Papua New Guinea is one of the most amazing countries in the world with amazing cultural diversity. About eight hundred and fifty different languages and at least as many diverse ethnic groups coexist here, although the population is hardly seven million!
The name "Papua" comes from the Malay word "papuva", which in Russian means "curly", which is one of the characteristics of the hair of the inhabitants of this area.
Papua New Guinea is one of the most diverse nations in the world. There are hundreds of indigenous ethnic groups, the largest of which is known as the Papuans, whose ancestors arrived in New Guinea tens of thousands of years ago. Many inhabitants of the Papuan tribes still maintain only minor contacts with the outside world.
(Total 37 photos)
Post sponsor: FireBit.org is the first Ukrainian open torrent tracker without registration and rating. You can download popular films, cartoons, concerts of famous performers and any other files without any restrictions - there is no rating and you don't even need to register!
1. Independence Day in Papua New Guinea. The head of this Papuan is decorated with feathers of doves, birds of paradise, and other exotic birds. Numerous shell ornaments around the neck are symbols of prosperity and prosperity. In the past, shells were used in these parts as an analogue of money. Especially valuable is a wedding gift of this kind, which the spouse presents to his betrothed.
2. Kakonaroo, Southern Highlands - Dance of the spirits in the Huli tribe.
3. Goroka Festival on Independence Day. On this day, it is customary to get covered in mud from head to toe and dance a special dance designed to attract good spirits. The Papuans believe in spirits, and also greatly honor the memory of their dead ancestors.
4. Papua New Guinea on the world map.
5. The Goroka Festival is probably the most famous tribal cultural event. It is held annually on the eve of Independence Day (September 16) in the city of Goroka.
6. The settlement of Tari is located in the center of the Huli province of the Southern Highlands. It is the second largest settlement in the province and can be reached by road from Mendi. This is what the traditional outfit of a resident of this settlement looks like.
7. Okoo hundreds of tribes come to the Goroka festival to showcase their culture, traditional music and dance. This festival was first held in the 1950s on the initiative of missionaries. In recent years, tourists have frequented the festival, because this is one of the few opportunities to see the real live culture of local tribes.
8. The green spider is one of the traditional participants in the Goroka festival.
9. Drummer at the Goroka festival.
10. A man with a yellow painted face at the Goroka festival.
11. Pay attention to the shell necklace.
12. One of the traditional colorings is black with red peas.
13. A combination of red, yellow and orange is especially welcome. And, of course, the obligatory shell necklace - the more massive, the better.
14. Another version of the festive coloring is black and white, with scarlet rings around the eyes.
15. Very often, the beaks of hornbills are used for decoration. This is a family of birds of the order Coraciiformes. Includes 57 species found in Africa and Southeast Asia, on the islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. They have very bright plumage, which is often used to make headdresses.
16. Another version of the festive coloring.
17. These people are representatives of the hairdressing workshop. They, however, have nothing to do with ordinary hairdressers. With the help of special rituals, they make the hair grow faster so that a traditional hairstyle can be created.
18. Tribe de Biami lives in the forests of the Western Province.
19. An extravaganza of color - red, pink, white with blue dots ...
20. Jewelry, symbolizing fertility.
21. Jewelry symbolizes strength, prosperity and fertility.
22. A tribe living on Mount Hagen, during a ritual song.
23. The same, front view.
24. A headdress made from the feathers of a bird of paradise.
25. Headdress made of fur and feathers of a bird of paradise.
26. Fur skirt and bone necklace.
27. Another headdress made from the plumage of a bird of paradise.
Papua New Guinea, especially its center, is one of the protected corners of the Earth, where human civilization has hardly penetrated.
People there live in complete dependence on nature, worship their deities and revere the spirits of their ancestors.Quite civilized people now live on the coast of the island of New Guinea, who know the official - English - language. Missionaries worked with them for many years.
