In Brief
Have you ever wondered about the indigenous tribal people living in some of the most remote and secluded corners of Indonesia?
While we are busy scrolling through our social media feed, they are busy hunting for tonight’s dinner, building their tree-homes, tattooing themselves, dancing and chanting as they celebrate traditional rituals they still practice today. What if we say, you can actually visit some of them?
In a world where babies are now welcomed with the luxury of the warm filled bathtub, it is indeed captivating to learn about the Korowai Tribe-One where the pregnant women are sent alone, far from their homes and deep down into the jungle to give birth all by themselves!
These hunter-gatherers in west Papua have been living up in tree houses for the centuries in order to avoid attacks from rival clans, and it is only in the 1970s that they got to know about the existence of other people like us. Korowai tribe value religion and believe in the existence of the spirits as well as reincarnation; they pay special tribute and respect their ancestors by celebrating with occasional feats. As Korowai people don’t have medication that can cure jungle diseases, their life spans are often short, so the village has very few elderly (most of them live till middle age) but expect lots of kids! Living with little knowledge about the outside world, it has been said that the tribe is no longer practicing cannibalism ((only for the ritual purposes) and has sadly become attractions for the crowds of sensation-hungry tourists. On an even sadder note, in recent years, the Indonesian Government has been building cities right in the middle of the rain forests, as well as roads towards the Korowai, so it might be possible that the tribe might become endangered in the future. Intrigued by these extraordinary people? this is how they live their lives: Cannibal Tribe, The Korowai Documentary.
- Pregnant Women are sent to the forest to give birth – Korowai tribe
Note:
Due to several incidents with the local police, it is only suspected the the Korwoai community have stopped their ritual cannibalistic practices.
Trek Papua 
“pregnant women are sent alone, far from their homes and deep down into the jungle to give birth all by themselves!” Not true
Hi Gina, you are right!. Now no more practicing as written one, but before the Christianity [brain washed their culture] yes! They used to Exactly as written on text in the site.
So far, based on my experience when we were traveling into deep jungle of the Korowai territory, a pregnant woman [a family of Yoas, Morongatun, delivered out baby from inside the running water. And baby born smoothly. We helped her baby.