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Papua Province
West Irian became front page news around the world in 1961 when Michael C Rockefeller, son of the governor of New York disappeared in Asmat, at the south coast of Irian Jaya (part of the Indonesian territory which is the western half of New Guinea the second biggest island of the world, after Greenland.
At that time Rockefeller was collecting art for the New York museum of primitive art, when his boat, encounter the swift tidal bore at the mouth of the Betsj River and overturned.
Some people assumed Rockefeller had been captured and killed by the Asmat. Some others suggested that the strong , unpredictable tides and crocodiles were likelier villains. A small but committed minority thought that the governor’s son ‘went native’ and still lived, and more than one adventures went off toward this great island to find Michael Rockefeller.
Neatly bisected at longitude 141 degree east, the eastern half being Papua New Guinea, an independent country, Iran’s 421,981 sq. km constitute 22 percent of Indonesia’s total land area.
The shape of New Guinea has been likened to that of the cassowary bird, and the westernmost peninsula, nearly cut off from the ‘body’ by Bintuni Bay, is called the Bird’s head – ‘kepala burung’ in Indonesian, and ‘Vogelkop’ in Dutch.
A 2,000 km long cordillera of craggy mountains running the length of the island is New Guinea’s most distinctive topological feature. The crests of the main divide top 3,000m in many places and a handful of rocky peak soar above 4,500m. small permanent snowfields and relict glaciers still grace the highest elevations.
Irian’s mountains are geologically quite recent consisting largely of sedimentary limestones, sandstone’s and shale that has been uplifted and faulted on a massive scale by plate movements. The central cordillera traces the exact line where the Sahul Shelf and the Pacific Ocean meet.
Volcanic rock is not common in the mountains, but in one of the few places an ingenous intrusion has appeared – in the Sudirman Range – the outcrop has proved to be incredibly rich in copper, gold and silver.
The central mountain chain comprises three contiguous ranges : the Wisnumurti range, running westward from the Papua New Guinea border, the Jayawijaya Range, defining the southern reach of the Baliem Valley and the Sudirman Range, extending west to the Paniai Lakes. The Dutch names for these ranges beginning from the border were star Mountains, Oranje Mountains and Nassau Mountains, sometimes all simply called the snow Mountains. At least one contemporary source has incorporated the Wisnumurti Range in the Jayawijaya Range.
In addition to this collection of addities, Irian is also home to some of nature’s most glorious creatures – bird of paradise and the great bird wing butterflies.
Irian has the richest concentration of plant life in all of Indonesia, and perhaps all over the world. Scientists estimate there are 16,000 species of plants growing in New Guinea, including hundreds of species that are of medicinal importance. At least 124 genera of New Guinea’s flowering plants are found nowhere else, and botanists suggest that further research may find 90 percent of all the flowering plants species here to be endemic.
So far 2,700 species of orchids have been recorded here, most growing in the rich lowland forests, but the small, bright flowers of some can be found even in the sub alpine meadows of the highlands.
Some species are quite unusual. Pitcher plants (nepentheses spp.) have evolved a very interesting adaptation to nitrogen poor soils. Their leaves form cups of enzyme rich water, which attract and drown insects, providing a important source of fertilizers.
In the high shrublands in the central cordillera, one can find the giant anthouse plant (Myrmecodia brassii.). These epiphytes grown outward from trees, looking like a large, very spiny pineapple. The bulbous base of Mermecodia is honeycombed with passageways just teeming with ants. Even small frogs and lizards have been found to live inside this strange plant.
Mangroves and nipa palms ensnarl the brackish estuaries of the coast, particularly in Bintuni Bay, the south coat, and the edge of Cenderawasih Bay. Further inland – in the lakes Plain region, and in the south swamp forests replace the mangroves.
Irian swamp harbors the most extensive stands of sago palms (Metroxylon spp) in the world. Starch extracted from the pitch of this tree serves as the staple of all lowland Irianese. Though western visitors often decry it as bland and gummy, sago has the distinct advantage of being the lest labor intensive of all of the world’s staple crops to collect.
At 1,000 to 3,000 meters the forest changes. In areas with constant cloud cover, one sometimes encounters the eerie moss forest in which all the trees are encrusted with lichens and mosses in huge streamers. The pandanus grows here as well, producing large fruits full of rich nuts.
The farmers of the central highlands have exploited the fertile soil surrounding some of the rive valleys, the most famous is the Baliem. In most of the lowlands, with few exceptions, the soil is leached and barren.
Past 3,000 meters, the forest thins out and gives way to strange, prehistoric looking tree fern (Cyathea) savabbahs. Here also are sub alpine scrublands of rhododendrons and stunted conifers. Beyond the tree lin (3,900 meters) one finds sub alpine heaths and swamps, then just rock.
Wallace was the first to recognize the marked change in faunal types as one move east of Ball from the Asian to the Australian biological regions. The large area of biological overlap in between, including Sulawesi, the Moluccas, and Nusa Tenggara, is now called ‘Wallace’ in his honor.
