Wild customs: everyday life of Papuan youth gangs in New Guinea. Colorful Papuans from Papua New Guinea

April 27th, 2015

It is very logical to start the story about our trip to Papuasia with a story about the Papuans themselves.
If there were no Papuans, half the problems on the trip to the Carstensz Pyramid would not have happened either. But there wouldn't be half the charm and exoticism.

In general, it’s difficult to say whether it would be better or worse... And there’s no reason to. At least for now - for now there is no escape from the Papuans on the expedition to the Carstensz Pyramid.

So, our expedition Carstensz 2015 began, like all similar expeditions: Bali airport - Timika airport.

A bunch of trunks, sleepless night. Vain attempts to somehow get some 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 Timika we need to fly on a small charter plane to the village of Sugapa. Previously, expeditions started from the village of Ilaga. The path there is easier, a little shorter. But for the last three years, 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. Previously, the government paid them money. Just like that. Because they are Papuans. Recent years fifteen stopped paying money. But Papuans are used to having (relatively) white people give them money.
Now this “must give” is displayed mainly on tourists.

Not so cheerful after the night flight, we and all our belongings moved 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 are ending. Nobody ever gives accurate information. Everything can happen in five minutes, or in two hours, or in a day.
And you can’t do anything, 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 really 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 have no time for them yet. We have more important things to do.
First they weigh our luggage, and then all of us with hand luggage. Yes, yes, this is not a joke. In a small plane, weight comes in kilograms, so the weight of each passenger is carefully recorded.

On the way back, during the weigh-in, the live weight of the event participants decreased significantly. And the weight of the luggage too.

We weighed ourselves and checked in our luggage. And wait again. This time in the best airport hotel - Papua Holiday. At least nowhere can you sleep as sweetly as there.

The command “it’s time to land” pulls us out of our 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.

They were already waiting for us.
A gang of Indonesian motorcyclists. They were supposed to take us to the last village.
And the Papuans. There are a lot of Papuans. Who had to decide whether to let us reach this village at all.
They quickly grabbed our bags, pulled us aside and started debating.

The women sat separately. Closer to us. Laugh, chat. Even flirt a little.

The men in the distance got down to serious business.

Well, I finally got to the morals and customs of the Papuans.

Patriarchy reigns in Papuasia.
Polygamy is accepted here. Almost every man has two or three wives. The wives have five, six, seven children.
Next time I will show a Papuan village, houses and how they all live there in such a big cheerful crowd

So here it is. Let's get back to families.
Men are engaged in hunting, protecting the home and solving important issues.
Women do everything else.

Hunting doesn't happen every day. There is also no one to protect the house from.
Therefore, a man’s typical day goes like this: he wakes up, drinks a cup of tea or coffee or poo and walks around the village to see what’s new. Returns home by lunchtime. Having lunch. He continues his walks around the village, communicating with neighbors. In the evening he has dinner. Then, judging by the number of children in the villages, he deals with demographic problems and goes to bed to continue his hard everyday life in the morning.

A woman wakes up early in the morning. Prepares tea, coffee and other breakfast. And then he takes care of the house, children, garden and other nonsense. The whole day from morning to evening.

The Indonesian guys told me all this in response to my question: why do men carry practically nothing, while women carry heavy bags.
Men are simply not designed for hard daily work. As in the joke: war will come, and I’m tired...

So. Our Papuans began 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 to go on the expedition. Boots, umbrellas, weapons and other necessities.

A couple of hours passed in conversation.
And suddenly a new team: motorcycles! Hurray, the first stage is completed!

Do you think that's all? No. This is just the beginning.
The village elders, two military men, two policemen, and sympathizing Papuans set off with us.

Why so much?
To resolve emerging issues.
Questions arose literally immediately.

As I already wrote, since the seventies, the Indonesian government has been paying money to the Papuans. Just like that. All you had to do was go to the bank once a month, stand in line and get a bunch of money.
Then they stopped giving money. But the feeling that the money should be there just like that remains.

