About The Asmat Tribe

Homes of Asmat Tribe

Asmat is the name of the largest tribe  in Papua, Irian Jaya, Indonesia. One of the things that made the Asmat tribe well known is the result of traditional wood carving is very typical. Some ornaments or motifs that are often used, and the main theme in the process of sculpting a statue made by the Asmat tribe is the theme of the ancestors of their tribe, commonly called mbis. And also often found ornaments or other motif that resembles a boat or wuramon, which they believe to be a symbol of the boat that brought the spirit of their ancestors in the underworld. For the Asmat tribe of natives, wood carving more than a manifestation of the way they perform rituals to commemorate the souls of the ancestors.

Asmat tribe spread out and inhabit the sea around the coast and the mountains Arafuru Jayawijaya, with a fairly heavy considering the terrain occupied area is wilderness, in the life of the Asmat, a stone that we usually see on the streets was very valuable to them. In fact, the stones can be used as a dowry. All of that is because the places that set up a live Asmat swamps making it very difficult to find stones street which is very useful for them to make axes, hammers, and so on.

Asmat population in general have distinctive physical characteristics, black and curly-haired. Her body is quite high. The average height of the Asmat women around 162cm and height 172cm men reach.

One of The Asmat Craft

One thing that enviable lifestyle of indigenous tribes Asmat, they feel as  a part of nature, that is why they are very respectful and keep the natural surroundings, in fact, around the tree of life where they are considered to be a picture of himself. The trunk describe arms, head pieces depict and describe the roots of their feet

Asmat people daily work surrounding environment, especially for foraging, hunting and gardening, which is still using the traditional method and simple enough. Asmat cuisine unlike our cuisine. Special dishes for them is sago worm. But everyday they just grilling fish or meat of animals hunted.