Baliem festival turns war into attraction

The Jakarta Post   |  Sun, 08/24/2008 10:07 AM  |  Photo

The 2008 Baliem Valley Cultural Festival, or just the Baliem Festival for short, is an annual event in which Papuan tribes renowned for their histories of war and violence reenact mock battles with each other as a cultural attraction for tourists.

Held at Muliama village, Asologaima district, about 20 kilometers from mountainous Wamena, capital of Jaya-wijaya regency in Papua, this year’s cultural event was organized to coincide with Indonesia’s Independence Day celebrations.

The event offers tourists with an excellent reason to visit charming Wamena. The festival was first held as a way to transition the tribes away from wars that had claimed hundreds of lives. These tribal wars continue today but are no longer accompanied by tears and bloodshed.

The idea of turning tribal-war brutality into a cultural attraction has proven successful and has brought in material profit to Wamena’s community. Hundreds of residents from the districts in Jayawijaya regency and its surrounding areas took part in this year’s 19th Baliem Festival.

Oil and clay were applied to the tall and burly bodies of the tribal warriors to make motifs.

Meanwhile, charcoal powder was rubbed on their faces with the result that the warriors sparkled in the sunshine.

These people were the “traditional soldiers”. Wearing their koteka, they held spears in their left hands and bows and arrows in their right. Their faces were fierce looking. Adding to their ferocity were hog fangs, measuring about 20 centimeters in length, which hung from their nostrils.

The “soldiers” furrowed their eyebrows and looked ready to pounce on their enemies.

The two tribes’ “soldiers” acted out a battle. They aimed their arrows at their enemy, then at the sky and finally at the audience, while taking it in turns to call out their enemies using the traditional chant: “Hu ... hu ... hu ...”.

The battle could then begin. The warriors assumed their battle formations in an arena in the beautiful Baliem Valley.

As in previous years, a number of attractions and competitions were held on four consecutive days (August 8-11, 2008). The festival concluded with a carnival and a parade of decorated vehicles around Wamena city.

Unfortunately, Baliem Festival, which is an event organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as part of its Visit Indonesia Year 2008 program, was not organized to the high standard foreign tourists have come to expect.

The organizing committee failed to put on a number of performances exclusively for domestic and foreign tourists.

From the first day, it was clear Baliem Festival was in a state of confusion, and the performances suffered as a consequence.

In 2000, during celebrations for World Indigenous People Day in Wamena city, a person was shot. Rumors arose that Papuans were attacking tourists and, promptly, the visitors, particularly domestic tourists, left the festival.

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