A way to get money was found quickly enough. Literally with the arrival of the first tourists.
This is how the favorite entertainment of the Papuans appeared - rod blocks.

A stick is placed in the middle of the road. And you can’t step over it.

What happens if you cross the line?
According to the Indonesian guys, they might throw stones, they might throw something else, in general, please don’t.
This is puzzling. Well, they won't kill you...
Why not?
Human life there's no value here. Formally, Indonesian laws apply in Papua. In reality, local laws take precedence.
According to them, if you killed a person, it is enough, in agreement with the relatives of the murdered person, to pay a small fine.
There is a suspicion that for the murder of a white stranger, not only will they not be fined, but they will also receive gratitude.

The Papuans themselves are hot-tempered. They quickly move away, but at the first moment they don’t have much control over themselves in anger.
We saw how they chased their wives with machetes.
Assault is the order of the day for them. At the end of the trip, the wives who set off with their husbands walked around covered in bruises.

So, they will throw stones or shoot you in the back with a bow - no one wanted to experiment.
Therefore, negotiations began at each stick placed on the ground.

At first it looks like a theatrical performance.
Ridiculously dressed 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 given exclusively by men.
They perform one at a time. They speak passionately and loudly. In the most dramatic moments, throwing their hats on the ground.
Women sometimes get into arguments. But somehow they always come together, creating an unimaginable hubbub.

The discussion flares up and then dies down.
The negotiators stop speaking and disperse different sides, sit and think.

If we translated the dialogue into Russian, it would look something like this:
- We won't let these white people pass through our village.
- You should let these nice people through - these are already paid elders of other tribes.
- Okay, but let them pay us and take our women as porters
- Of course they will pay you. And we’ll decide about the porters tomorrow.
- Agreed. Give us five million
- Yes, you went nuts

And then the bargaining begins... And again the hats fly to the ground and the women cry.

The guys seeing this all for the first time are quietly freaking out. And they say quite sincerely: “Are you sure you didn’t pay them for this performance?”
It all looks too unreal.

And the main thing is that local residents, especially children, perceive it all as a theatrical show.
They sit and stare.

Half an hour passes, an hour, in the most severe cases - two hours. Negotiators reach the generally accepted sum of a million Indonesian tugriks. The stick moves away and our cavalcade rushes on.

The first time it's even funny. The second one is still interesting.
The third, the fourth - and now it’s all starting to get a little annoying.

From Sugapa to Suangama - the final destination of our trip - 20 kilometers. It took us more than seven hours to overcome them.
There were six road blocks in total.

It was getting dark. Everyone was already wet from the rain. It was starting to get dark and it was getting downright cold.
And here, from my valiant team, I began to receive more and more persistent proposals to switch to commodity-money relations and pay the Papuans as much money as they wanted so that they would let us through quickly.

And I tried to explain that that’s all. These same commodity-money relations do not work.
All laws ended somewhere in the Timika area.
You can pay once. But next time (and we have to go back) they will ask us to pay much more. And there will no longer be six but sixteen blocks.
This is the logic of the Papuans.

Somewhere at the beginning of the trip, I was asked in bewilderment: “Well, they hired us to work, they must fulfill their obligations.” And these 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 in the dark.
The protracted negotiations were beginning to strain not only us. Motorcyclists actively began to hint that they needed to return to Sugapa. With or without us.

As a result, in the dark, along a mountain road in the rain, on motorcycles without headlights, we reached the last village before the jungle - Suangami.
The next day there was another show called “porters are hired for an expedition.” And how this happens, why it cannot be avoided and how it all ends, I will tell you next time.

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 honor the spirits of their ancestors.

The coast of the island of New Guinea is now inhabited by completely civilized people who speak the official language - English. 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, bury the dead on its branches, and have no idea what money or passports are.

They are surrounded by a mountainous country overgrown with impenetrable jungle, where high humidity and unimaginable heat make life unbearable for a European.