However, in the center of the country there is something like a reservation - nomadic tribes who still live in the Stone Age. They know every tree by name, they bury the dead on the branches, they have no idea what money or passports are.
They are surrounded by a mountainous country overgrown with impenetrable jungle, where, due to high humidity and unimaginable heat, life is unbearable for a European.
No one there knows a word of English, and each tribe speaks its own language, of which there are about 900 in New Guinea. The tribes live very isolated from each other, communication between them is almost impossible, so their dialects have little in common, and people are each other friend simply do not understand.
A typical settlement where the Papuan tribe lives: modest huts are covered with huge leaves, in the center there is something like a clearing where the whole tribe gathers, and the jungle is around for many kilometers. The only weapons of these people are stone axes, spears, bows and arrows. But not with their help, they hope to protect themselves from evil spirits. That's why they have faith in gods and spirits.
In the Papuan tribe, the mummy of the "leader" is usually kept. This is some outstanding ancestor - the most courageous, strong and intelligent, who fell in battle with the enemy. After his death, his body was treated with a special compound to avoid decay. The body of the leader is kept by the sorcerer.
It is in every tribe. This character is highly revered among the relatives. Its function is mainly to communicate with the ancestral spirits, appeasing them and asking for advice. The sorcerers usually go to people who are weak and unsuitable for a constant battle for survival - in a word, old people. By witchcraft they make their living.
WHITES-DEVISED?
The first white man who came to this exotic continent was the Russian traveler Miklukho-Maclay. Having landed on the coast of New Guinea in September 1871, he, being an absolutely peaceful man, decided not to take weapons ashore, he took only gifts and a notebook, which he never parted with.
The locals met the stranger quite aggressively: they shot arrows in his direction, shouted intimidatingly, brandished their spears...
But Miklukho-Maclay did not react in any way to these attacks. On the contrary, with the most imperturbable look, he sat down on the grass, defiantly took off his shoes and lay down to take a nap.
By an effort of will, the traveler forced himself to sleep (or only pretended to). And when he woke up, he saw that the Papuans were sitting peacefully next to him and staring at the overseas guest with all their eyes. The savages reasoned thus: if a pale-faced man is not afraid of death, then he is immortal. That's what they decided on.
For several months the traveler lived in a tribe of savages. All this time, the natives worshiped him and revered him as a god. They knew that if desired, the mysterious guest could command the forces of nature. How is it?
Yes, just once Miklukho-Maclay, who was called only Tamo-rus - “Russian man”, or Karaan-tamo - “man from the moon”, showed the Papuans such a trick: he poured water into a plate with alcohol and set it on fire. Trusting locals believed that a foreigner was able to set fire to the sea or stop the rain.
However, the Papuans are generally gullible. For example, they are firmly convinced that the dead go to their country and return white, bringing with them many useful items and food. This belief lives in all Papuan tribes (despite the fact that they hardly communicate with each other), even in those where they have never seen a white man.
FUNERAL RITE
The Papuans know three causes of death: from old age, from war and from witchcraft - if the death occurred for some unknown reason. If a person died a natural death, he will be honorably buried. All funeral ceremonies are aimed at appeasing the spirits that receive the soul of the deceased.
Here is a typical example of such a ritual. Close relatives of the deceased go to the stream to perform bisi as a sign of mourning - smearing yellow clay on the head and other parts of the body. The men at this time are preparing a funeral pyre in the center of the village. Not far from the fire, a place is being prepared where the deceased will rest before cremation.
Shells and sacred stones of vus are placed here - the abode of some mystical power. Touching these living stones is strictly punished by the laws of the tribe. On top of the stones should lie a long braided strip, decorated with pebbles, which acts as a bridge between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
The deceased is placed on sacred stones, smeared with pork fat and clay, sprinkled with bird feathers. Funeral songs then begin to be sung over him, recounting the outstanding services of the deceased.
And finally, the body is burned at the stake so that the human spirit does not return from the underworld.
TO THE DEAD IN BATTLE - GLORY!
