The Lani are – like their neighbors, the Dani - experienced farmers and are using a highly sophisticated irrigation system to produce mainly Sweet Potatoes, Tobacco, Beans, Taro, Spinach, Sugar Cane and Bananas.
Their villages in a beautiful surrounding southeast of Wamena are larger than the small compounds of the Dani and the Yali.
The Lani men, who are more stubby than the Dani, wear thick kotekas (penis gourds), which also serve as a “handbag”, a case for tobacco and valuables. Men sometimes wear hairnets, but the Lani extensively use bird feathers as decoration. Quite often a feather crown is worn even when the men are dressed in western clothes.The women wear short grass skirts, but like everywhere in the valley tend to wear western clothes more and more today.
Like their Dani and Yali neighbors, the women carry everything – like vegetables, small pigs and even their small children – in net-bags across their backs.
Lanis inhabit a smaller part of the Baliem valley, but this is not less beautiful and give uncounted opportunities for trekking. Since the Lani region is not visited as often as the Dani region, only few tourists will be seen during our treks.
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