No one there speaks 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 different they simply don’t understand their friend.

Typical locality, 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 around there is jungle for many kilometers. The only weapons these people have are stone axes, spears, bows and arrows. But it is not with their help that they hope to protect themselves from evil spirits. That's why they have faith in gods and spirits.

The Papuan tribe usually keeps the mummy of the “chief”. This is some outstanding ancestor - the bravest, strongest and smartest, who fell in battle with the enemy. After death, his body was treated with a special composition to avoid decay. The leader's body is kept by the sorcerer.

It is in every tribe. This character is highly revered among his relatives. Its function is mainly to communicate with the spirits of the ancestors, appease them and ask for advice. People who usually become sorcerers are weak and unsuitable for the constant battle for survival - in a word, old people. They earn their living by witchcraft.

WHITE COMING FROM THIS WORLD?

The first white man to come to this exotic continent was the Russian traveler Miklouho-Maclay. Having landed on the shores of New Guinea in September 1871, he, being an absolutely peaceful man, decided not to take weapons ashore, taking only gifts and a notebook, which he never parted with.

Local residents greeted the stranger quite aggressively: they shot arrows in his direction, shouted intimidatingly, waved spears...

But Miklouho-Maclay did not react in any way to these attacks. On the contrary, he sat down on the grass with the most equanimity, pointedly took off his shoes and lay down to take a nap.

By an effort of will, the traveler forced himself to fall asleep (or just pretended to). And when he woke up, he saw that the Papuans were sitting peacefully next to him and looking at the overseas guest with all their eyes. The savages reasoned this way: since the pale-faced man is not afraid of death, it means he is immortal. That's what they decided on.

The traveler lived for several months among a tribe of savages. All this time, the aborigines worshiped him and revered him as a god. They knew that if desired, the mysterious guest could command the forces of nature. Why is this happening all of a sudden?

It’s just that one day Miklouho-Maclay, who was called only Tamo-rus - “Russian man”, or Karaan-tamo - “man from the moon”, demonstrated the following trick to the Papuans: he poured water into a plate with alcohol and set it on fire. Gullible locals believed that the foreigner was able to set fire to the sea or stop the rain.

However, Papuans are generally gullible. For example, they are firmly convinced that the dead go to their own country and return from there white, bringing with them many useful items and food. This belief lives on 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

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 dies a natural death, he will be buried with honor. All funeral ceremonies are aimed at appeasing the spirits who accept 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 the head and other parts of the body with yellow clay. At this time, the men prepare 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 Vusa stones are placed here - the abode of some mystical power. Touching these living stones is strictly punishable by the laws of the tribe. On top of the stones there should be a long wicker 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, coated with pork fat and clay, and sprinkled with bird feathers. Then funeral songs begin to be sung over him, which tell about the outstanding merits of the deceased.

And finally, the body is burned at the stake so that the person’s spirit does not return from the afterlife.

TO THE FALLEN IN BATTLE - GLORY!

If a man is killed in battle, his body is roasted on a fire and, with rituals appropriate to the occasion, eaten with honor, so that his strength and courage will pass on to other men.

Three days after this, the phalanges of the fingers of the deceased’s wife are cut off as a sign of mourning. This custom is connected with another ancient Papuan legend.

One man mistreated his wife. She died and went to the next world. But her husband missed her and could not live alone. He went to another world for his wife, approached the main spirit and began to beg to return his beloved to the world of the living. The Spirit set a condition: his wife would return, but only if he promised to treat her with care and kindness. The man, of course, was delighted and promised everything at once.

His wife returned to him. But one day her husband forgot and forced her to work hard again. When did he come to his senses and remember this promise, it was already too late: his wife broke up before his eyes. All her husband had left was a phalanx of his finger. The tribe was 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 her final gift dead husband. The father of the deceased performs the nasuk ritual - 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, Papuans honor and appease the spirit of the ancestor. For, if his soul is not appeased, the ancestor will not leave the village, but will live there and cause harm. The spirit of the ancestor is fed for some time as if it were alive, and they even try to give it sexual pleasure. For example, a clay figurine of a tribal god is placed on a stone with a hole, symbolizing a woman.

