|
Irian
Jaya / West Papua is a province in the easternmost, the largest
area of Indonesia. It is an area of the world so remote, rugged
and diverse but its people can convey such a sense of unity and
friendship. You will find them very warm and accommodating.
There are over 250 different tribes of Irian Jaya, each with
their own language, lifestyle and culture. The traditional of
the indigenous in Jayawijaya and Paniai regencies will remind
you of the stone age besides those in the coastal areas with
their unique and nicest attractions.
The
original nature still offers you to see the incredible
wilderness wonderland with its contents, such as the greatest
tract of undisturbed tropical rainforest in the world, the
extreme diversity of fauna and flora and one of only three
places in the world with equatorial glacier fields. The other
unique of Irian Jaya is that Irian Jaya has over 650 different
species of birds, among others are birds of paradise, bower
birds, crowned pigeons, cassowary, etc., as well as the beauty
of the colorful marine life.
Papua
is covering by large rainforest growing of about 75% of the
area, with thousands of unique flora and fauna. Other prevailing
ecosystems include steamy mangrove forest and savannah right
through to alpine highlands with snow-capped mountains. Wildlife
abounds and includes some of the most interesting creatures
known to man. This also holds true with the magical beauty of
West Papua's coastal underwater world, which hosts some truly
amazing coral reefs.
Jayapura
is
the capital and the biggest city of this eastern most province.
It is a neat and pleasant city , built on the slope of a hill
overlooking the bay. General Douglas Mc Arthur's World War II
quarters still stand here. The Museum Jayapura is located inside
the Cendrawasih University campus. Tanjung Ria beach known as
base the Allies during the WW II, is a popular holiday resort
with facilities for water sports.
Asmat
is the most well-known tribe in Irian Jaya. They became famous
not only through their headhunting practices in the past, but
also because of their wonderful art of wood. Around 70.000.
Asmat people live in a huge tidal swamp land of 10,000 square.
The climate is hot and humid.
The
most important subsistence food is sago flour. The Sago palm is
also the source of very important ceremonial food, the larvae of
the Capricorn beetle. These grubs are considered a great
delicacy, 60 days before scheduled hundreds of sago trees are
cut down and people make holes in the trunks, so that the
beetles will lay eggs in them.
Just
before the celebrations the mature larvae are collected and
eaten in great quantities out of specially carved wooden bowls.
Beside this ceremony they also still have other ceremonies such
as : New canoe ceremony, Mbis pole ceremony, etc
The
Baliem valley setting
in the region of extraordinary natural beauty in the highland of
1.500m is added incentive to make the quick flight about 1 hours
from Jayapura to get there. There is even more reason to visit
Baliem Valley every year, when a year long schedule of
special event will celebrate called the DANI AUGUST FESTIVAL.
Making the visit all more enjoyable is the Baliem Valley
Excellent assortment of native people who are very friendly.
We are also serving the base of exploring DANI fascinating
southern, northern, eastern and western region. In this
surrounding hills and the native people are welcoming you. A
rich culture of Dani and their way of life add on element of
surprise of exploring Baliem Valley more than any other place on
Indonesia even the world combine an age old culture and
breathtaking nature beauty with all the advantage of living in
the last decade of primitive tribe.
All
Dani architecture and art preserve a unique style and real
stone-age. Bows and arrow, koteka's (penis guard), arm belt,
stone-axe, necklace from teeth of pig as well as dog are reflect
to the Dani's sculpture traditional and attract visitors from
all over the world. Baliem Valley also offers hiking further to
jungle trekking.
Korowai
and Kombai always
moves from one place to another in order to be close to the
foods and hunted animals provides by nature. Both Korowai and
Kombai are hunter and gatherer who move and build a new tree
house once every 3 years. For this reason we do not fix the
place of our destination or what activities we do day by day.
Once
we arrive in Yaniruma, our contact person telling us and update
all the information in Korowai and Kombai area including the
people and their tree house or if there is any sago grub feast
take place while we are in the area. Sago grubs feast is the
main ritual ceremony in Korowai and Kombai tribe to re-new their
world and relation with God/Spirit and among their own people in
the clans or groups.
