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 Ancient warriors on our doorstep
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Few tourists endure the harsh terrain to visit this native wilderness, but the rewards are memorable, Chris Ray writes.
NAKED from the waist up, the Dani tribeswoman sat cradling a squirming piglet. The animal did not stop wriggling until she lifted it to her breast and allowed it to drink.
The young woman had suckled the piglet since the sow died. Now bonded to its surrogate mother, the piglet was ready for the big race on festival day.
The sight of dozens of pigs scampering after their "mothers" between rows of cheering tribespeople was one of many extraordinary sights at this year's Baliem Valley Festival in the highlands of West Papua, Indonesia's remotest province.
The Dani place high value on their pigs it can take four or five to purchase a wife and will sometimes share a hut with them for warmth.
But not all pigs live happily ever after, and the festival can shift from colourful to brutal in an instant.
One animal, part of a ritual dance involving chanting, spear-waving tribesmen, was still alive when a warrior's knife suddenly sliced off its ears and tail. A pair of horrified Dutch tourists lowered cameras and turned away in shock.
Aside from a Frenchman slightly injured when the makeshift grandstand collapsed, pigs were the only casualties at the festival, a spectacular annual gathering of three highland tribes the Dani, Yali and Lani.
Hundreds of men wearing only penis gourds, their bodies daubed in clay and grease war paint, staged mock battles in which charging spear carriers were repulsed by flights of arrows. Women danced and sang their menfolk into battle.
Only a generation ago there were human casualties in real battles over stolen women, pigs and boundary disputes. Now the festival symbolises the warrior spirit of people who come from mountain-side villages to meet on the valley floor for a few days every August.
The 70-kilometre-long Baliem Valley sits some 1600 metres above sea level surrounded by mountain peaks rising to 3000 metres.
Its fertile cultivated plain and lower mountain slopes, elaborately terraced with dry-stone walls, sustained tens of thousands of inhabitants in complete isolation until 1938, when explorers from the American Museum of Natural History landed a plane in the valley (it still can be reached only by air).
They found an ancient society of farmers employing sophisticated irrigation and crop rotation techniques. The villagers had good enough engineering skills to build strong suspension bridges.
Christian missionaries arrived in the 1950s but the outside world had little impact until the 1960s, when ownership of West Papua passed from the Dutch to Indonesia in a dubious "Act of Free Choice". This "plebiscite" involved just 1025 Papuans and involved bribery and coercion.
West Papua's subsequent fate is a story rarely heard. An estimated 300,000 Papuans one sixth of the native population lost their lives in failed rebellions against Indonesian rule, or died from malaria and other diseases contracted on the swampy coast after forced resettlement from the highlands.
Immigrants from Java and other Indonesian islands have poured into the territory, leading Papuans to fear they will become a minority in their own country.
Isolated for thousands of years by harsh terrain and inter-tribal conflict, West Papuans are culturally and linguistically very diverse, with almost 300 languages spoken. Their determination to maintain many of the old ways fascinates the relatively few Western tourists who take the trouble to visit.
Most highlanders still shun Western clothing, preferring to smear their bodies with pig fat to stay warm on cold nights.
Women wear grass skirts and go bare-chested. A man's tribal identity can be determined by the size and shape of his penis gourd, or horim. Indonesian authorities' heavy-handed attempts to force the Dani to wear clothes sparked an uprising in 1977.
The Baliem Valley's wild beauty makes it a wonder and a challenge for hikers. Some tracks are so steep a guide and porters are essential. You will need to buy food and water for the whole party in Wamena, the valley's only town. A sleeping bag and insect repellent are essential. A mosquito net is recommended if you plan to sleep in the open.
Once off the valley floor your journey will be interrupted as virtually every passer-by stops to shake hands and chat. Curious but respectful children will lead you by the hand into their village.
English-speaking Papuan guides and porters can be hired at Wamena (they will politely approach you at the airport or your hotel) so there is no need to prepay expensive Indonesian or foreign travel agencies. And your money will go directly to Papuans who rarely benefit from tourism.