The afterlife in the minds of the Papuans is a kind of paradise, where there is a lot of food, especially meat.

DEATH WITH A SMILE ON YOUR LIPS

In Papua New Guinea, people believe that the head is the seat of a person's spiritual and physical strength. Therefore, when fighting enemies, Papuans first of all strive to take possession of this part of the body.

For the Papuans, cannibalism is not at all a desire to eat tasty food, but rather a magical rite, during which cannibals gain the intelligence 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 died in battle.

The process of eating the brain is especially “productive” in this sense. By the way, it is with this ritual 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 uncooked brains of animals (or, in this case, humans).

This insidious disease was first recorded in 1950 in New Guinea, in a tribe where the brains of deceased relatives were considered a delicacy. The disease begins with pain in the joints and head, gradually progressing, leading to loss of coordination, trembling in the arms and legs and, oddly enough, bouts of uncontrollable laughter.

The disease develops for many years, Sometimes incubation period is 35 years old. But the worst thing is that victims of the disease die with a frozen smile on their lips.

Sergei BORODIN

Rumors of cannibalism and cruelty flourishing on the wild islands are greatly exaggerated. Tourists who have dared to personally get acquainted with the culture and customs of the Papuans claim that the natives are friendly, although at first they look very stern and gloomy. For your information, Miklouho-Maclay wrote the same thing in his diary. The Russian traveler lived with wild tribes for many years. Almost immediately he noted the innocence of the local residents. It turns out that since then (since 1870) the Papuans have not lost their kindness, of course, if you do not encroach on their lands, pigs and women.

Where and how do real Papuans live today? What has changed in their lifestyle? You can learn about this from the article.

What has changed since the Stone Age?

Over the past centuries, not only has it remained almost unchanged psychological portrait Papuans, but also their way of life. Ethnographers who have thoroughly studied the world of savages have a unanimous opinion that many tribes have retained signs of the Stone Age in their everyday life to this day. Many Papuans, far from civilization, live like their ancestors. Of course, some signs modern world entered the islands. For example, instead of palm leaves and feathers, they now use fabrics, but in to a greater extent their way of life remains in the same state as it was centuries ago.

However, it should be noted that thanks to the appearance of white people where the Papuans live, part of the indigenous population, having left their tribal communities, began to engage in completely different activities. This began with the emergence of the mining industry and the development of tourism in the country (thanks to the Europeans). Some local residents began to engage in mining, transporting people, servicing shops, etc. Today in Guinea there is a formation of a layer of farmers and entrepreneurs. And it is already known that many rituals and traditions either disappeared without a trace or became part of tourist attractions.

Where do Papuans live?

Papuans — This is the oldest population of the island. New Guinea and several other islands of Indonesia and Melanesia. They are the main population of the state of Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya (province of Indonesia). In their anthropological type they are close to the Melanesians (a branch of the Australoid race), but in language they differ. Not all Papuan languages ​​are related to each other. The national creole language in PNG is Tok Pisin (based on English).

The largest Papuan tribe, living in eastern New Guinea, was previously known in connection with the cannibalism that flourished there. Today it is generally accepted that where the Papuans live, such a terrifying tradition no longer exists. However, some facts still indicate that from time to time representatives of this tribe carry out such magical rituals.

General information about traditions

Representatives of different nationalities have many of their own rituals and traditions, firmly rooted in everyday life so much so that no one pays much attention to them for a long time. However, if a person who was brought up on completely different values ​​ends up in any of the societies, then for him new traditions may seem savage.

This also applies to some features way of life Papuans. Where the Papuans live, there are traditions that are simply terrifying to ordinary civilized people. Everything that is considered normal and commonplace for savages, even in nightmare impossible to imagine.