So far, biologists have identified 643 species of birds in Irian Jaya in all of New Guinea, and there are some real gems in this group, the Victoria crowned pigeon (Gura spp), the world’s largest pigeon, is a brilliant lavender with a delicate crown of feathers and bright red eyes. Parrots, cockatoos, and lories brighten up the forests with red, yellow and purple.
During his eight years in the archipelago, Wallace spent six months in what is now Irian, three months on the shores of Dore Bay and three months on Waigeo Island. Approaching the coast for the first time, Wallace tingles with anticipation, knowing that those dark forests produced the most extraordinary and the most beautiful of the feathered inhabitants of the earth – the birds of paradise.
Irian is home to some strange birds as well. The Megapods or brush turkeys which bury their eggs in sand or piles of vegetation, are found here. Bowerbirds, industrious creatures that decorate their large nests with bright objects such as flowers and berries, sometimes collecting small piles of objects of a single color, are present here in 9 species. One of the most famous of Irian birds is the cassowary (cassuari spp), a large flightless bird with a nasty reputation. These ugly customers have powerful feel ending in large claws, powerful weapons that have disemboweled more that one human victim. These birds are sought by hunter’s everlkuyh where they are found and the hair like feathers are a common decoration on hats and other items.
Frizzy haird men and women appear on some of the relief’s at Borobudur, the great 8th century Buddhist stupa in Central Java, but these could just as well represent peoples from islands closer to Java.
The Negarakertagama a 14th century panegyric poem dedicated to the East Javanese King of Majapahit, mentions two Irianese territories, Onin and Seran on the southwestern side of the Bird’s Head peninsula, but direct control from Java must have been practically nonexistent.
It is certain however that prahu borne trade between some of the Moluccan islands and perhaps even Java and the western extremity of what is now Irian existed long before this. Items such as bird of paradise skins and massoi bark, unquestionably of Irianese origin, were well known trade items. And the Sultan of Tidore a tiny, but influential clove producing island off Halmahera long claimed areas in and around western Irian.
Most scientists now believe that homo sapiens developed more recently than had been thought, and linguistic and genetic evidence points to a single African origin. Our species arose in Africa, perhaps no more than 200,000 years ago, and it was 100,000 years later before any of these early humans left the African continent.
There is no longer thought to be any link between so-called Java men or Homo erectus, and extinct humanoids that lived a half million years ago in Java (and elsewhere in the world), and any of today’s people.
What has been established is that 100,000 years ago humans began to fan out from Africa, and some 30,000 – 40,000 years ago they settled in New Guinea, Australia and points in between. These original Southeast Asians, related to today’s Australian aboriginal, Papuans and Melanesians, are the direct ancestors of the Irianese.
Linguistic studies show that the various Papuan groups have evolved in relative isolation from one another for many thousands of years, partly because of the island’s rugged geography but also because each group was typically in a perpetual state of warfare with its neighbors.
Estimates of the number of distinct languages spoken by the 2.7 million people of New Guinea vary from a whopping 800 down to about 80, depending on one’s definition of what constitutes a distinct language.
Some of Irian’s coastal areas have been settled by Austronesians and here garden and tree crops replaced sago as staple foods.
Particularly on the north coast of the neighboring islands, many ethnic groups speak Austronesian languages that are very different from the Papuan languages found throughout the rest of the island.
Austronesian influences can be seen in the raja leadership system practiced among the groups, perhaps adopted from the sultanates of Ternate, Tidore and Jailolo. With their political power cemented by control of trade, some rajas ruled wide areas embracing several ethnic groups, from seats of power in the Raja Empat Islands, in the Sorong area, around Fakfak or in the Kaimana region.
Inland from the coastal areas, in the foothills and valleys of Irian, scattered groups live in small communities that subsist from small forms, pig raising and hunting and gathering. They usually grow taro and yams, with sweet potatoes being a secondary importance.
At that time Rockefeller was collecting art for the New York museum of primitive art, when his boat, encounter the swift tidal bore at the mouth of the Betsj River and overturned.
Some people assumed Rockefeller had been captured and killed by the Asmat. Some others suggested that the strong , unpredictable tides and crocodiles were likelier villains. A small but committed minority thought that the governor’s son ‘went native’ and still lived, and more than one adventures went off toward this great island to find Michael Rockefeller.
- Geography
Neatly bisected at longitude 141 degree east, the eastern half being Papua New Guinea, an independent country, Iran’s 421,981 sq. km constitute 22 percent of Indonesia’s total land area.
The shape of New Guinea has been likened to that of the cassowary bird, and the westernmost peninsula, nearly cut off from the ‘body’ by Bintuni Bay, is called the Bird’s head – ‘kepala burung’ in Indonesian, and ‘Vogelkop’ in Dutch.
A 2,000 km long cordillera of craggy mountains running the length of the island is New Guinea’s most distinctive topological feature. The crests of the main divide top 3,000m in many places and a handful of rocky peak soar above 4,500m. small permanent snowfields and relict glaciers still grace the highest elevations.
Irian’s mountains are geologically quite recent consisting largely of sedimentary limestones, sandstone’s and shale that has been uplifted and faulted on a massive scale by plate movements. The central cordillera traces the exact line where the Sahul Shelf and the Pacific Ocean meet.
