are indeed strained. Papuans are like Tajiks for Muscovites - they work only in the dirtiest and lowest paid jobs, places with a predominance of Papuan population are considered especially dangerous and disadvantaged, and Indonesians always especially emphasize that Papuans are crazy and unpredictable. Our emotions from communicating with both turned out to be somewhat different, but more on that below.
How did we get there?
It was in September, we were looking for options for the New Year holidays, and it’s already quite late to do this 3 months in advance - as a rule, tickets for New Year’s dates are already exorbitantly expensive. We typed in all the destinations on the Qatar Airlines website until the system returned a suspiciously low price for the Moscow-Jakarta route. We didn’t know where Jakarta was then.
The first discovery for us was the size of the country. There are about 17,000 islands, the population of one island of Java is more than the entire population of Russia, more than 400 nationalities live in the country. To get from one end of the country to the other you need to fly for 8 hours. There are more than 650 airports in the country and the plane is the main, and sometimes the only way to travel around the country.
We bought the LP (Lonely Planet) guidebook and struggled for a long time with the question – where exactly to go? The guide to Indonesia is a hefty Talmud, and the more we read it, the worse we imagined our route - there were so many interesting things in Indonesia. This is Java with its famous volcanoes, the jungles of Kalimantan, the island of Sumatra, the Komodo nature reserve with the famous Komodo dragons, all sorts of paradise tropical islands, which are endless, etc. In order not to be scattered, we literally at the last moment decided to choose one single island to visit - Papua, and devote all 16 days we had only to it.
The capital of the region is the city of Jayapura - it is a major transport hub from where you can fly to various other parts of the island of Papua and regions of Indonesia. Our main goal was the settlement of Vamena - the unofficial capital of almost untouched, purely Papuan lands. Wamena is located in the Baliem Valley, located inside a mountain range. There are no roads to Wamena, and the only way to get there is by plane. The terrain there is mountainous and difficult to pass, and that is why in the valley of the Baliem River the Papuan tribes have been preserved in their original form, as they were many years ago, before missionaries came to Papua. There are few such tribes left, you can only reach them through long days of hard travel, but we decided not to go that far. We initially considered the light option - to walk around Wamena itself and the surrounding area, see the life of the Papuans, and film a colorful national show.
Our flight to Papua was very long and tedious. First, a 22-hour flight to Jakarta, then searching for tickets to Jayapura, etc. When we found out that the plane flies to Jayapura with three stops (in Makassar, Manado and Biak) for about 8 hours, we decided that these hours plus our twenty-two were too much, and decided to first settle on Biak Island for a few days .
We left home on December 31 in the afternoon, and landed at Biak airport on January 2 at half past five in the morning. Slightly stunned from the flight, we stumble out into the sticky night - the humidity is almost 100%. We chose a taxi driver with a non-disgusting face, found a hotel from LP - Intsia Hotel, judging by the map, it was located on the ocean shore, and after 5 minutes we were already there. The driver knew three words in English and smiled all the time. Just in case, we took his phone, as we wanted to take a ride around the island.
The hotel turned out to be expensive, the standard rooms were very poor for the money, so we decided to take a whole bungalow - a shabby house on the beach, but with a huge bathroom, good plumbing and air conditioning in every room. For all this wealth, they initially asked for 500,000 rupees (50 dollars per day - here and further I will round all prices to the nearest dollar by cutting off four zeros, it turns out approximately, but is easier to perceive). After a lot of haggling, they agreed to $40. This price included three meals a day. Looking ahead, I will say that we could not eat this food, it was inedible, and when we were at the hotel, we ate instant porridge and noodles that we accidentally grabbed from home.
On this day we had a standard program - Bosnik beach (dirty - a lot of household garbage and glass), the surrounding area, the city.
The only city on the island of Biak seemed to us an unpleasant place - very dirty, pigs rummaging through the garbage heaps, it stinks. But the people... The people of Biak Island were wonderful. On its streets we received as much attention as the Queen of England does not receive when she goes out into public. They waved at us, they smiled at us, they shook our hands, they took pictures of us on mobile phones and no one asked for money for photographs! On the contrary, everyone was simply eager to be photographed, and especially everyone wanted to be photographed with us.
We also tried to find a guide for trips around Biak and the nearby islands. First we asked at the hotel reception - we were assured that we would have everything - a guide, a car, islands, etc. Some minor Papuan came to the “interview” and spoke reasonable English, but all he talked about was a permit to stay on the island.
- We want to see the beautiful places of Biak and go to the islands, how much will it cost?
- Oh, Biak is a very beautiful island, you need to spend a week to get to know it a little! But first you need to do surat jalan...
- The guidebook says that you don’t need Surat Jalan to get around Biak.
- I recommend that you make a Surat Jalan, I will go with you to the police station and we will do it together!
- We already understand about Surat Jalan, let's discuss the route around the island.
- There are so many beautiful things in Biak, but first – Surat Jalan!