Several shocking Papuan traditions

• Papuans mummify their leaders, demonstrating in this way respect for the dead. They keep them in huts. Some of the distorted, eerie mummies are 200-300 years old.
• Women who lost their relatives used to cut off their fingers. And today you can still see fingerless old women in some villages.
• Papuans breastfeed not only their children, but also young animals.
• Almost all the hard work is done by women. It even happens that women recent months pregnant women can chop wood while their husbands rest in their huts.
• The Korowai tribe of Papuans have very strange place residence. They build their houses on trees (height from 15 to 50 meters). Korowai's favorite delicacy is insect larvae.

• Some Papuans from New Guinea living in mountainous areas wear kotekas. These are cases made from varieties of local calabash gourd. They are worn on manhood instead of underpants.
• Bride price in Papuan tribes is measured in pigs, so these domestic animals are very well cared for. Women even feed them with their breast milk.

This amazing culture is extremely colorful and original. Perhaps it is for this reason that Europeans fell in love so much exotic countries and unusual tourist destinations.

• Section contents: Peoples of the Earth
• Read: Kuru-kuru or laughing death - a disease of cannibals

Papuans of New Guinea

The main tools used by Papuans for many centuries are an axe, dongan and a knife. The ax is usually made from agate, flint or tridacna shell. Dongan is a sharp sharpened bone that is constantly worn on the hand, tucked into a bracelet. Dongan is used for cutting and slicing fruits and other purposes. For the same purposes, as well as for cutting meat, Papuans use knives made from bamboo. A bamboo knife cuts much better than a dongan, and it is also stronger.

The weapons used by the Papuans for different purposes are quite diverse. So hagda is a two-meter throwing spear made of hard, heavy wood. Another, lighter servaru spear is made with a bamboo tip, and is decorated with feathers and fur. When it hits a victim, the tip breaks off and remains in the wound. Another throwing spear is yur, it has not one, but several sharp tips at the end.

Aral bows made by Papuans can be up to 2 m long. The Aral-ge arrow used with a bow is 1 m long and ends with a wooden tip. More dangerous is the palom arrow, with a wide bamboo tip. Saran arrows are used specifically when hunting fish. The Papuans also have various clubs and shields.

Previously, Papuans' clothing consisted of a belt, for men it was red, and for women it was red and black striped. Bracelets were worn on the arm (sagyu) and on the legs (samba-sagyu). In addition, the body was decorated with objects threaded through holes, keke (in the nose) and bul (in the mouth). The things used were bags, yambi and gun - small ones, for tobacco and small items, they were worn around the neck, and a large bag on the shoulder. Women had their own women's bags (nangeli-ge). Belts and bags are made from bast or fibers different trees, whose names are not in Russian (tauvi, mal-sel, yavan-sel). Ropes are made from the fibers of the nug-sel tree, and anchor ropes are made from the bu-sel tree. Gutur tree resin is used as glue.

The Papuans' food is primarily plant-based, but they also eat pork, dog meat, chicken, rats, lizards, beetles, shellfish, and fish. All fruits, as a rule, are baked or boiled, including bananas. Breadfruit is not held in high esteem, but is eaten.

In general, the set of plant products is quite diverse: munki - coconuts, moga - bananas, dep - sugar cane, mogar - beans, kangar - nuts, baum - sago, kew - a drink like kava, and also fruits such as ayan, bau, degarol, aus, which do not have Russian names.

The Papuans have widespread folklore, songs, dances, and there are myths and legends passed on from generation to generation. Almost all Papuan holidays are called ai, where only men are allowed. The biggest holiday among the Papuans is Sing Sing. The songs (singing is called mun) and dances among the Papuans are very simple, and the melody of different songs varies very little. Musical instruments are made by Papuans from various available materials.

The musical instrument ai-cabral is a hollow bamboo trunk, approximately 2 meters long, into which one blows, shouts, and howls. Munky-eye is made from coconut shells: two holes are made in the nut, one is blown into, and the other is plugged. The hal-ai pipe is also made from the root and is used similarly to the munkey-ai. Orlan-ai is a handle with laces with empty nut shells hanging on them, which make characteristic sounds when shaken. The Papuans also have an okam drum.