Volcanic rock is not common in the mountains, but in one of the few places an ingenous intrusion has appeared – in the Sudirman Range – the outcrop has proved to be incredibly rich in copper, gold and silver.
The central mountain chain comprises three contiguous ranges : the Wisnumurti range, running westward from the Papua New Guinea border, the Jayawijaya Range, defining the southern reach of the Baliem Valley and the Sudirman Range, extending west to the Paniai Lakes. The Dutch names for these ranges beginning from the border were star Mountains, Oranje Mountains and Nassau Mountains, sometimes all simply called the snow Mountains. At least one contemporary source has incorporated the Wisnumurti Range in the Jayawijaya Range.
- Flora and Fauna
In addition to this collection of addities, Irian is also home to some of nature’s most glorious creatures – bird of paradise and the great bird wing butterflies.
Irian has the richest concentration of plant life in all of Indonesia, and perhaps all over the world. Scientists estimate there are 16,000 species of plants growing in New Guinea, including hundreds of species that are of medicinal importance. At least 124 genera of New Guinea’s flowering plants are found nowhere else, and botanists suggest that further research may find 90 percent of all the flowering plants species here to be endemic.
So far 2,700 species of orchids have been recorded here, most growing in the rich lowland forests, but the small, bright flowers of some can be found even in the sub alpine meadows of the highlands.
Some species are quite unusual. Pitcher plants (nepentheses spp.) have evolved a very interesting adaptation to nitrogen poor soils. Their leaves form cups of enzyme rich water, which attract and drown insects, providing a important source of fertilizers.
In the high shrublands in the central cordillera, one can find the giant anthouse plant (Myrmecodia brassii.). These epiphytes grown outward from trees, looking like a large, very spiny pineapple. The bulbous base of Mermecodia is honeycombed with passageways just teeming with ants. Even small frogs and lizards have been found to live inside this strange plant.
Mangroves and nipa palms ensnarl the brackish estuaries of the coast, particularly in Bintuni Bay, the south coat, and the edge of Cenderawasih Bay. Further inland – in the lakes Plain region, and in the south swamp forests replace the mangroves.
Irian swamp harbors the most extensive stands of sago palms (Metroxylon spp) in the world. Starch extracted from the pitch of this tree serves as the staple of all lowland Irianese. Though western visitors often decry it as bland and gummy, sago has the distinct advantage of being the lest labor intensive of all of the world’s staple crops to collect.
- Vegetation
At 1,000 to 3,000 meters the forest changes. In areas with constant cloud cover, one sometimes encounters the eerie moss forest in which all the trees are encrusted with lichens and mosses in huge streamers. The pandanus grows here as well, producing large fruits full of rich nuts.
The farmers of the central highlands have exploited the fertile soil surrounding some of the rive valleys, the most famous is the Baliem. In most of the lowlands, with few exceptions, the soil is leached and barren.
Past 3,000 meters, the forest thins out and gives way to strange, prehistoric looking tree fern (Cyathea) savabbahs. Here also are sub alpine scrublands of rhododendrons and stunted conifers. Beyond the tree lin (3,900 meters) one finds sub alpine heaths and swamps, then just rock.
- Biological Diversity
Wallace was the first to recognize the marked change in faunal types as one move east of Ball from the Asian to the Australian biological regions. The large area of biological overlap in between, including Sulawesi, the Moluccas, and Nusa Tenggara, is now called ‘Wallace’ in his honor.
So far, biologists have identified 643 species of birds in Irian Jaya in all of New Guinea, and there are some real gems in this group, the Victoria crowned pigeon (Gura spp), the world’s largest pigeon, is a brilliant lavender with a delicate crown of feathers and bright red eyes. Parrots, cockatoos, and lories brighten up the forests with red, yellow and purple.
During his eight years in the archipelago, Wallace spent six months in what is now Irian, three months on the shores of Dore Bay and three months on Waigeo Island. Approaching the coast for the first time, Wallace tingles with anticipation, knowing that those dark forests produced the most extraordinary and the most beautiful of the feathered inhabitants of the earth – the birds of paradise.
- Birds
Irian is home to some strange birds as well. The Megapods or brush turkeys which bury their eggs in sand or piles of vegetation, are found here. Bowerbirds, industrious creatures that decorate their large nests with bright objects such as flowers and berries, sometimes collecting small piles of objects of a single color, are present here in 9 species. One of the most famous of Irian birds is the cassowary (cassuari spp), a large flightless bird with a nasty reputation. These ugly customers have powerful feel ending in large claws, powerful weapons that have disemboweled more that one human victim. These birds are sought by hunter’s everlkuyh where they are found and the hair like feathers are a common decoration on hats and other items.- Before the Portuguese Arrival
Frizzy haird men and women appear on some of the relief’s at Borobudur, the great 8th century Buddhist stupa in Central Java, but these could just as well represent peoples from islands closer to Java.
The Negarakertagama a 14th century panegyric poem dedicated to the East Javanese King of Majapahit, mentions two Irianese territories, Onin and Seran on the southwestern side of the Bird’s Head peninsula, but direct control from Java must have been practically nonexistent.
