Known as one of the only tribes on earth that does not live on land, the Korowai tribe is located in Southeast Papua, Indonesia. A particularly interesting feature of this tribe is the houses built towering on the tops of trees, about 6-12 meters above the ground, 35 meters high.
The Korowai tribe, which lives in complete isolation from the outside world, was first discovered by a Dutch missionary in the 1970s. According to the Indonesian census, the tribe has nearly 3,000 born members. scattered throughout the forests of Papua.
This tribe has no normal language, they communicate with each other in their own language and often just screams, howls, smoke signals, trail markers and the ability to read footprints… In total With a population of nearly 3,000, only a few Korowai people can read and write.
Deep in the jungle, the Korowai tribe is a miniature society with traditional family relationships, relying mainly on hunter-gatherers for survival, building houses out of plants, fish caught in the river, hunting animals. in the forest… The men of the Korowai tribe are mostly naked.
Korowai women gather in the forest.
The man’s nose is often decorated with objects made from bat teeth. They only use a rattan thread wrapped around the abdomen, chest and many other parts of the body with many tattoos. Korowai women are topless, wearing short skirts made of dried leaves.
Korowai people live closely together, in clusters, usually 3-4 men with their wives and children. Each Korowai family has about 8 members and each family has its own house. Korowai men take from 2 to 3 wives, but they are not allowed to have sex in the house but have to go out and into the forest to have sex.
Each Korowai family has a separate plot of land to grow some vegetables and fruits, the rest are mainly gathered in the forest and hunting wild boar, deer, etc. Sago palm powder and banana are food. essential and most loved. Sago palm trees are cut down by Korowai men, palm powder will be taken by the woman to cook into cakes or a dish in meals for the whole family, the rest of the palm trees will be left to rot to feed the larvae. .
After 4-6 weeks, the palm trees will be cut and the Korowai people take these larvae as food. This is a favorite dish of the Korowai people, they can eat them both raw or cooked. The larvae have a greasy taste and very attractive aroma, which is a significant source of fat for the Korowai tree people.
Dogs and pigs are the two animals most attached to the Korowai. Pigs are only used in special occasions such as festivals or important rituals of the tribe, dogs are raised by the Korowai people both to look after the house and to be used in hunting.
The houses of the Korowai tribe are very special, built on trees, not on the ground. The Korowai people believe that building tree houses is to help them avoid mosquitoes, because in the rainforest there is nothing more than mosquitoes.
In addition, it also helps the people of this tribe avoid wild animals, dangers from enemies and evil spirits. Houses are also built at different heights depending on their position in the tribe and on how well they live in harmony with other members of the tribe.
Korowai tree house.
The houses are made from materials of wood, bamboo, and cork… and from afar they look like a giant bird’s nest that can hold up to a dozen people. A house can be built on a single tree, but usually to make the house more stable, this tribe will use a cluster of trees for support and replenishment if one of the other trees is dead or broken. pour.
To build a tree house, the Korowai people choose a large, strong old tree as a solid pillar for the house. The branches above the top will be cut down, then they make a floor from those branches and add palm leaves to cover. The floor is the most important part, so it takes more than a dozen people to combine to build.
The walls and roof are simpler, often built into a frame of bamboo, cork… and connected by rattan or palm fiber. Next, to strengthen it, the Korowai people added pillars at the corners of the house. Finally, they choose large round trees, use axes to cut the notches to form a ladder and place them close to the main tree to climb the house.
Each step has a small swing attached to warn each step to avoid tripping, or broken stairs. At night, they will pull this ladder up so that no one can access their house.
The structure of the house of the Korowai people usually has a large, undivided room, enough room for 5-12 people to live. Not only family members, pets are also brought up by Korowai people to live together as family members. Normally, a house will have a lifespan of about 5 years.
After completing its house, the new home will be blessed by smearing animal fat on the main door and steps. Because the houses are built far apart, the Korowai people often come up with a way to protect their families: Within a radius of 20 meters around the house, they cut down all the tall trees and grass and let them wither on their own. Thus, they had a necessary space to observe and detect abnormal signs.
Of course, the biggest danger with houses built of flammable branches is fire , so the cooking area specially designed by the Korowai people is located below the house, on the ground, and at a distance from the house. house, avoid the case of fire breaking out beyond their control. Their kitchen is usually made from clay, above there is a large basket to store dry firewood, or to dry other items.
Sago palm powder and larvae are the favorite food of the Korowai people.
Korowai people do not have a picture of the outside world and often stay away from strangers. With their territory, they guarded very strictly, even neighboring tribes who wanted to come had to ask for permission first.
It was not until an anthropologist conducted research on the tribe that these Korowai people learned of the existence of other people outside their world, not before they knew that there were other people besides themselves. other people live.
Since the 1990s, when it was discovered, many people at the same time began to search and exploit agarwood in the area where the Korowai people lived. In 1997, 1kg of frankincense was worth up to 400 USD when sold to traders and when sold to the Middle East and European markets, it cost up to 1,000 USD.
However, the exploitation of agarwood had disastrous consequences, prostitution began to appear in the forest by civilized people and caused the AIDS epidemic to spread throughout the forests of Papua. It was only in 1999 that the exploitation of this agarwood ceased.
Today, this tribe has known the existence of the civilized world, however, they still hide, do not care about other peoples and do not want to contact. They want to live like their ancestors – in their own world, where everything is easy to understand, simple and familiar. Even when illness robs a loved one, they do not panic, but think that their brother’s departure is due to a divine call.