Baliem Valley Festival 2010
Explore the last frontier of the remote Papua island and attend the Baliem Valley Festival taking place from 9th-12th August this year. This is the one occasion when all the diverse tribes from the highland of Wamena and the Baliem Valley will congregate to celebrate their annual festival. The festival will be held in the village of Wosilimo, Wamena, in conjunction with celebrations of Indonesia’s Independence Day on August 17.
Embrace your sense of adventure and compete with local tribesman and hurl spears just like Leo Holding did in the African Savanah episode of the 2009 film Take Me to the Edge. The highlight of the festival are the mock battles among the tribes, but there are also other attractions worth watching and participating in. Don’t worry that you’re not a local, visitors from around the world are invited to take part in many challenges, like spear hurling and archery. End your day on a memorable note and sample some pit cooking and look at the peculiar costumes or body decorations that the local people brag about. Surely it will be difficult to resist the temptation to recommend such an exciting festival to your adventurous friends and family.
Join the crowd and learn what makes them smile, laugh, and cheer. The Baliem Valley Festival 2010 awaits, offering abundant memories of the magical land of Papua.
About Baliem valley
High up in the mountains of central Papua at an altitude of 1,600 meters above sea level, hemmed in by steep green mountain walls, lies the stunningly beautiful Baliem valley, home of the Dani tribe.
Baliem valley is 72 km. long, and 15 km to 31 km wide in places. It is cut by the Baliem river, which has its source in the northern Trikora mountain, cascading into the Grand Valley, to meander down and further rushing south dropping 1,500 meters to become a large muddy river that slowly empties into the Arafura Sea.
The first outsider to discover the valley was American Richard Archbold, who, on 23 June 1938 from his seaplane, suddenly sighted this awesome valley dotted with neat terraced green fields of sweet potatoes, set among craggy mountain peaks. This is Indonesia’s own Shangri-La.
Only recently emerged from the Stone Age, the Dani are known as the “gentle warriors”. With their simple tools of stone and bone, they nonetheless, managed to sculpt green fields that hug the hills, where they grow root crops, and raise pigs. They have also built outposts and lookout towers to defend their valley from hostile tribes.
Because of the fertile soil and their agricultural skills, the Dani together with the sub-tribes of the Yali and the Lani, are, therefore, the most populous in Papua, living scattered in small communities near their gardens among the steep mountain slopes. Today, they also cultivate bananas, taro and yams, ginger, tobacco and cucumbers.
The men’s and women’s huts (locally called the honai) have thick thatched roofs, which keep the huts cool during the day and warm during the cold nights.
The main tribes inhabiting the beautiful Baliem Valley in the central highlands of Papua are the Dani, the Yali and the Lani.
Although now modernized, the Dani still strongly adhere to their traditions and customs, most notably the dress of the men. Even in this cool mountain climate, men wear only a penis gourd, known as koteka, though complemented with elaborate headdress of bird of paradise or cassowary feathers, while the women wear grass or fern fiber skirts (Sali or saly) slung around the waist. And to carry pigs or the harvest of sweet potatoes, women carry a string bag, called noken, slung from their forehead.
To defend their villages or to raid others to avenge for tribe members killed, the Dani practiced regular warfare. However, anthropologists note that the “Dani wars” are more a display of prowess and opulence of dress and decoration rather than an all out war to kill the enemy. Dani warfare displays competence and exuberance, rather than the wish to kill. Weapons used are long spears, measuring 4.5 meters, and bows and arrows. Most often, therefore, there are more wounded than killed, and the wounded are quickly carried off the field.
Nowadays, Dani mock battles are held yearly at the Baliem Valley Festival in Wamena during the month of August (see Calendar of Events). At this feast, which has as its highlight the mock battles among the tribes, the Dani, Yali, and Lani send their best warriors to the arena, wearing their best regalia. The festival is complemented with a Pig Feast, Earth cooking and traditional music and dance.
There are also arts and crafts exhibited or for sale.
Each tribe will come with their own identity, and one can see clear differences among them and identify tribes according to their costume especially the penis gourds each wears. The Dani men usually wear only a small koteka (penis gourd / penis cover), while the Lani tribesmen wear larger koteka’s, since their bodies are bigger than the average Dani, while the Yali wear long slender kotekas held by a rattan belt, strapped at the waist.
By attending the massive Baliem Valley Festival, visitors will have a rare chance to learn and experience firsthand the different traditions of each tribe participating in the Festival without having to make the difficult trek to their compounds deep in the hinterland of West Papua.