It is certain however that prahu borne trade between some of the Moluccan islands and perhaps even Java and the western extremity of what is now Irian existed long before this. Items such as bird of paradise skins and massoi bark, unquestionably of Irianese origin, were well known trade items. And the Sultan of Tidore a tiny, but influential clove producing island off Halmahera long claimed areas in and around western Irian.
- Anthropological and linguistic evidence
Most scientists now believe that homo sapiens developed more recently than had been thought, and linguistic and genetic evidence points to a single African origin. Our species arose in Africa, perhaps no more than 200,000 years ago, and it was 100,000 years later before any of these early humans left the African continent.
There is no longer thought to be any link between so-called Java men or Homo erectus, and extinct humanoids that lived a half million years ago in Java (and elsewhere in the world), and any of today’s people.
What has been established is that 100,000 years ago humans began to fan out from Africa, and some 30,000 – 40,000 years ago they settled in New Guinea, Australia and points in between. These original Southeast Asians, related to today’s Australian aboriginal, Papuans and Melanesians, are the direct ancestors of the Irianese.
Linguistic studies show that the various Papuan groups have evolved in relative isolation from one another for many thousands of years, partly because of the island’s rugged geography but also because each group was typically in a perpetual state of warfare with its neighbors.
Estimates of the number of distinct languages spoken by the 2.7 million people of New Guinea vary from a whopping 800 down to about 80, depending on one’s definition of what constitutes a distinct language.
Some of Irian’s coastal areas have been settled by Austronesians and here garden and tree crops replaced sago as staple foods.
Particularly on the north coast of the neighboring islands, many ethnic groups speak Austronesian languages that are very different from the Papuan languages found throughout the rest of the island.
Austronesian influences can be seen in the raja leadership system practiced among the groups, perhaps adopted from the sultanates of Ternate, Tidore and Jailolo. With their political power cemented by control of trade, some rajas ruled wide areas embracing several ethnic groups, from seats of power in the Raja Empat Islands, in the Sorong area, around Fakfak or in the Kaimana region.
Inland from the coastal areas, in the foothills and valleys of Irian, scattered groups live in small communities that subsist from small forms, pig raising and hunting and gathering. They usually grow taro and yams, with sweet potatoes being a secondary importance.
- The People
In the interior of the bird’s head, the Baibrat (or Ayamara) and surrounding groups carried on a complex ritual trade involving kain timur – an antique cloth from eastern Indonesia – which were obtained from the coastal austronesian traders in exchange for pigs and food from the interior.
The people living in Irian’s lowland forests between the coastal swamps and the highlands are the least known. Nowhere is there a very high population density, and many of these people are nomadic.
People have been living in Irian’s highlands for 25,000 years, and farming the relatively reach soils here for perhaps 9,000 years.
One sartorial trait distinguishes all of Irian’s highlanders : they all wear ‘phallocrypts’ or penis coverings.
The people living in Irian’s lowland forests between the coastal swamps and the highlands are the least known. Nowhere is there a very high population density, and many of these people are nomadic.
People have been living in Irian’s highlands for 25,000 years, and farming the relatively reach soils here for perhaps 9,000 years.
One sartorial trait distinguishes all of Irian’s highlanders : they all wear ‘phallocrypts’ or penis coverings.
- Various Tribes
The well known Dani are but one of many highland groups living in Irian’s highlands. West of the Dani are the Amung, Damal and Uhundini group, numbering about 14,000 and sharing a language family.
The Kombai, Korowai and scattered other groups living between the Asmat area in the south, and the southern ranges of the central highlands in the north, have prove to be among the most resistant people on the island to the entreaties of missionaries and others who would have them join the so-called modern world. One group has for years systematically rejected, with spears and arrows on occasion, missionaries, government workers and even gifts of steel axes, nylon fishnets and steel fishhooks.
Cannibalism is frequently reported and surely still practiced here. There unregenerate forest dwellers – inhabiting the are in the upper reaches of the Digul River watershed and scattered other locations in the foothill forests south of the central cordillera – live in tall tree houses, perhaps to escape the mosquito and the men wear let penis wrappers.
The well known Dani are but one of many highland groups living in Irian’s highlands. West of the Dani are the Amung, Damal and Uhundini group, numbering about 14,000 and sharing a language family. West of Damal are the Mona, numbering about 25,000. further west, in the vicinity of Paniai Lakes, the westernmost extent of the central mountains, are the Kari numbering about 100,000.
The Ekari (in some texts called Kapauku) have been the most successful of Irian’s ethnic groups in making the transition to modern way of life. One anthropologist, Leopold Pospisil, had called them ‘primitive capitalists’ for their acquisitiveness and culture based around property ownership.
The Ekari have no concept of a gift – everything is leased, rented or loaned with elaborate calculations of credit and interest. Just about everything can be settled with suitable payments, including crimes such as rape, adultery and murder. A fee was even charged for raising a child.
Most unusual for a traditional culture, the Ekari have no communal property. Everything is owned, including each section of an irrigation ditch, a part of a road or footpath, even a wood and liana suspension bridge.