The Papuans have well-developed wood carving; they make very complex ornaments with which they decorate weapons and other objects.

The traditional beliefs of the Papuans are close to those of Australia and Melanesia. The Marind Anim have a cult similar to the Australian one, this is totemism. Dema is a totemic ancestor. Myths mainly tell about the exploits of half-animals, half-humans. They have a secret Mayo cult associated with initiations. Other Papuans already have different cults, mainly the belief in various magic, harmful, healing, economic. The term "onim" means witchcraft and poison, and any medicinal drug. It is considered the cause of all illness, misfortune and death. and they are afraid of him. Often the neighboring tribe is considered to be the culprit of troubles.

The cult of ancestors and skulls is important. Papuans make korvars - images of ancestors (stylized human figures); in the area of ​​Astrolabe Bay, where Miklouho-Maclay visited, they are called telums.

Embark on an extreme, expensive and dangerous journey.

If you wish, you will be greeted by a theater in which you will become a real target for cannibals. Live game, for a while, will turn into reality

New Guinea is one of the wildest, most isolated and untouched places on the planet, where hundreds of tribes speak hundreds of languages, do not use mobile phones or electricity, and continue to live according to the laws of the Stone Age.

And all because there are still no roads in the Indonesian province of Papua. The role of buses and minibuses is performed by airplanes.

Long and dangerous path to a tribe of cannibals. Flight.

Wamena Airport looks like this: the check-in area is represented by a fencing made of chain-link mesh covered with slate.

Instead of signs, there are inscriptions on fences; data about passengers is entered not into a computer, but into a notebook.

The floor is earthen, so forget Duty Free. The airport where naked Papuans walk is the only one in the legendary Baliem Valley.

The town of Wamena can be called the center of Papuan tourism. If a wealthy foreigner wants to get almost Stone Age, he's flying right here.

Despite the fact that before boarding, passengers go through “control” and a metal detector, you can easily bring a gas spray, pistol, knife or other weapon on board the plane, which, by the way, can be bought right at the airport.

But the worst thing about Papuan flights is not the security control, but the old rattling planes, rotorcraft, which are hastily maintained almost with the help of the same stone axes.

Dilapidated airplanes are more reminiscent of old UAZs and Ikaruses.

In the small windows, you are accompanied all the way by cockroaches dried under the glass, the interior of the aircraft is worn out to the limit, not to mention what happens to the mechanics themselves.

Every year a huge number of these planes crash, which is not at all surprising given such technical condition. Scary!

During the flight you will be lucky enough to see endless mountain ranges covered with thick tropical forest, separated only by rivers from muddy water, orange clay color.

Hundreds of thousands of hectares wild forests And impenetrable jungle. It’s hard to believe, but from this porthole you can see that there are still places on earth that man has not managed to ruin and turn into an accumulation of computer and construction technologies. The plane lands in the small town of Dekai, lost in the jungle, in the middle of the island of New Guinea.

This is the last point of civilization on the way to Karavay. Then there are only boats, and from now on you no longer live in hotels or wash in the shower.

Now we leave electricity, mobile communications, comfort and balance behind, they await us ahead incredible adventures in the lair of the descendants of cannibals.

Part two – Canoe trip

In a rented truck, along a broken dirt road, you get to the Braza River - the only transport artery in these places.

It is from this place that the most expensive, dangerous, unpredictable and amazing part of the trip to Indonesia starts.

Dangerous canoes can simply capsize if moved carelessly - your things will drown, and bloodthirsty alligators will appear around you.

From the fishing village where the road ends, sailing to the wild tribes takes longer than flying from Russia to America or Australia, about two days.

The most important thing is to sit low on the wooden floor of such a boat. If you move slightly to the side and disturb the center of gravity, the boat will capsize and then you will have to fight for your life. There is a continuous jungle around, where no human foot has gone before.