We
will arrange our visit to the place where the feast take place
and experience a lot of things from the people. During the
feast, the host of the feast will serve a lot of foods including
the most delicacy "Sago grub" to the invited guests
and every one will put on their best wear and dancing.
Traditional
wear of Korowai is very simple, men wear a piece of leave or a
small penis gourd to cover their penis and women wear the skirt
made of woven sago leaves. The Kombai tribe wear the same with
Korowai but, some of Kombai men wear the hornbill head instead
of the gourd during the feast time.
Biak
: a town built on the rocky soil of an island of the same name
on the rim of Cendrawasih Bay, is Irian Jaya's gateway. A big
Indonesian naval base, it has an infrastructure that is better
than in most other places in the area.
BIRDS
GARDEN : This is actually a conservation area with a
great variety of birds such as bird of paradise, parrot "mambruk"
which are easily found almost almost every where in Irian Jaya.
It is located in the village of Rim, the district of East Biak
and accessible within thirty minutes by land.
Yali Tribe:
The Yali tribe has similar way of life as the Dani people. The
Yali lives on hills and flat terrain. The temperature of this
area is 20 degree Celcius - 30 degree Celcius in the day time
and at night 10 degree - 15 degree. The total populations of
this area 30.000 people. Compared with the Dani, the Yali are
more primitive. They are also less influence by outside world.
The largest villages around are Angguruk and Kosarek. Air
transportation to Angguruk or Kosarek is served by chartered
plane of Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF)
The
southern Yali versions of the Yeli myth as told at Ninia and
Holuwon have a number of variations (and of course differ from
those recorded by Zollner for Angguruk). At Ninia, the Yeli
(having become a "wam" [pig]) bores/burrows through
the mountains (from Angguruk/Pronggoli area) to Ferawe/Seimu (Seima)
and the people who come out are pulled down valley by the Balim
and climb out and climb up to spend their first night at
Yalisili (above Holuwon).
Then
the myth describes how the ancestors moved up the Heluk and
settled in that area -- particularly the west side of the Heluk.
At Holuwon, some of the people tell this version or similar; but
others trace Yeli (having become a "dabi" [echnidna])
travelling from ??Korupun area into the Solo valley, down south
through the Solo and into Uwam area (south east of Holuwon near
mouth of Balim) and thence into Holuwon area.
So,
in both cases, the origin is east, even though one migration
comes back from the west and north to Ninia.
Also
interesting is that Holuwon people who have the
Seimu-Yalisili-Ninia track have a similar dialect to Ninia Yali,
whereas those who tell the myth with the Korupun/Duram-Uwam-Holuwon
track have a dialect similar to Seng/Solo Yali. Also, as I
reported in Irian bulletin, we have two "secondary"
initiations in the Heluk valley -- moroal (compare Angguruk
"murual") and "kwalu". Moroal belongs to the
east-west track versions, and kwalu to the Seimu-Yalisili-Ninia
track versions of the Yeli heritage. So Kwalu is only practised
on the west side of the Heluk, but Moroal is practiced througout
the southern yali area from Solo to Heluk.
I
have always (intuitively) believed that the myth/migration
information had an historical basis. In 1987 when I was working
on my Masters at Edinburgh University, I attended a seminar led
by an African from Zambia who was talking about a New Religious
Movement and its origins in myth and history. I don't have the
details now but I recall how the myth described his people's
migration from what we now know as Egypt, down through central
Africa. He had various anecdotal linguistic and other data, but
no scientific data. One of the people present was a professor of
history who immediately (and vehemently) pooh-poohed the
suggestion that there was anything historical about myth.
The
African was dumbfounded by the vehemence of the attack. To him,
myth and history were related. And I think they are. They must
be rooted in history. Too often people in the west only think of
myth as as untrue and non-historical or a historical. They don't
understand that myth is a genre that bridges empirical with
non-empirical, and that it uses great typical images to do so.
Its purpose is not historical, but to deny any historicity is, I
think, to be unrealistic about its origin as oral tradition!
|