Biak is the first Indonesia stop for travelers flying Garuda Indonesia from the United States, though most passengers remember it as groggy refueling break on the way to Ball or Java, Biak is a charming place to visit.
Biak is the best known of the former Schouten Islands, and the most populated. The town has some lively markets, and an interesting harbor. Inland one can visit the eerie caves where Japanese soldiers hid during the second world war, and a small museum full of relics. Further our from the town, one encounters beautiful waterfalls and reefs.
The Padado Islands, which dot the sea south east of Biak, are ringed with coral and offer fine snorkeling. Biak is also the homeport of the tropical Princess, a live-aboard boat that takes divers to perhaps the riches and most unspoiled reefs in all of Indonesia.
For selected beaches and near shore snorkeling, head to nearby Numfor, a beautiful and lightly populated island. Thickly forested Yapen, looms just across the water south of Biak. If the weather is good, one can see it clearly from the Biak Harbor. The island’s forests host the beautiful birds of paradise, and the shores have numerous sandy coves fine for swimming and snorkeling.
Jayapura, Irian’s capital and largest city, began its life as a Dutch port and administrative center. The city was placed here to mark the border with the German colony just a stone’s throw away, and one can see into Papua New Guinea from the hills north of town. For many years, Hollandia was a small, backwater town, but it suddenly leaped onto the world stage during the second world war as a staging point for General MacArthur’s Pacific Island hopping campaign.
Today, after West Irian was handed over to the Republic of Indonesia by the United Nations Temporary Administration (UNTEA) on May 1, 1963, Jayapura is a thriving city of 170,000 with a mixed population of Javanese, Makassarese and Bugis Muslims, as well as many Ambonese and Manadonese Christians, in addition to Iriannese. Jayapura is one of the few places in Irian with paved roads and public transportation – including private taxis – and travel around the are is easy.
The Cenderawasih University Museum, in nearby Abepura, has a fince collection of artifacts from Irian, and another nearby museum, the Negeri, displays objects of material culture from Irian’s various ethnic groups. A visit to these two is a good way to get some background before heading to the highlands or the south coast.
From Jayapura, a short hop to Yotefa Bay offers the spectacle of scattered second world war relics-half-sunken ships, beaches tanks and landing craft. Or your boatman can take you to nearby fishing villages that consists of huts mounted on a forest of stilts. At high tide, the water reaches a meter and a half beneath the village. At low tide, a wide expanse of mud flats is revealed, which, in at least one area, becomes a makeshift soccer field.
Nearby Lake Sentani, dotted with islands offers a stunning panorama of velvet green hills easing their way into the lake. A meal of crispy lake fish and even water skiing are possible here.
If you want, you can also visit one of the several crocodile farms in the area, and have a look to these prehistoric animals up close.
For many years of the mission achieved little success, but nevertheless laid the groundwork for the district’s current Christian majority. The town of Manokwari stretching around the Dore Bay, lies in an attractive setting of low hills dominated by the Arfak Mountains to the south. Indonesian – Chinese owned shops are well stocked with all the essentials and a fair number of luxuries. The main shopping area is Jalan Merdeka, near the Hotel Mokwam. A newer shopping complex has gone up near the Hotel Mutiara.
For the best overview of town, hike up to the Japanese war Memorial, about 2 kilo meters from the hotel Arfak.
If the weather is clear take a boat out to Leman and Mansinam Islands. Motorized outrigger canoes can occasionally be found at the main clock.
The paved road south of Manokwari now extends the transmigration settlements at Prafi, about 60 Km away, and reaches past Ransiki. This road heads south past the airport and hugs the shore of Lake Kabori.
The best side trip from Manokwari is to the Anggi Lake in the Arfak Mountains. The tallest peak in the Arfak, Gunung Umsin, reaches 2,926 meters and five other mountains top 2,000 meters.
From paths above the Lake, the panorama sweeps over steep slopes covered with forest tipping into the smooth waters, with the only ripples coming from paddled outrigger canoes.
The oilfields off Sorong, one of the reasons the Dutch on to Iran, after being forced to grant independence to the rest of Indonesia, were first tapped in 1932. While the relative importance of oil has declined in Sorong (just over 10 million barrels were pumped in 1987), the state owned Pertamina, maintains major installations in town : storage tanks, a port with docks for tankers and the town best private homes on a hill called Kuda Laut (seahorse).
Although the relative importance of the oil industry has declined – it used to be the only source of employment – Pertamina still dominates the local economy. But the timber industry is now a close second. The lumber companies used to ship out entire logs to be processed overseas. But new government regulations require that milling and processing take place locally, and a plywood factory is built in Sorong, promising many new jobs.
The mining industry, which has extracted nickel are from the nearby Raja Empat Islands, has suffered a number of ups and downs. The mines on Waigeo and Gebe have been shut down but the one on Gog Island remains alive and well.
Sorong definitely is not a tourist town. While the disco nightlife can be lively, daylight activities are strictly business. Still, the markets are interesting , there are local beaches and reefs, and Sorong is the place from which to visit the Raja Empat Islands, though this is not particularly convenient or cheap.