Cannibal seekers have long been attracted to such places, but not everyone returns from expeditions in good health.

The tempting mystery of these places attracted Michael Rockefeller, America's richest heir of his time, great-grandson of the first dollar billionaire planets - John Rockefeller. He explored local tribes, collected artifacts, and it was here that he went missing.

Ironically, a collector of human skulls now graces someone else's collection.

Fuel for boats here is extremely expensive because long haul– the price for 1 liter reaches 5 dollars, and a trip by canoe amounts to thousands of dollars.

The scorching sun and sultry heat reach their climax and wear tourists down.

Towards evening, you need to leave the canoe and spend the night on the shore.

Lying on the ground is deadly here - snakes, scorpions, scalapendras, here a person has many enemies. You can spend the night in the fishermen's hut, where they take shelter from the rain.

The structure was built on stilts one and a half meters from the ground. It is necessary to light a fire in order to prevent the penetration of various creeping creatures and insects, as well as to treat the body against malaria mosquitoes. Deadly scalapendras fall directly on your head and you need to be extremely careful.

If you have developed the habit of brushing your teeth, save boiled water with you and do not go close to the river. Provide a full-fledged first aid kit for these places, which can right moment save your life.

First acquaintance with Karavay

The second day in a canoe will be somewhat more difficult - the movement will continue against the flow of the Siren River.

Gasoline is running out at a colossal rate. You lose track of time - the same landscape does not change. After passing through the rapids, where you may have to push the boat against the current, the first settlement of the so-called modern loaves appears.

Friendly natives in rapper attire will greet you cordially and lead you to their huts, trying to show off their the best side and earn “points” in the hope of getting a job from rich tourists, who can be found here quite rarely.

At the end of the 90s, the Indonesian government decided that cannibals had no place in the country, and decided to “civilize” the savages and teach them to eat rice, and not their own kind. Even in the most remote areas, villages were built, which can be reached from more civilized places by several days by boat.

There is no electricity or mobile communications here, but there are houses on stilts. In the village of Mabul there is only one street and 40 identical houses.

About 300 people live here, these are mostly young people who have already left the forest, but the parents of most of them still live in the jungle, a few days' walk away, on the treetops.

The wooden houses that are built have no furniture at all, and the Papuans sleep on the floor, which is more like a sieve. Men are allowed to have several wives, or rather an unlimited number.

The main condition is that the head of the family be able to feed each of them and the children.

Intimacy occurs with all wives in turn, and one of them cannot be left without male attention, otherwise she will be offended. 75 A five-year-old leader with 5 wives pleases each of them every night, without taking any stimulants, but only “sweet potatoes.”

Since there is nothing to do here, there are many children in families.

The whole tribe is going to see the white tourists - after all, you can see “white savages” here no more than a few times a year.

Men come in the hope of getting a job, women out of curiosity, and children fight in hysterics and great fear, equating white people with alien dangerous creatures. Expensive from $10,000 and mortal danger– do not leave a chance for a wide category of the population to visit such places.

Kateka – cover for manhood they are not used here (as in most New Guinean tribes). This accessory arouses genuine interest among men, while their relatives calmly fly on planes in the nude with only a catheque.

Those loaves who were lucky enough to work in the city and buy a mobile phone are considered the coolest.

Despite the lack of electricity, mobile phones(which are used only as a player) with music are charged as follows. Everyone chips in money and fills up the only generator in the village with gasoline, simultaneously connecting it to chargers, and thus return them to working condition.

Those who come from the forest try not to take risks and not venture into the outback, claiming that there are real cannibals left there, but today they themselves eat traditional dishes - rice with fish or river shrimp. Here they don’t brush their teeth, wash once a month, and don’t even use mirrors; moreover, they are afraid of them.

The path to the cannibals

There is no place on earth more humid and suffocatingly hot than the Jungle of the island of New Guinea. During the rainy season, it rains here every day, and the air temperature is about 40 degrees.