You can walk out of the valley southwards into the Baliem Gorge, following a meandering river that soon becomes a torrent. Accommodation is in the thatched huts of Dani villagers heated by smoky fires that discourage mosquitoes (there is little malaria in the highlands).
If this doesn't appeal, hikers can usually get a better night's sleep in more modern houses built round mission airstrips.
Stunning mountain scenery can be accessed west of the valley (home of the Lani people) and east where Yali tribesmen reputedly ate two missionaries in the 1970s.
An area usually off-limits to foreigners is northern Baliem where resistance fighters of the OPM (Free Papua Movement) remain active around Danau Habbema, a fabled lake that sits at the foot of a 4750-metre mountain.
The OPM took Westerners hostage in the valley less than a decade ago and remain a force in other parts of the country.
Despite official apologies from Indonesia for human rights abuses and limited gestures towards local autonomy, West Papua still strikes the visitor as an occupied country.
A few hundred metres from the airport of the provincial capital Jayapura is the grave of Theys Eluay, a Papuan leader murdered by the military in 2001. His supporters buried him in a football field alongside the main road. Signposted in English as "Papua Freedom and Human Rights Abuses Memorial Park", it is one of the first things seen by visitors.
Papuans point out that the football field is big enough to accommodate many more independence activists an unofficial martyrs' cemetery in the making.
Further along the main road, a squad of armed police at a roadblock ordered Papuans out of buses and searched their bags. Two Indonesians in plain-clothes but clearly in authority politely but firmly urged us back into our vehicle and waved us on. They seemed anxious that foreigners were witnessing proceedings.
The political atmosphere means Indonesian tourist authorities are reluctant to promote Papua as a destination. Certain European cultural tour companies consider the Baliem festival a must-see, yet Garuda's in-flight magazine failed to mention it on a list of top Indonesian festival attractions this year.
The Baliem festival showcases highland culture yet the English-language commentary was delivered in condescending terms by a Javanese despite the presence of capable English speakers among the mission-schooled Papuans.
Indonesian soldiers with automatic rifles kept the Papuan crowd under sharp watch throughout the three days of festivities.
A foreigner arriving in Jayapura will require a travel permit, or surat jalan, to go anywhere in West Papua. Available from the police for a small set fee, the surat jalan is needed to enter every district, where it must be stamped by local police. You can easily collect half-a-dozen stamps in a week.
Satisfying the police is not always enough because the Indonesian Army appears to exercise parallel authority over the system. One soldier shouldering an M-16 extracted payment of 70,000 rupiah (about $10) and two packs of cigarettes before allowing this traveller to exit the Baliem Valley for an overnight trek.
TRIP NOTES
Most visitors will enter Indonesia via Jakarta or Bali before taking an overnight Garuda flight to Jayapura. Garuda flies Bali-Jayapura (the quickest and cheapest route) every day except Monday and daily between Jakarta and Jayapura.
Change dollars for rupiah in Jakarta or Bali. Banks in Jayapura will sometimes refuse to change any foreign currency, even the mighty US dollar. If that happens you'll have to seek out an unlicensed money changer who will impose a hefty exchange rate.
It's a 45-minute flight from Jayapura to Wamena. Trigana Air operates four flights a day depending on demand and the weather. Seats are sometimes commandeered by the military to move troops.
Hotels in Papua are expensive by Indonesian standards. In Wamena, expect to pay $30 to $40 for a basic, clean hotel with hot water. Food is cheap and the valley's streams yield delicious yabbies and prawns.
Daily rates for English-speaking guides and porters are negotiable. $20 a day for a guide and half that for a porter is considered reasonable. Travel agents in Wamena and Jayapura will arrange everything for an all-in price including a hefty commission. Agents in Bali and Jakarta are more expensive.
The Highlands can be cold at night so take warm, waterproof clothing.
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