Tree House Expedition
Korowai & Kombai Tribe
The discovery of the Korowai & Kombai tribe by the outsid was even more recent than that of the Baliem Valley people, occuring as recently as 25 years ago. The Korowai and Kombai populate the lowland rainforest of south central Papua, a region that sits between 100 and 200 meters above the sea level. Due to the very recent exposure to outside influence, the Korowai and Kombai tribes are not as open and welcoming to tourist as the Yali, Dani and Lani for example. They remain on guard suspecious of ways different to their own.
This does of course make for an exiting and truly adventurous visit flyiong by chartered Cesna from Jayapura or Wamena to Yaniruma and trekking into Korowai or Kombai county by foot and canoe.
The Korowai and Kombai live in tree house usualy built between six and 25 metres above ground bu they can be as high as 50 metres in tif tribal conf;lict. Stone and bone tools are the standard here, surely one of the last remaining cultures in the world which use these instruments as a matter of course. Any serious primitive art colector heavely prizes a Korowai and Kombai stone axe. These people also make heavy use of flying fox, Dog and pig bones for body decoration. They exsist byhunting and gathering in a similar fashion to the Asmat Tribe. Here are people usually completely naked (maybe a leaf), fully immersed in anture and with no apparent interest in anything other that what they already have.
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