A more famous war memorial is in town, in Jalan Arfak, a short way up the hill near the Cenderawasih Hotel. To reach the monument to the Japanese war dead, you have to cross the backyard of the local police chief. Some drivers are scared of the chief, others are scared of the chief’s dog. Both are harmless, but you have to take the initiative. The house is usually open, so just peer in ask : Can I go the monument, the answer is invariably affirmative. The monument complex includes an obelisk, a bronze Shinto Deity and long thin memorial plaques.
The second world war relics in the area are concentrated on Jerman Island, the site of the current airfield originally built by the Japanese. There is said to be a large, it act shore battery, some bombed out anti aircraft guns and lots of bunkers. The Allies never invaded here, the just bombed the airfield and sank all the ships, then by passed Sorong on their way to Morotai.
Roads lead across the river and north, all the way to pass Valley, northwest to Pyramid and beyond, and south to Sugokmo. Mini buses can take you to see Dani Villages, the mummies at Akima and JIwika, brine ponds, or to the jumping off points for ore ambitious hikes – west to Lake Hebbema, south to the spectacular Baliem gorge or east, over the mountain wall to Yali lands.
The irony is, though the Baliem Valley is now getting more and more popular as a trekking area and a destination for adventure seekers, not even one single word about this valley was mentioned in the “Indonesia Travel Planner 1994 / 1995,” a standard for travel business professional around the world, very recently published by the Indonesia Directorate General of Tourism of the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications.
The Baliem Valley, with its purity and so enchanting , at the altitude of 1,600m above the sea, at the foot of mountains of Jayawijaya (during the Dutch colonization it was called Willhelmina Top) with its snow capped tops, being the only one in the equatorial region, at the altitude of almost 5,000 m above the sea.
The Facts are now already quite promising
In 1993 not less than 8,000 tourists originating from various places of the world, among others from European countries, the USA, Australia and Japan visiting Irian Jaya, most of them also visit the Baliem Valley.
Definitely the figure above will be dramatically increased in the very near future, since more lenient burocracies is now applied to foreign tourists keen to visit this part of the world.
Until very recently the Indonesian Government has decided to make Irian Jaya more open for foreign tourists, though it is only natural (for security’s sake of the tourists themselves) that a special permit should be first granted by the local authorities for each and every individual or groups intending to go to Irian Jaya.
Though in 1962 people lost track of the whereabouts of David Rockefeller (believed to be lost of met a fatal accident in the jungle of this most eastern province of Indonesia), the world seems to be not to discouraged to continually explore and to enjoy this last stone, age area of the world, where pristine nature is relatively still intact, and its local inhabitant’s cultural treasures from millions of years ago still existing until today.
Thrown to Wamena from the hustles and bustles of big cities like New York, Singapore or Tokyo, you are not only thrown back to the still intact pristine and green nature, where the air is cool, clean and fresh, “but you are also thrown back to primitive cultures of thousands of years ago, where its people until today practically still absolutely naked moving around the valley of Baliem, or for that matter, wherever you will be present in this province, with an exception of the capital of the province, Jayapura.
The people living in this area is from primitive farming (mainly sweet potatoes) and hunting (wild pigs) as have been done by their ancestors since thousands of years ago.
Some of them are still using stone axe and making fire from stone scratching, and still worshiping the Mother Nature, not to mention their ancestor’s mummies. With the flying distance only less than an hour from the capital (Jayapura is only less than a couple of hour flying time from Biak), the Baliem Valley is promising “ a bright future for trekking and adventure haven of a world class.”
The prospect of the adventure tourism in Iran Jaya with Baliem Valley as one among its strongest attraction will satisfy the world potential demands on green and adventure tourism. Irian Jaya is quite rich with trekking areas like the Baliem Valley, Angguruk and the surrounding areas of Habema Lake.
By going back to the stone age to a place like the Baliem Valley one will realize that the varieties and richness in nature and culture of Indonesia is almost unlimited, from the most primitive spanning to the most modern and sophisticated like those you can find in Jakarta.
The Asmat region, with its capital Agat, though world famous for their world class wood carving arts, practically is still closed for tourists, except with some special permit either from Jakarta or from the regional government of the Province of West Irian.
The Kombai, Korowai and scattered other groups living between the Asmat area in the south, and the southern ranges of the central highlands in the north, have prove to be among the most resistant people on the island to the entreaties of missionaries and others who would have them join the so-called modern world. One group has for years systematically rejected, with spears and arrows on occasion, missionaries, government workers and even gifts of steel axes, nylon fishnets and steel fishhooks.
Cannibalism is frequently reported and surely still practiced here. There unregenerate forest dwellers – inhabiting the are in the upper reaches of the Digul River watershed and scattered other locations in the foothill forests south of the central cordillera – live in tall tree houses, perhaps to escape the mosquito and the men wear let penis wrappers.