If a man died in battle, his body is roasted at the stake and honorably eaten with rituals appropriate to the occasion, so that his strength and courage pass to other men.
Three days after this, the phalanges of the fingers are cut off to the wife of the deceased as a sign of mourning. This custom is connected with another ancient Papuan legend.
One man mistreated his wife. She died and ended up in the next world. But her husband yearned for her, could not live alone. He went for his wife to another world, approached the main spirit and began to beg to return his beloved to the world of the living. The spirit set a condition: the wife will return, but only if he promises to treat her with care and kindness. The man, of course, was delighted and promised everything at once.
The wife returned to him. But one day her husband forgot himself and again forced her to work hard. When he caught himself and remembered this promise, it was already too late: his wife fell apart before his eyes. Her husband only had a phalanx of her finger left. The tribe got angry and expelled him, because he took away their immortality - the opportunity to return from the other world, like his wife.
However, in reality, for some reason, the wife cuts off the phalanx of her finger as a sign of the last gift to her deceased husband. The father of the deceased performs the rite of nasuk - he cuts off the upper part of his ear with a wooden knife and then covers the bleeding wound with clay. This ceremony is quite long and painful.
After the funeral ceremony, the Papuans honor and appease the spirit of their ancestor. For if his soul is not appeased, the ancestor will not leave the village, but will live there and harm. The spirit of the ancestor is fed for some time, as if alive, and even try to give him sexual pleasure. For example, a clay figurine of a tribal god is placed on a stone with a hole, symbolizing a woman.
The underworld in the view of the Papuans is some kind of paradise, where there is a lot of food, especially meat.
DEATH WITH A SMILE ON THE LIPS
In Papua New Guinea, people believe that the head is the seat of a person's spiritual and physical strength. Therefore, when fighting with enemies, the Papuans first of all seek to take possession of this part of the body.
Cannibalism for the Papuans is not at all the desire to eat deliciously, but rather a magical rite, during which cannibals receive the mind and strength of the one they eat. Let us apply this custom not only to enemies, but also to friends, and even relatives who heroically fell in battle.
Especially "productive" in this sense is the process of eating the brain. By the way, it is with this rite that doctors associate the disease kuru, which is very common among cannibals. Kuru is another name for mad cow disease, which can be contracted by eating the unroasted brains of animals (or, in this case, humans).
This insidious disease was first recorded in 1950 in New Guinea, in a tribe where the brain of dead relatives was considered a delicacy. The disease begins with pain in the joints and head, gradually progressing, leads to loss of coordination, trembling in the arms and legs and, oddly enough, fits of uncontrollable laughter.
The disease develops for many years, sometimes the incubation period is 35 years. But the worst thing is that the victims of the disease die with a frozen smile on their lips.
Sergey BORODIN
April 27th, 2015It is very logical to start the story about our trip to Papuas with a story about the Papuans themselves.
There would be no Papuans - and half of the problems in the campaign to the Carstensz Pyramid would not exist either. But there wouldn't be half of the charm and exoticism.
In general, it's hard to say whether it would be better or worse ... And why not. At least now - so far there is no escape from the Papuans on an expedition to the Carstensz Pyramid.
So, our Carstensz expedition 2015 started like all similar expeditions: Bali airport - Timika airport.
A bunch of trunks, a sleepless night. Futile attempts to somehow sleep on the plane.
Timika is still a civilization, but already Papua. You understand this from the very first steps. Or from the first announcements in the toilet.
But our path lies even further. From Timiki we need to fly on a small charter plane to the village of Sugapa. Previously, expeditions went from the village of Ilaga. The path there is easier, a little shorter. But for the past three years, the so-called separatists have settled in Ilaga. Therefore, expeditions start from Sugapa.
Roughly speaking, Papua is a region occupied by Indonesia. Papuans do not consider themselves Indonesians. The government used to pay them money. Just. Because they are Papuans. For the last fifteen years they have stopped paying money. But Papuans are used to having (relatively) white people give them money.
