Cannibalism in Sumatra and Papua.

It’s close to midnight
and something evil’s lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream
but terror takes the sound before you make it.
You start to freeze
as horror looks you right between the eyes,
You’re PARALYZED!!!

A warrior.

Stories of Cannibals

It was in 1965 when I first heard about cannibals. Back then, I was a student at a school run by the Missionaries in Singapore.

The class teacher, a Canadian missionary later opted to work in Papua New Guinea. He was short and plump man and in his mid thirties. On his first vacation, he gathered some of his old pupils and related his experiences, assisted with many slide transparencies.

Cannibal Art - a wood carving.

We listened and watched in awe. He returned with many pictures of the tribe people decked in grass, their bare bodies coarsely painted with pigment, headgear and a weapon held by one hand. They had a grim countenance.

One picture remains vivid till today. It was a man’s hand. He had three fingers severed. Someone in the group asked if the man lost his fingers from past violent encounters. The Missionary explained that even though the tribe lived in comparatively stone age conditions, they had laws of their own.

A 150 foot tree-top house.

He went on to say that this man had three fingers severed for being guilty in committing adultery. The penalty in that particular tribe is one finger for each act of adultery.

It is now several decades later and I found amazing readings on the Internet.

Incidentally, I do not know what became of that Canadian missionary because I never heard anything about him since.

Another story, from http://www.papuatrekking.com/cannibals_papua.html.

The last cases of cannibalism were only recently recorded. In 1968 two missionaries (Australian Stan Dole and American Phil Masters) were chopped and eaten. During Christmas 1974, four Dutch families were killed and eaten by aborigines in the Jayawijaya Mountains. The last known case was a killing of a priest and his twelve companions. It allegedly happened because they tried to ban the aborigines from hunting for skulls and they burnt their fetishes. This tragic event happened in 1976 almost in the end of the twentieth century. This is a very recent history of the New Guinea Island.

A Report on Cannibalism

Witnesses reported cannibalism by some of the rioters. “I saw a body being burned by mobs. It was then divided up and eaten,” said one resident of the town of Singkawang.

From http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/asiapcf/9903/21/indonesia.borneo/index.html.

A head.

John Walsh, from Shinawatra University, April 2007 reports how cannibalism continued until the early twentieth century in parts of Indonesia. In Sumatra, Malacca and elsewhere, religion, punishment and hunger led people to eat others.

From http://east-asian-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/cannibals_in_the_south_seas.

Cannibal Tours

Tribal dance.

We offer you a special with our new adventure & expeditions into deepest jungle of Papua. We fly into the misty highlands of the remote Kopkaka area where we trek along swampy area by crossing 3-4 wild rivers. We trek between tree houses perched far above our heads and cultivated lands. they are so friendly like you but keep watching because cannibals is close to you.

From http://www.infohub.com/vacation_packages/11205.html.

Cannibal Love

A movie, “Love and Cannibalism“, will be shot in Java and Sumatra in summer 2007, with completion scheduled for early 2008. It will screen in theaters in Indonesia, Malaysia, the U.S. and in international film festivals, and will be released on DVD. It’s the first feature film to portray the “wildly beautiful” land of Sumatra and the Batak people, Rony says. She hopes it will offer a new perspective on the region and its indigenous inhabitants.

From http://today.uci.edu/Features/profile_detail.asp?key=265.

Further Reading on Cannibals

http://www.heretical.com/cannibal/indonesi.html

http://www.livingstone.cz/vystava/?acc=stingl&lang=eng

http://countrystudies.us/indonesia/54.htm

http://www.janeresture.com/png_home/index.htm

‘Cause this is thriller, thriller
And no one’s gonna save you from the beast about strike
You know it’s thriller, thriller

Tags: Art, Batak, Beliefs, Cannibals, Papua, Stories, Sumatra, Tours, Tribes