Explore Baliem Valley And Meet The Mummy
You don’t have to go to Egypt to see mummies. In the Baliem valley, Jayawiya district, Papua, there are several preserved mummies. Aikima is one of the charming villages and has several tourist destinations. You can see the beauty of white sand in the middle of the mountain and hundreds of years of mummies.
Baliem Valley Cultural Festival
The Baliem Valley Cultural Festival has been very famous for a long time and is a magnet for tourists who are willing to come to see the festival in person. For photographers, this festival is no longer tasting, because this is the moment they have been waiting for.
The Baliem Valley Festival is an outdoor musical performance. This festival contains dances, songs, and musical performances that tell the life of the Hubula tribe, Papua.
Cultural performances that were held included colossal war-fighting attractions, traditional dances (ethai), body makeup art with various accessories made by the Hubula tribe. There are also traditional music performances (pikon and witowo), traditional cooking attractions, children’s games, throwing sege, and pig caravans.
The tribes in Papua have indeed experienced modernization but still, adhere to their customs and traditions. One of the most prominent is the Dani men’s clothing that only wears a pubic pent-up or called a koteka.
Dani women wear skirts made of grass or fern fiber called sali. The women carry a rope bag or noken and tie to their heads when carrying pigs or harvesting sweet potatoes.
Mummy in Aikima Village
The actual name of Aikima village is Werapak Elosak and it has been 300 years since the village leader died. The mummy is in the very center of Honai and before removing it must be placed show chair in front of Honai. Someone will hold a jet-black mummy with his head lowered and the body curled up.
The mummy’s body is blackened from continuous smoking. This is the traditional way of the Dani people when mummifying their ancestors. When they smoke, the mummy is also constantly covered in lard. Accessories that are attached to the mummy’s body are still well maintained, such as head coverings, necklaces made of ropes that indicate age.
You need to know that only the temperature officials are usually mummified. Werapak Elosak, a respected village leader and until now the 7th descendant who guards him. What is unique is that they live in the same Honai as the mummy.