Now this "should give" is displayed mainly on tourists.
Not so cheerful after a night flight, we moved with all our belongings to a house next to the airport - from where small planes take off.
This moment can be considered the starting point of the expedition. All certainties end. Nobody ever gives accurate information. Everything can happen in five minutes, or in two hours, or in a day.
And you can do nothing, nothing depends on you.
Nothing teaches patience and humility like the road to Carstensz.
Three hours of waiting, and we move towards the plane.
And here they are - the first real Papuans, waiting to fly to their villages.
They don't like being photographed. And in general, the arrival of a crowd of strangers does not cause them any positive emotions.
Well, okay, we are not up to them yet. We have more important things to do.
First, our luggage is weighed, and then all of us with hand luggage. Yes, yes, this is not a joke. In a small plane, weight goes into kilograms, so the weight of each passenger is carefully recorded.
On the way back, when weighing, the live weight of the participants in the event decreased significantly. Yes, and the weight of the luggage too.
Weighed in, checked out our luggage. And wait again. This time in the best airport hotel - Papua Holiday. At least nowhere is it so sweet to sleep as there.
The command "time to land" pulls us out of sweet dreams.
Here is our white-winged bird, ready to take it to the magical land of Papuasia.
Half an hour of flight, and we find ourselves in another world. Everything here is unusual, and somehow extreme.
Starting from a super short runway.
And ending with the suddenly running Papuans.
We were already waiting.
Gang of Indonesian bikers. They were supposed to take us to the last village.
And Papuans. A lot of Papuans. Which had to decide whether to let us in at all to this village.
They quickly picked up our bags, dragged us aside and began to debate.
The women sat separately. Closer to us. Laugh, chat. Even a little flirt.
The men in the distance were busy with serious business.
Well, finally I came to the mores and customs of the Papuans.
Patriarchy reigns in Papuas.
Polygamy is accepted here. Almost every man has two or three wives. The wives have five, six, seven children.
Next time I will show the Papuan village, houses and how they all live there in such a big cheerful crowd
So. Let's get back to families.
Men are engaged in hunting, protecting the house and solving important issues.
Everything else is done by women.
Hunting doesn't happen every day. The house is also not particularly protected from anyone.
Therefore, a typical day for a man goes like this: waking up, he drinks a cup of tea or coffee or cocoa and walks through the village to see what's new. Returns home for dinner. Dines. He continues his walks around the village, talking with his neighbors. Dinner in the evening. Then, judging by the number of children in the villages, he is engaged in solving demographic problems, and goes to bed in order to continue his difficult everyday life in the morning.
The woman wakes up early in the morning. Prepares tea, coffee and other breakfast items. And then he takes care of the house, children, garden and other nonsense. All day from morning to evening.
Indonesian guys told me all this in response to my question: why do men carry almost nothing, and women carry heavy bags.
Men are simply not fit for hard daily work. As in a joke: war will come, and I'm tired ...
So. Our Papuans started discussing whether to let us through Sugapa or not. If allowed, then under what conditions.
Actually, it's all about the conditions.
Time passed, negotiations dragged on.
Everything was ready for the expedition. Boots, umbrellas, weapons and other necessities.
A couple of hours passed in conversation.
And suddenly a new team: on motorcycles! Hooray, the first stage is over!
Do you think that's all? No. This is just the beginning.
The elders of the village, two military men, two policemen, and sympathetic Papuans set out with us.
Why so many?
To resolve emerging issues.
Questions arose almost immediately.
As I already wrote, somewhere since the seventies, the Indonesian government paid money to the Papuans. Just. All you had to do was to come to the bank once a month, stand in line and get a bunch of money.
Then they stopped giving money. But the feeling that money should be just like that, remained.
A way to get money was found quickly enough. Literally with the arrival of the first tourists.
This is how the favorite pastime of the Papuans appeared - the kind of blocks.
