Life Among the Trees

Deep in the vast rainforests between the southern coast and the central highlands of Papua, Indonesia, live the Kombai. Together with their neighbors, the Korowai, they are commonly called treehouse people, since they build their homes high up in the trees, often at five to fifteen meters but sometimes as high as twenty or even thirty meters above ground. The Kombai rely on what nature provides. Most of what swims, flies, walks or crawls in their forest is edible and can be hunted or gathered. But no less than 85-90 percent of their food intake is made up of starchy sago flour, which is extracted from the pith of the sago palm. Their most important religious ritual is the sago grub festival, a life-regenerating rite at which the hosts and their invited guests feast on large numbers of big, fat grubs living in fallen and rotten sago palms. The aim of this ritual is to induce the spirits to make sure that the sago palms and the living creatures of the forest flourish so that the people can continue to lead a good life in their forest home.