Within the heartlands of Papua New Guinea live 100’s of different tribes, all with their own unique customs, traditions, ways of living and even languages. Later, we drove onwards to another village where we met the chief. Not many tourists attend this show, so you’ll have a chance to get close to the performers, and even meet them and shake their hands. Aksant, Amsterdam, pp. Attending the Mount Hagen Cultural Show is definitely a one of a kind experience. The South Pacific nation is home to 600 tribes, whose traditions and customs have been passed down through generations. As we headed back to Rondon Ridge, the temperature dropped with the sun and the night outside the lodge was a chilly one. However, this is also one of the best reasons to head to this remarkable islands– to learn about traditional cultural practices that, elsewhere in the world, were lost hundreds or thousands of years ago. The flesh of enemies was eaten in order to absorb their strength and power. The most important activity during this time is taking care of the boys’ hair, in order to produce ceremonial wigs. The culture of Papua New Guinea is complex and many sided. In contrast, societies of the lowlands of Papua New Guinea have been in contact with the outside world for centuries. Papua New Guinea is one of the few places left in the world where overused adjectives such as “wild,” “remote,” and “pristine” genuinely still apply. Where are you from and where have you lived? On the Sepik River, there is a world-renowned tradition of wood carving. Mainland Papua New Guinea reaches its maximum north-south expanse of some 510 miles (820 km) along its western border with Indonesian Papua. Nowhere in Asia has such a diversity of wonders — tribes, mountains, deserts, beaches — and for travelers willing to go a little further, India is alive. Here, we were met by a dozen or so men, women and children from the village, who demonstrated to us their traditional funeral rites. They sheltered around the Asaro river, regrouped and made a plan, covering themselves in the mud from the river and fashioning horned and fearsome stone masks. This remarkable diversity doesn’t just include nature, but extends to indigenous cultures as well. The upper part of their face is painted red, and the lower part ochre. Young men live separately from the rest of their tribe for six weeks prior to the ceremony, which culminates in crocodile scarification. PNG also boasts the Pacific’s largest area of mangrove forest, coral reef, and sea grass beds. Identification. Most held spears or axes, some covered in white mud, and a teacher watched as they practised. The head was then boiled to strip away the flesh, the skulls were painted and decorated, and then they were displayed in the men’s houses. Some sing-sings happen spontaneously, while others are planned events taking place every year. Papua New Guinea is home to the third biggest forest in the world, after the Amazon and the Congo. Though the ritual was very interesting to watch, it felt a little contrived since no one had really died. The first Baháʼís moved (referred to as " Baháʼí pioneering ") to Papua New Guinea in 1954. Locals sport their very best costumes and spectacular body paints. When the first European explorers found their way into the Highlands of Papua New Guinea in the 1930’s, they didn’t find the mountain ranges they were expecting. In 1545, a Spanish explorer called the island Nueva Guinea .In 1884, the western half of New Guinea was officially recognized as Dutch New Guinea, the northeastern section became German New Guinea, and the southeastern quarter became British New Guinea. One of the best ways to discover Papua New Guinea’s culture is to attend a sing-sing– a ritual gathering in which people from one or more tribes share their cultural traditions or celebrate events. The impenetrable rainforest covering the island’s interior means that several cultural groups inhabiting Papua New Guinea developed in isolation, living a lifestyle that has remained relatively unchanged for over 40,000 years. © 2021 Remote Lands, Inc. All rights reserved. Male members of the Chambri tribe (left) - who live 721km north-west of Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea - undergo this painful ritual to transition from being a boy to a man. Seattle, WA 98121, Meet the Expert: Cruise Director Lynne Greig, Top 10 Off the Beaten Path Travel Destinations for 2021. The law of the land allows the citizens of PNG to have the freedom to choose their religions without any fear of repercussion. Here’s what we know about the extraordinary skin-cutting… When in an earlier time anthropologists and sociologists described collective initiation rituals, the political and gender aspects of these practices were seldom underscored. 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