A stick is placed in the middle of the road. And you can't cross it.
What happens if you step over the stick?
According to the Indonesian guys - they can throw stones, they can do something else, in general, please don't.
This is bewildering. Well, they won't kill...
Why not?
Human life is worth nothing here. Formally, Indonesian laws apply on the territory of Papua. In fact, local laws take precedence.
According to them, if you killed a person, it is enough, in agreement with the relatives of the victim, to pay a small fine.
There is a suspicion that for the murder of a white stranger, not only will they not be fined, they will also receive gratitude.
The Papuans themselves are quick-tempered. They quickly move away, but at the first moment in anger they do not control themselves much.
We saw how they chased their wives with a machete.
Handshaking is in the order of things. At the end of the journey, the wives who set off on the journey with their husbands were covered with bruises.
So, they will throw stones or shoot from a bow in the back - no one wanted to experiment.
Therefore, negotiations began at each stick laid on the ground.
At first it looks like a theatrical performance.
Ridiculously dressed up people in shorts and T-shirts, decorated with colored plastic beads and feathers, stand in the middle of the road and begin to make a fiery speech.
Speeches are delivered exclusively by men.
They perform one at a time. They speak loudly, loudly. In the most dramatic moments, throwing hats on the ground.
Women sometimes get into a fight. But somehow always in chorus, creating an unimaginable hubbub.
The discussion flares up, then subsides.
The negotiators stop speaking and disperse in different directions to sit and think.
If you translate the dialogue into Russian, it would look something like this:
- We won't let these white people through our village.
- You should skip these nice people - these are already paid elders of other tribes.
- All right, but let them pay us, and take our women as porters.
Of course they will pay you. And we will decide about porters tomorrow.
- Agreed. Give us five million
- Yes, you are crazy
And then the bargaining begins ... And again hats fly to the ground and women scream.
The guys who see it all for the first time, quietly go nuts. And they say quite sincerely: "Are you sure you didn't pay them for this performance?"
Too bad it doesn't look real.
And most importantly, the locals, especially the kids, perceive it all as a theatrical show.
They sit and stare.
Half an hour passes, an hour, in the worst case - two hours. The negotiators reach the generally accepted sum of one million Indonesian tugriks. The stick moves away and our cavalcade rushes on.
The first time is even funny. The second one is still interesting.
Third, fourth - and now it all starts to strain a little.
From Sugapa to Suangama - the ultimate goal of our trip - 20 kilometers. It took us more than seven hours to overcome them.
There were six road blocks in total.
It was evening. Everyone is already soaked in the rain. It was starting to get dark and it was downright cold.
And here, from my valiant team, more and more insistent proposals began to come in to switch to commodity-money relations and pay the Papuans the money they want, so that they let us through as quickly as possible.
And I tried to explain that everything. These most commodity-money relations do not work.
All laws ended somewhere in the Timiki region.
You can pay once. But the next time (and we'll have to go back) they will be asked to pay much more. And there will be not six but sixteen blocks.
Such is the logic of the Papuans.
Somewhere at the beginning of the trip, they asked me in bewilderment: "Well, they hired us to work, they must fulfill their obligations." And those words made me want to laugh and cry at the same time.
The Papuans have no concept of "obligation". Today one mood, tomorrow another ... And in general, the Papuans are somehow tense with the concept of morality. That is, it is completely absent.
We overcame the last block already in the dark.
The protracted negotiations began to strain not only us. Motorcyclists actively began to hint that they need to return to Sugapa. With or without us.
As a result, in the dark on a mountain road in the rain on motorcycles without headlights, we got to the last village in front of the jungle - Suangami.
The next day there was another show called Porters Get Hired on an Expedition. And how this happens, why this cannot be avoided and how it all ends, I will tell you next time.
Papua New Guinea is a country that evokes a lot of emotions, though not always pleasant ones. This direction is not very popular among ordinary tourists.
