Raja Ampat - the Culture that Arose from 610 Islands

Every October, Raja Ampat hosts its annual cultural festival.  All of these photos were taken on the 18th October.  

 

Women perform the yosim dance with bamboo flutes and drums.  The traditional drum of mainland Papua is known as a tifa and is often made with the skin of the monitor lizard.  

Two men are adorned with the traditional accessories and body paint of Yenbekaki Village in Raja Ampat. The head dress is a made from a red bird-of-paradise which is protected on the island from hunting. Old stuffed birds like these are passed down from generation to generation, in mainland Papua, they are stored in bamboo containers and stored in the smokey roof - conservation groups provide 'moth balls' in order to preserve the specimens and prevent the need to hunt them.

Like the famous naturalist and explorer Alfred Russel Wallace, many tourists still flock to Raja Ampat to see these captivating birds of paradise.  Endemic to the islands of Waigeo and Batanta are Wilson’s Bird-of-paradise as well as the Red Bird-of-paradise.

Other birds worth spotting include: sunbirds, kingfishers, Papuan hornbill, cockatoos, parrots, the rainbow lorikeet, ospreys, egrets, the white bellied sea-eagle, Gurney’s eagle, hawks and owls.

The following article offers a good reason why you should come to Raja Ampat - quite simply it is the best place in the world to go snorkeling:
http://www.gonomad.com/2125-indonesia-s-raja-ampat-islands-the-best-snorkeling-in-the-world
In this article Larry Taylor describes his experiences of traveling through Raja Ampat on a shakti boat - an Indonesian, traditional vessel.

Weaver Ants Build their Castles in the Trees

In our back-garden in Papua, hidden in the vines and the orange tree is a hidden civilization.  Weaver ants are strange creatures that build vast networks of homes in the trees - using leaves!!  The nests are woven together and sealed with larval silk and colonies can include up to 100 nests. By firmly grasping and manipulating a larvae, the worker ants are able to bind the leaves together.
In Thailand, these leaf-larvae packages are even sold as food items in markets and the larvae are said to be high in protein. I think I'll pass on that though.

 

The simplest leaf design - a leaf folded upon itself and sealed at the edges. 

 

The worker ants have exceptionally good communication skills -using chemicals or tactile communication signals (such as body shaking.)

A more complicated nest design in a vine plant.  Some larger nests have been recorded as measuring half a metre in length.