- Highland Irianese
The well known Dani are but one of many highland groups living in Irian’s highlands. West of the Dani are the Amung, Damal and Uhundini group, numbering about 14,000 and sharing a language family. West of Damal are the Mona, numbering about 25,000. further west, in the vicinity of Paniai Lakes, the westernmost extent of the central mountains, are the Kari numbering about 100,000.
The Ekari (in some texts called Kapauku) have been the most successful of Irian’s ethnic groups in making the transition to modern way of life. One anthropologist, Leopold Pospisil, had called them ‘primitive capitalists’ for their acquisitiveness and culture based around property ownership.
The Ekari have no concept of a gift – everything is leased, rented or loaned with elaborate calculations of credit and interest. Just about everything can be settled with suitable payments, including crimes such as rape, adultery and murder. A fee was even charged for raising a child.
Most unusual for a traditional culture, the Ekari have no communal property. Everything is owned, including each section of an irrigation ditch, a part of a road or footpath, even a wood and liana suspension bridge.
- Jayapura and Biak
Biak is the first Indonesia stop for travelers flying Garuda Indonesia from the United States, though most passengers remember it as groggy refueling break on the way to Ball or Java, Biak is a charming place to visit.
Biak is the best known of the former Schouten Islands, and the most populated. The town has some lively markets, and an interesting harbor. Inland one can visit the eerie caves where Japanese soldiers hid during the second world war, and a small museum full of relics. Further our from the town, one encounters beautiful waterfalls and reefs.
The Padado Islands, which dot the sea south east of Biak, are ringed with coral and offer fine snorkeling. Biak is also the homeport of the tropical Princess, a live-aboard boat that takes divers to perhaps the riches and most unspoiled reefs in all of Indonesia.
For selected beaches and near shore snorkeling, head to nearby Numfor, a beautiful and lightly populated island. Thickly forested Yapen, looms just across the water south of Biak. If the weather is good, one can see it clearly from the Biak Harbor. The island’s forests host the beautiful birds of paradise, and the shores have numerous sandy coves fine for swimming and snorkeling.
Jayapura, Irian’s capital and largest city, began its life as a Dutch port and administrative center. The city was placed here to mark the border with the German colony just a stone’s throw away, and one can see into Papua New Guinea from the hills north of town. For many years, Hollandia was a small, backwater town, but it suddenly leaped onto the world stage during the second world war as a staging point for General MacArthur’s Pacific Island hopping campaign.
Today, after West Irian was handed over to the Republic of Indonesia by the United Nations Temporary Administration (UNTEA) on May 1, 1963, Jayapura is a thriving city of 170,000 with a mixed population of Javanese, Makassarese and Bugis Muslims, as well as many Ambonese and Manadonese Christians, in addition to Iriannese. Jayapura is one of the few places in Irian with paved roads and public transportation – including private taxis – and travel around the are is easy.
The Cenderawasih University Museum, in nearby Abepura, has a fince collection of artifacts from Irian, and another nearby museum, the Negeri, displays objects of material culture from Irian’s various ethnic groups. A visit to these two is a good way to get some background before heading to the highlands or the south coast.
From Jayapura, a short hop to Yotefa Bay offers the spectacle of scattered second world war relics-half-sunken ships, beaches tanks and landing craft. Or your boatman can take you to nearby fishing villages that consists of huts mounted on a forest of stilts. At high tide, the water reaches a meter and a half beneath the village. At low tide, a wide expanse of mud flats is revealed, which, in at least one area, becomes a makeshift soccer field.
Nearby Lake Sentani, dotted with islands offers a stunning panorama of velvet green hills easing their way into the lake. A meal of crispy lake fish and even water skiing are possible here.
If you want, you can also visit one of the several crocodile farms in the area, and have a look to these prehistoric animals up close.
- Manokwari
For many years of the mission achieved little success, but nevertheless laid the groundwork for the district’s current Christian majority. The town of Manokwari stretching around the Dore Bay, lies in an attractive setting of low hills dominated by the Arfak Mountains to the south. Indonesian – Chinese owned shops are well stocked with all the essentials and a fair number of luxuries. The main shopping area is Jalan Merdeka, near the Hotel Mokwam. A newer shopping complex has gone up near the Hotel Mutiara.
For the best overview of town, hike up to the Japanese war Memorial, about 2 kilo meters from the hotel Arfak.
If the weather is clear take a boat out to Leman and Mansinam Islands. Motorized outrigger canoes can occasionally be found at the main clock.
The paved road south of Manokwari now extends the transmigration settlements at Prafi, about 60 Km away, and reaches past Ransiki. This road heads south past the airport and hugs the shore of Lake Kabori.
The best side trip from Manokwari is to the Anggi Lake in the Arfak Mountains. The tallest peak in the Arfak, Gunung Umsin, reaches 2,926 meters and five other mountains top 2,000 meters.
From paths above the Lake, the panorama sweeps over steep slopes covered with forest tipping into the smooth waters, with the only ripples coming from paddled outrigger canoes.
- Sorong
The oilfields off Sorong, one of the reasons the Dutch on to Iran, after being forced to grant independence to the rest of Indonesia, were first tapped in 1932. While the relative importance of oil has declined in Sorong (just over 10 million barrels were pumped in 1987), the state owned Pertamina, maintains major installations in town : storage tanks, a port with docks for tankers and the town best private homes on a hill called Kuda Laut (seahorse).