And so - in a circle five times. Each of his sentences began with the word “surat jalan”. This got us pretty tired, and then it made us angry. I took the Papuan by the hand and led him to a map of the island, asking him to point his finger specifically at those places that he considered worthy of visiting. The Papuan, smiling sweetly, began again about Surat Jalan. It became clear that we wouldn’t cook porridge with him, and we sent him on his way.
After that, we decided not to bother anymore with searching for a new guide and use the services of the guide Frankie, advertised on the Internet.
We invited Frankie to our room to discuss the details of the trip, and for special clarity between us we wrote down all our agreements (how useful this piece of paper was to us later). For a trip to a waterfall on the Vardo River, Frankie asked for some money that, in our opinion, was inadequate. When we said that one waterfall for the whole day was not enough for us, and we wanted to visit the most beautiful and interesting places on the island in terms of photography, Frankie fell into prostration and could not offer anything other than a moment in memory of the Second World War. So we finally realized that we wouldn’t organize a trip around Biak with Frankie, it would be better to just take a driver and go using a map from LP. But for a trip to the island of Ruhrbas for 2 days (with one overnight stay), Frankie quoted a price of 100 dollars, this money included gasoline, a boat, his services, in general, everything except food, which we had to buy ourselves at our own discretion. Frankie also said that this is a very good price because he has his own boat and does not rent it from anyone. He also promised to give us a tent and sleeping bags. We agreed to all these conditions and agreed to meet the next evening to prepare for the trip and buy groceries.
And for the coming day, we decided to organize a trip around Biak with the help of the driver who drove us from the airport. We called him, somehow explained that we wanted to discuss a trip around the island and invited him to our hotel for a conversation. The driver arrived not alone, but with his English-speaking daughter Mitya, who greatly facilitated our communications. We agreed that tomorrow morning we will go to the Vardo waterfall, then to the second Varsa waterfall, to Korem Bay and so on, as it goes. Mitya agreed to come with us as a translator. They asked for $50 for the car and gas. We agreed.
The morning started with a surprise. At the agreed time at the reception we met the driver and his daughter Mitya, pale with excitement. They confusedly explained that today was the wedding of one of the driver’s daughters, whom he had completely forgotten about, and he could not go with us. But they called another person, he has the same, very good car, and he will do the same thing for the same money. They apologized so sincerely and looked so unhappy that there was no desire to get angry, much less swear. They said that they would be incredibly happy to see us at 16.00 at their house for a wedding, and it would be a wedding according to Papuan customs, because the groom is a Papuan from Timiki. We couldn’t miss this and promised to come.
Our new driver turned out to be an unpleasant-looking guy who didn't understand a single word of English. We learned the words "stop" and "let's go" in Indonesian and our trip began. About an hour later we arrived at the place where the Vardo River began, or rather ended. The driver pointed to the bay and sat down to dinner with a sense of accomplishment. We tried to explain to the driver with all the necessary words in our phrase book that we didn’t care about the river itself, that we needed a waterfall, but our attempts led to nothing. Locals wandered around, and we tried to explain the same thing - in their faces and with the help of all parts of the body: here is the river, here is the canoe, here we are floating on it, here is the waterfall, and so on. We struggled with this issue for half an hour, but to no avail. What was surprising for us was that a trip to the Vardo waterfall is the most popular tourist attraction on Biak, and how it is possible not to correlate two facts together - the arrival of tourists on the river and their desire to visit the waterfall - remained a complete mystery. As a result, enlightenment passed over our driver’s face. He stuffed us back into the car and drove us somewhere. We drove for about 20 minutes, the road became narrower and narrower, until the jungle closed overhead and the sun disappeared. Then the road ended, a path began, and he showed with gestures that we should follow it. The path was overgrown with moss, then it began to go down, and there began to be a lot of roots and slippery stones. Ahead we heard the sound of water and finally came to... the top point of the waterfall, the place from where the water fell down! It was both sad and funny. We could neither see the waterfall, much less photograph it - we could only hear the sound of the water. The driver looked incredibly pleased - after all, the white tourists wanted a waterfall and they got it. We galloped along the rocks for about 5 minutes, thinking to find a descent - there was no descent. A heavy tropical downpour began and we walked back to the car. Okay, God bless this waterfall, let's try our luck at another one. They pointed their finger at the right place on the map several times, made sure he understood, and off they went.
As soon as we left the part of the island where there was a jungle, the sun came out - there was no rain at all on the coast. We really liked the road along the coast - it was probably the most beautiful thing we saw on Biak - kilometers of white, completely empty beaches, blue ocean and palm trees.
Here for the first time we regretted that we had not taken a tent from Moscow - how much we wanted to stay and live here, on empty beaches, among incredibly friendly people, and not in a stinking dirty city on the shore of a dirty bay.
The waterfall in the village of Varsa turned out to be very beautiful, although maybe not as big as we expected.
And then we, biting our elbows with frustration that we couldn’t stay in these beautiful places to live, rushed back to the city because we were late for the wedding. Of course, we had concerns that the wedding would actually turn out to be some kind of standard get-together, and we were rushing in vain, but in the end this event turned out to be much more interesting than the Wamena Papuans painted and dressed in feathers.
Post about the wedding here.
