A Pride of A Tribe : Tribes across the world - Come meet the tribes, see their way of life and learn about their cultures

Sunday 25 September 2016

Tribes across the world - Come meet the tribes, see their way of life and learn about their cultures

The males from the Huli tribe in Papua New Guinea make wigs from their own hair and decorate them with colourful feathers. Photo: Nellie Huang

by NELLIE HUANG

IN remote corners of the world, you'll be surprised to find many primitive tribes that continue to live the way their ancestors have for centuries.

Life can be harsh for these tribes: Some survive on livestock or natural foods from the environment, while others sustain themselves by hunting. Many of them live in simple mudhouses or bamboo-thatched homes. Some don't even have access to clean water or electricity.

However, these tribes have been able to preserve their cultures and traditions, thanks to years of isolation from the outside world. They live culturally rich lives with colourful costumes, traditional dances and customs that have been passed down from one generation to another.

Here is a look at some of the most amazing tribes I've encountered in my travels around the world.

MAASAI WARRIORS — KENYA AND TANZANIA

The Maasai (also spelled as Masai) are a semi-nomadic people from East Africa who are known for their unique way of life as well as their cultural traditions and customs. Living across the arid lands along the Great Rift Valley in Tanzania and Kenya, the Maasai population is currently about 1.5 million people, with the majority of them living in Kenya's Maasai Mara.

The Maasai are reputed to be strong warriors who hunt for food, drink the blood of animals and live closely with wild animals. Dressed in bright-red Shuka cloth and colourful beaded jewellery, the warrior men proudly adorn themselves with what may appear to outsiders to be women's attire.

According to the Maasai people I met in Kenya, they have little interest in the supposed benefits of modern life.

THE SAN BUSHMEN — BOTSWANA

The San people (or Saan), also known as Bushmen, are one of the indigenous hunter-gatherer groups of Botswana. These indigenous hunter-gatherers were first made famous by the movie, The Gods Must be Crazy.

Most of them live deep in the Kalahari deserts of Botswana by hunting and gathering food from the bushland.

Unfortunately, the San people were evicted from their ancestral land in the 1950s and were forced to switch to farming as a result. Banned from hunting and forced to apply for permits to enter the reserve, they are now being pushed to the brink of extinction.

In Ghanzi, Botswana, we went out to the bush with a group of San people who showed us how they gathered herbs for medication and plants for food. It was really interesting to hear the way they speak (their dialect consists of a lot of clicking sounds) and learn about their centuries-old survival techniques.

The San people still use rock and flint to start fires. They also hunt for animals using weapons that are handmade from bamboo. Water is obtained from plants like Tsama melons.

THE HULI WIGMEN — PAPUA NEW GUINEA

The Huli is the largest ethnic group in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, with a population somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 people.

Huli men are best known for their decorative woven wigs adorned with multi-coloured feathers and used as elaborate headdresses during singings (massive celebratory festivals). The Huli Wigmen attend wig schools and live together in isolation from the rest of the community.

During my visit to Papua New Guinea, I met the teacher and students of Poroiba Akua Wig School, and had an interesting lesson on how to grow wigs. According to the Kupunu or the teacher, a student can only grow his hair into a wig with his teacher's spell.

Only male students are allowed in the school and they have to study there for years before becoming Wigmen. The school does allow female visitors though.

HMONG WOMEN — VIETNAM AND CHINA

My visit to the Sapa region of northern Vietnam was memorable mainly because of the strong Hmong women I met along the way.

Although Hmong culture is patrilineal — the husband's family makes all major decisions — Hmong women have traditionally carried a large amount of responsibility in the family.

The children learn gender expectations at a young age and girls traditionally take on household responsibilities from their female elders by the age of eight. Besides taking care of the household chores, the women also plant and harvest fields with their husbands.

Many Hmong women now work in tourism, opening their houses to trekkers for homestays and helping during hikes.

THE HIMBA — NAMIBIA

A group of indigenous people live in the harsh, dry deserts of the Kunene region, northern Namibia. They have become well known throughout the world for their practice of covering themselves with otjize, a mixture of butter fat and ochre, to protect themselves from the sun.

The mixture gives their skin a reddish tinge, symbolises earth's rich red colour and life, and is consistent with the Himba ideal of beauty. Himba women also like to braid each other's hair, which is also covered in the ochre mixture.

There are now between 20,000 and 50,000 Himba people left and most of them make a living tending to livestock or welcoming visitors into their villages.

During my trip to Namibia, I met a Himba family in Damaraland and it was definitely an experience talking to them and understanding their way of life.

LONG-NECKED KAREN WOMEN — MYANMAR AND THAILAND

In the border mountains between Myanmar and Thailand live the Karen people, a tribal group related to the Tibetans. Today, their tribe numbers around 40,000 people as more are moving to the cities.

The Karen people are most famous for the neck rings worn by the women for beautification purposes. The first coil is applied when the girl is five years old. As she grows, it is replaced by a longer coil.

Sadly, the number of Karen women who still practise this custom is dwindling and many people are exploiting them for tourism.

I met a few Karen women at Inle Lake in Myanmar, who had travelled thousands of miles to live there to work in the tourism sector. Many of them are hired to simply take photos with tourists and show them how their neck rings work.