Papua is an
exotic region with abundant resources located in the eastern region of
Indonesia . The diversity of traditions and culture of the people has not been
exposed to the outside world because of geographic location that far away from Jakarta
make transportation is a rarity and luxury . This complicates access to visit
it because it requires huge amount of money if we want to reach the region from the western part of Indonesia . This factor makes
the region remains relatively isolated in addition to the natural contours and
linguistic diversity of each tribe also be another limiting factor .
One of the largest and well-known tribe in Papua is the Dani tribe , this tribe occupied the Baliem Valley area, a hilly area with fertile soil. The Dani have rich tradition , especially the tradition of carving , the carves made by this tribe has been well known all over the world , especially for anthropologies society.
Another famous tradition is their stone cooking tradition. Stone cooking is the way of Dani tribe and other tribes to prepare special meal for special ceremonies or regular get-togethers .
They distinguish stone cooking event for special ceremonies : such as death , marriage , peace agreement among tribes who just had just tribal war . While the non- ritual stone cooking is for regular family gatherings .
They distinguish the cooking area, the number of people involved on cooking and some tradisional ornaments are required for this special occasion. For example, in a funeral ceremony , close relatives are required to bring a wam (wild boar), or if it is available they can replace it with tobacco , cigarettes , salt or some trivial items for us but hard to get there such as sugar, sweets, biscuit etc. The cooking place for ceremonies should be special , if daily stone cooking can be done in the back of hunila (Papuan’s house ), then for a special ceremony it should be performed in Silimo ( a field flanked by hunila and honai ) can also be done in larger open area if it involves more people and tribes.
The hole that prepared to perform cooking ritual has stringent rules , the diameter of the hole
should be 2 meters or more so it is
enough to stocked some wam
( wild boar ) , hipere ( sweet potato)
, as well as vegetables , and only lukata
and Lokop
leaves used for coating . In this
special event Tribal chief should kill the boar using an arrow. Before hands a group of man will set up a pile of
wood for burning stones of melons size to be heated on its pile, burns for approximately 4 hours . Once the
wood becoming ashes, stones will be extremely hot . The hot stones are then
compiled into a hole measuring 2 meters ( or smaller hole for casual get
together ) using bamboo or stem of sago. The women will take
Lokop leaf to cover the entire surface of the stone , then hipere
( sweet potatoes ) , wam ( wild boar
) , vegetables such as cassava leaves and papaya leaves will be fed with corn
and then coated again with a pile of Lokop leaves and banana leaves after big amount of salt
. At the very top layer of some more heated stones they piled soils to lock heat and vapor . It
can take up to an hour to burn all the food under ground for the results. In the end the rituals accepted
by
the ancestors if the meal well cooked, meaning everything should be fine . But if there are some parts of the meals
still raw or uncooked that should be a sign that something has gone wrong and
they must evaluating their way of live.
After long waiting time the foods cooked , they unload stone then serve the food on a piece of banana leaf . Tribal Chiefs will get the best cuts of boar, then all members of the tribe will start the meal with delight
.
Source of photo : www. fotokita.com
Google image
Source of photo : www. fotokita.com
Google image
References : Kompas Minggu