A day's journey, and the first Karavai skyscrapers will appear in front of you - houses at an altitude of 25-30 meters.

Many modern loaves have moved from a 30-meter height to a 10-meter height, thus preserving the traditions of their ancestors and somewhat smoothing out the danger of staying at a rapid height. The first people you will see will be completely naked girls and women from the youngest to the oldest.

So, you need to get acquainted with the owners and agree on an overnight stay. The only way up is a slippery log with cut down steps. The ladder is designed for wiry Papuans, whose weight rarely exceeds 40-50 kg. After long conversations, introductions and promises of a pleasant reward for your stay and hospitality, the leader of the tribe will agree to accommodate you in his house. Don't forget to grab some delicious food and necessary things to thank your hosts.

The best gifts for adults and children are cigarettes and tobacco. Yes, yes, that’s right - everyone smokes here, including women and the younger generation. Tobacco, in this place, is more expensive than any currency or jewelry. It is not worth its weight in gold, but worth its weight in diamonds. If you want to win over the cannibal, ask for a visit, pay off or ask for something, treat him with tobacco.

You can bring a pack of colored pencils and sheets of paper for children - they have never known anything like this in their lives and will be incredibly happy about such an amazing acquisition. But the most incredible and shocking gift is a mirror, which they are afraid of and turn away from.

There are only a few hundred loaves left on the planet, living in the trees in the forest. They have no such thing as age. Time is divided exclusively into: morning, afternoon and evening. There is no winter, spring, summer or autumn here. Most of them have no idea that there is other life, countries and peoples outside the forest. They have their own laws and problems - the main thing is to tie the pig at night so that it does not fall to the ground and the neighbors do not eat it.

Instead of the cutlery we are used to, karavais use animal bones. For example, a spoon was made from cassowary bone. According to the residents of the settlement themselves, they no longer eat dogs and people, and have changed a lot over the last ten years.

There are two rooms in the loaf house - men and women live separately, and a woman has no right to cross the threshold of male territory. Intimacy and the conception of children occur in the forest. But it is not at all clear how: male dignity is so small that it causes hysterical laughter among tourists and incredible thoughts about how it is possible to make a child THIS way. Microscopic dimensions are easily hidden behind a small leaf, which is usually used to wrap your organ or even open it, there is still nothing to look at, and it is unlikely that you can see anything even with a strong desire.

Every morning, little piglets and a dog are taken out for a walk to be walked and fed.

Meanwhile, the women weave a skirt from grass. Breakfast is prepared in a small frying pan - flat cakes made from the heart of the sago tree. It tastes like dry, dry bread. If you bring buckwheat with you, cook it and treat it to the loaves - they will be incredibly happy and will eat everything, to the last grain - saying that this is the best delicious dish that they have eaten in their lives.

Today, the word cannibal almost sounds like a curse - no one wants to admit that his ancestors, or worse, himself, ate human flesh. However, by chance it was said that of all the parts human body, the most delicious are ankles.

The arrival of missionaries changed a lot, and now the daily diet is worms and sago cakes. The loaves themselves do not exclude the possibility that if you go further, deeper into the forest, you can meet those tribes that today do not disdain human flesh.

How to get to the wild tribes?

Flights from Russia to Papua New Guinea not straight. There is a high probability that you will have to fly through Sydney and then travel by domestic airlines. Go to the website and find out about the possibility of a direct flight to Papua. If you still need to fly through Australia - Sydney, then a flight from Moscow will cost approximately 44,784 RUB and you will spend more than a day on the road. If you are planning a flight with a child, be prepared to pay from 80,591 RUB. Further, the path lies through local airlines, which are impossible to provide for, especially in the province of Papua itself. Don't forget that you need an Australian transit visa to travel through Australia. Weight limit for economy class tickets hand luggage– no more than 10 kg, for higher classes the limit was increased by 5 kg with each level of increase, that is Weight Limit hand luggage – 30 kg.