The territory of the state is small, the population barely exceeded 5 million people. The settlement, proudly called the city, consists of barracks and bungalows, among which five-story buildings of banks, hotels or other institutions stand forlornly. The Papuans live in small settlements. Houses, if you can call them that, serve only as protection from rain and the scorching sun.
If suddenly the village grows, part of the inhabitants spontaneously separates. So in the villages you can’t count more than a thousand people.
By the way, pay attention to the nozzles for the penis. The longer the nozzle, the higher the status of its owner. The longest nozzle, of course, is owned by the leader of the tribe
In 2012, Papua New Guinea topped the list of the most dangerous countries for tourists. The tourist has no time to set foot on this blessed land, as the eyes of local thieves and scammers immediately turn to him. Therefore, you can’t carry a decent amount with you, someone’s nimble hands can quickly get rid of it.
Contacting the local police is no easy task. With a high degree of probability, you can run into "werewolves" in uniform. If the authorities began demanding payment from you for violating some kind of law in Papua New Guinea, ask them to take you to the station to draw up a report. This is usually more than enough for the law enforcement officer to retreat in search of more gullible prey.
The city of Mount Hagen with the adjacent territory is a hot place. His reputation has left far behind the capital of the country - Port Moresby. The locals will never smile or greet a tourist. Most of them follow the cargo cult, in which all items that can be possessed are sent by their ancestors, and the evil white people take them. So the stern Papuans are praying that some of this good will fall to them too. Who will make a car from palm branches, and who will make an automatic machine.
Local residents do not abuse smoking, preferring to chew betel nut. Guides do not recommend tourists to try it. Although it is not officially equated to drugs, it can make it impossible to move normally for several hours, leading to a loss of coordination. In addition, if you swallow this chewing gum, you can cause serious harm to the stomach. Betel chewing in public places is banned. This is done due to the fact that when it reacts with saliva, it turns red, and traces of this gruel cannot be washed off either from clothes, or from tiles, or from any other surface. In hotels and public places, you can even see a sign with a crossed-out betel nut.
The climate in the city is the most suitable for white tourists - the temperature does not rise above 25C. But despite this, few people dare to visit these places. Every hotel, even the smallest, and even more so a bank, is surrounded by a high fence with barbed wire - not every prison in Russia can boast of such protection.
It is not recommended to even leave the hotel building and walk around the protected area at night - with a high degree of probability, some popuas can climb a palm tree and shoot, mistaking a tourist for game.
During the day, it’s also impossible to walk around the city on foot - this is strictly prohibited by the local police. If you happen to pass by, then only in a car with closed windows and under reliable guard.
There is no road communication between towns and villages. There are no usual asphalt roads, at best you can drive along a forest path. Due to heavy rains for several days, even on them it is impossible to move.
This is how the Vevak – Vanimo highway looks like
Planes do not fly directly to Papua New Guinea. You can get there only with a change in Bali or in Australia. You have to travel either by car or by water. And those who would like to see the beauty of a tropical paradise from a bird's eye view are unlikely to agree to pay $ 2,000 for a plane ticket - such prices for domestic flights were set by the only local air carrier, Air Niugini.
The local population, of course, cannot afford anything like this, so people get to their destination mainly on home-made boats - there is no centralized communication between the islands.
Cannibalism on the islands is gradually disappearing into oblivion. Previously, during tribal wars, the winners ate the defeated tribe and left their skulls as a keepsake.
However, until now, in some settlements, a suspect in witchcraft can be eaten or burned alive. So in 2012, 29 people were arrested. They are charged with premeditated murder of seven people and cannibalism. In February of this year, a woman died as a result of lynching - she was burned alive.
During excursions, guides show tourists with strong nerves mountains of skulls, preserved from those times when it was a matter of honor for the Papuans to eat a neighbor.
According to the tradition of the local population, the skulls of eaten neighbors were stored in "men's" houses. Note the symbolic “hole” in the center of the skull
And how did Miklukho Maclay manage to live here for a whole year?!