Although the relative importance of the oil industry has declined – it used to be the only source of employment – Pertamina still dominates the local economy. But the timber industry is now a close second. The lumber companies used to ship out entire logs to be processed overseas. But new government regulations require that milling and processing take place locally, and a plywood factory is built in Sorong, promising many new jobs.
The mining industry, which has extracted nickel are from the nearby Raja Empat Islands, has suffered a number of ups and downs. The mines on Waigeo and Gebe have been shut down but the one on Gog Island remains alive and well.
Sorong definitely is not a tourist town. While the disco nightlife can be lively, daylight activities are strictly business. Still, the markets are interesting , there are local beaches and reefs, and Sorong is the place from which to visit the Raja Empat Islands, though this is not particularly convenient or cheap.
A more famous war memorial is in town, in Jalan Arfak, a short way up the hill near the Cenderawasih Hotel. To reach the monument to the Japanese war dead, you have to cross the backyard of the local police chief. Some drivers are scared of the chief, others are scared of the chief’s dog. Both are harmless, but you have to take the initiative. The house is usually open, so just peer in ask : Can I go the monument, the answer is invariably affirmative. The monument complex includes an obelisk, a bronze Shinto Deity and long thin memorial plaques.
The second world war relics in the area are concentrated on Jerman Island, the site of the current airfield originally built by the Japanese. There is said to be a large, it act shore battery, some bombed out anti aircraft guns and lots of bunkers. The Allies never invaded here, the just bombed the airfield and sank all the ships, then by passed Sorong on their way to Morotai.
- Wamena
Roads lead across the river and north, all the way to pass Valley, northwest to Pyramid and beyond, and south to Sugokmo. Mini buses can take you to see Dani Villages, the mummies at Akima and JIwika, brine ponds, or to the jumping off points for ore ambitious hikes – west to Lake Hebbema, south to the spectacular Baliem gorge or east, over the mountain wall to Yali lands.
The irony is, though the Baliem Valley is now getting more and more popular as a trekking area and a destination for adventure seekers, not even one single word about this valley was mentioned in the “Indonesia Travel Planner 1994 / 1995,” a standard for travel business professional around the world, very recently published by the Indonesia Directorate General of Tourism of the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications.
The Baliem Valley, with its purity and so enchanting , at the altitude of 1,600m above the sea, at the foot of mountains of Jayawijaya (during the Dutch colonization it was called Willhelmina Top) with its snow capped tops, being the only one in the equatorial region, at the altitude of almost 5,000 m above the sea.
The Facts are now already quite promising
In 1993 not less than 8,000 tourists originating from various places of the world, among others from European countries, the USA, Australia and Japan visiting Irian Jaya, most of them also visit the Baliem Valley.
Definitely the figure above will be dramatically increased in the very near future, since more lenient burocracies is now applied to foreign tourists keen to visit this part of the world.
Until very recently the Indonesian Government has decided to make Irian Jaya more open for foreign tourists, though it is only natural (for security’s sake of the tourists themselves) that a special permit should be first granted by the local authorities for each and every individual or groups intending to go to Irian Jaya.
Though in 1962 people lost track of the whereabouts of David Rockefeller (believed to be lost of met a fatal accident in the jungle of this most eastern province of Indonesia), the world seems to be not to discouraged to continually explore and to enjoy this last stone, age area of the world, where pristine nature is relatively still intact, and its local inhabitant’s cultural treasures from millions of years ago still existing until today.
Thrown to Wamena from the hustles and bustles of big cities like New York, Singapore or Tokyo, you are not only thrown back to the still intact pristine and green nature, where the air is cool, clean and fresh, “but you are also thrown back to primitive cultures of thousands of years ago, where its people until today practically still absolutely naked moving around the valley of Baliem, or for that matter, wherever you will be present in this province, with an exception of the capital of the province, Jayapura.
The people living in this area is from primitive farming (mainly sweet potatoes) and hunting (wild pigs) as have been done by their ancestors since thousands of years ago.
Some of them are still using stone axe and making fire from stone scratching, and still worshiping the Mother Nature, not to mention their ancestor’s mummies. With the flying distance only less than an hour from the capital (Jayapura is only less than a couple of hour flying time from Biak), the Baliem Valley is promising “ a bright future for trekking and adventure haven of a world class.”
The prospect of the adventure tourism in Iran Jaya with Baliem Valley as one among its strongest attraction will satisfy the world potential demands on green and adventure tourism. Irian Jaya is quite rich with trekking areas like the Baliem Valley, Angguruk and the surrounding areas of Habema Lake.
By going back to the stone age to a place like the Baliem Valley one will realize that the varieties and richness in nature and culture of Indonesia is almost unlimited, from the most primitive spanning to the most modern and sophisticated like those you can find in Jakarta.
The Asmat region, with its capital Agat, though world famous for their world class wood carving arts, practically is still closed for tourists, except with some special permit either from Jakarta or from the regional government of the Province of West Irian.