Mummies of the Baliem Valley

Baliem valley may become a real sensation for someone. It's the whole region that existed in full isolation! The aboriginals who had to jump from the Stone Age into the modern time prepared many surprises and mysteries for the world. Who could imagine that the primitive tribe knew the secrets of mummification?!

Gates to Kurulu, but we won't go there.

Sompaina is to the left from this hill.  Do you see something like the path when looking at the peak? In fact its the trace from the logs which are rolled down from above when they cut tress.

In Sompaina one may see traditional huts of Baliem aboriginals. Usually they occupy a tiny fenced territory. The fence is needed to keep pigs inside. There are female and male huts, children sleep in the female ones. The kitchen is one for all. In the centre there is a site where locals gather.

People here like to smoke. Girls often wear nothing but skirts.

Each mummy has a keeper who takes care of it. To see and to photograph a mummy costs 60 000 rupees, as the keeper said. He added that taking photos of aboriginals should be paid for too: 5000 to everyone including children whose photos you want to take.
Sompaina sees many tourists so this system is normal for them.

Vim Motok Mabel - the mummy is 285 years old.

The keeper holds the mummy in order it doesn't fall.

The mummy is rather well preserved, except the cap, so aboriginals knitted a new one and put on the old cap.

Almost all locals wear traditional dresses, but it is just a window dressing, specially for tourists...

Being given 5000 rupees for taking pictures of the mummy (negotiated price), the keeper started to demand 20000!

For entering inside and seeing how he mummy lives there they demand 50000 rupees!

Local souvenirs, women didn't want to discuss what they were made of, they only wanted them to be bought!

The dialogue:
- Are these flasks made of the same vegetables as those pots are?

- 200.000.

Let's leave it all lie at their door...

and go further to Aikima village.

The path to the village.

The gates

The village was almost empty, everyone were working on the fields... Only two brothers stayed.

One of them is a mummy keeper. It had been rumoured that the mummy of Aikima was not preserved. But it turned out that it was! Elosaki brothers could restore it! Though they did it not very carefully. 

Legs and arms in black sticky tape...

Rubber and laces were used by brother too... But it didn't save them, tourists come to the village rarely.

Three finger were cut off when the person was alive. There is a custom in Baliem - women cut off their fingers when they lose close people. Sometimes old ladies don't have fingers at all.

But this mummy is not female. Women don't wear penis gourds. Maybe men used to cut off their fingers too... So it could be supposed that this man had three beloved women whom he lost. Or maybe parents and wife. Nobody can say now....

The valley has only three mummies, and this is the third one. Unfortunately aboriginals never take dates and figures seriously... So how do they know the age of the mummies?

Pay attention to the laces on the neck. This is how! 285 laces cannot be on one neck, though 28 may be indeed! However Papuans may confuse anyone, there may be a mistake for 5 years or even 50... 

via Sandr