THE BALIEM VALLEYS

Dani Warriors

The Baliem Valley it’s like an island in the sky. It was one of the most remarkable finds of this century in 1938 with American explorer flew his seaplane over the snow of Mountain Range. Today it’s known as the Baliem valley, a verdant and fertile upland valley set at, an altitude of over 1554 meters above sea level, about 60 km long and 16 km of wide and all encircled by mountain peaks.

The Baliem river flows into the valley from the north with two source e.g. east and west of Baliem. The waters join the north Baliem and then drop to the floor of the Grand Valley, where they become a slow brown river. From the Grand valley the rivers continues south through the massive Baliem Gorge-in which it drops 1500 meters in less than 50 km, forming spectacular series of cataracts and on down to the Arafura Sea on the south-west coast. The tribes of the Baliem Valley are usually ground together under the name “Dani”.

The Dani farmers, skillfully working their fertileland, digging long ditches for irrigation and drainage and leaving the land fallow between crops. The clearing the land and the tilling the soil for the first crop is traditionally men’s work and the planting, weeding and harvesting will be done by women. Wamena is the station and communications hub of the Baliem Valley, boasts decent accommodation, restaurant, shops, banks. But to really get the experience of the Grand Valley and Dani life, you must leave the town of Wamena to visit several Dani compounds just off the main trail, which start at the upper end of the landing field, where you may overnight at local house of Dani with very simple accomodation. How to reach Baliem Valley? There is daily flight from Jayapura by Merpati and Trigana Cargo plane. The Valley remains one of the last places on the face of the Earth where people continue living in semi-Neolithic circumstances. Upon the spectacular approach by air, the tourists will notice the total isolation of the area. Sealed of the rest of the world by mighty mountain walls and without any roads leading from the coast to the inner region, the Valley keeps its own secrets.

Baliem Bridge

Villages of no more than a few families are dispersed throughout this rough and mountainous region. Dani is a generic name of a series of tribes, until recently adhering to a Neolithic lifestyle. Only by the sixties of last century, they adopted the use of iron. Their dark complexions underline a Negroid origin, something that differentiates from the other Indonesian people. There are numerous tribes residing in the valley, having quite different languages and customs. The Yali, Kimial, Ok and Eipomek claim the eastern periphery of the magnificent valley. It is relatively easy to find their villages under the shelter of rainforest and highland.

Within the small town of Wamena, most Dani people clad in westerns style clothes. If we venture out however, chances are high we’ll have an encounter with a fascinating Dani in full regalia Indeed, the Dani people much prefer to walk around naked save for a koteka or a tube-like yellow gourd, worn over the penis. The bodies of the male Dani gleam with pork fat, applied to fight of the cold. At an altitude of 1.600 m, temperature can be quite low, especially at night. Jayawijaya Peak, a roaring mountain is permanently covered with snow, despite its location on the equator. We’ll quite never forget meeting an awful-looking Dani, bearing the tusk of a wild pig at the tip of his nose. Despite their groovy looks, these are quite gentle people, shaking your hand politely and always having time for a small chat.     Likewise, women don’t wear terribly much clothes. Just a skirt, entirely made of natural materials will do. It is the women’s duty to carry out the heavy work on the fields. Observe the nuke, typical cloak-like bark string bags, carried half over the head. Heavily loaded with cabbage, sweet potatoes and sago, they resemble a blanket. A woman covered in river mud, is in grief. A less innocent way to show mourning, is finger amputation, a fate that only women will befall.

Despite serious efforts of the government to halt this practice, they continue being reported occasionally. The Baliem Valley remains one of the most fascinating places on the planet, where man may confront it its prehistoric past. But even in the remotest of area. Civilization is seeping through and will not be kept at bay. Maybe the time is right to visit the wild beauty of the Baliem Valley and its remarkable people.