{"id":2737,"date":"2018-10-27T16:04:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T16:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/udbjorg.wordpress.com\/?p=60"},"modified":"2026-02-23T00:44:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T23:44:20","slug":"yeskil-from-kilise-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/?p=2737","title":{"rendered":"Yeskil from Kilise"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A friend and I made a trip into the central parts of the Indonesian province West Papua on the island of New Guinea to visit one of the last indigenous tribes, the Dani tribe.<\/p>\n

We were int\"\"<\/a>erested in several topics on this trip; amongst others the use of penis gourds, the only covering worn by the men in the area; and the thin veil existing between the Dani culture and Western civilization. We wanted to assess what their chances of preserving their original culture are, while civilization creeps increasingly closer and is becoming a larger part of the Dani everyday life. In many aspects it was also a personal challenge.<\/p>\n

The following stories are about some of the many interesting experiences we had during our visit to the kind and friendly Dani people in Baliem Valley.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Yeskil\u2019s<\/b> story<\/b><\/p>\n

First time we saw Yeskil was outside our hotel in Wamena. A man, maybe fifty years of age, small, slim and well built. He was naked from top to toe, except for his Holim, or penis wrapper, which covered his private part. On his head he had a brim of kasuar feathers and around the neck, a necklace made out of boar teeth. Our guide had hired him to bring us up to his village up in the mountains behind Baliem Valley.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After a somewhat rough hike, we arrived safely in the village in the afternoon, settled in and sat around discussing with the guide. I had seen that Yeskil had lost part of his ring finger on his left hand and asked curiously the guide what had happened, and he told us the following story.<\/p>\n

Yeskil has two wives and had four children, but six years ago, his oldest and only son unfortunately got very ill.<\/p>\n

Yeskil tried to heal him using traditional methods, which included a visit to the medicine man and the use of local herbs, but unfortunately this didn\u2019t have any effect, and his son\u2019s condition deteriorated fast.<\/p>\n

It was time for more desperate measures and he decided to carry the sick boy to Wamena, some twenty kilometers away from Kilise, the Village, where Yeskil and his family lives. Kilise is situated in the central mountains North-West of the Wamena River. The only way to reach Kilise is on foot, on small narrow trails, climbing steep mountainsides, crossing streams, crawling over stone fences, jumping from grass tuft to grass tuft in the swamps and crawling down steep and slippery waterfalls. One can imagine how difficult it must have been for him to carry his sick son all the way to Wamena to the nearest hospital. It must have taken him most of the day to make this difficult trip.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/a>He managed to reach the hospital and the boy was admitted immediately, but unfortunately it was too late, the illness was too advanced, and the boy died during the night.<\/p>\n

One can only imagine the, all consuming, grief he must have felt over the loss of his only son and heir. He, who Yeskil would have taught all the traditions and customs which Yeskil had learned from his father, which would perpetuate their history. He, who had been Yeskil\u2019s companion in the fields and everywhere else, He was now suddenly ripped away. The agony must have been close to unbearable, and must have overshadowed all other feelings or thoughts.<\/p>\n

Yeskil took his, now deceased, son and carried him along the same route back to the village. However this time he was not only burdened by the weight of his son\u2019s lifeless body but also the infinite unbearable sorrow. He must have wetted the ground with tears all the way home.<\/p>\n

When he got back to the village, he put the boy down, laying him carefully on the rattan mat in his cottage. Yeskil went outside, where he found a big stone. He placed his left hand on the stone, then took another stone, and smashed the tip of his ring finger up to the first joint, to a bloody pulp.<\/p>\n

Then he took a knife and cut the crushed fingertip off. He wrapped his finger-stump in a cloth to stop the bleeding, took the chopped off fingertip into the hut and placed it by the boy, as a token of his pain and undiluted love for his son. The boy and the fingertip were then buried together in the local graveyard.<\/p>\n

The guide had witnessed it, as He was in the village at the time Yeskil arrived back with his son. The guide was totally shocked by what he had witnessed. He related that men do not normally mutilate their fingers on the death of a family member, traditionally the women do it. Normally the men will cut off part of their earlobe. They do this in order to release themselves from the mental agony of losing someone close; a transformation from emotional to physical pain.<\/p>\n

A stupid story<\/b><\/p>\n

At the hotel in Jayapura, I got an idea to collect all the surplus articles from the bathroom and bring them with me as a potential present. Shampoo, soap, sewing kit, bathing cap, lotion, comb, vanity kit, toothbrush and toothpaste. After all, it might be that I could find someone who would be happy to have these things.<\/p>\n

As Yeskil and I now were friends, it was evident that he should have them as a gift. Yeskil was of course happy to hear that I had a present for him, and was waiting in excitement to see what was in the small black bag I brought out of the hut. First I produced a toothbrush which was inside a white cardboard box.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"18\"Yeskil looked at it with big wondering eyes, and asked me in a faint voice what it was; I opened the box and showed him the content. He took it and stared at it! Then asked what this thing was used for, and I explained to him that one could use it for brushing the teeth. The notion struck me, this was definitely not such a good idea after all, but in trying to save the situation, I showed him some of the other things, with the guide trying his best to assist in the explanations as to the use of the various objects. \u201cBut I don\u2019t use these things\u201d, Yeskil said. The guide tried again, this time with the comb, and Yeskil said: \u201cBut, I have no hair!\u201d Disappointed he said: \u201cI really don\u2019t know what to do with these things; I don\u2019t use this kind of stuff\u201d.<\/p>\n

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I felt both very stupid and very embarrassed; I hadn\u2019t figured out that Yeskil didn\u2019t have any sense of the value of merchandise, as you find among people in other societies. They might not need it, but they are always willing to take it and sell it. This was furthest from Yeskil\u2019s mind!<\/p>\n

We persuaded him, that even though he might not need these things, it could be possible that one of his wives would appreciate it, and after a while, he condescended to give it to his wives. What a disaster! In the end, I don\u2019t think that he gave it to his wives, but I have a notion that he gave it to some of the other porters.<\/p>\n

Even if the intention is good one must be very careful, as you might unknowingly do something which affronts them. I had in my naivety made a mistake, but the lesson was learned \u201csee, hear, perceive, evaluate, evaluate again, before going into action!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A friend and I made a trip into the central parts of the Indonesian province West Papua on the island of New Guinea to visit one of the last indigenous tribes, the Dani tribe. We were interested in several topics on this trip; amongst others the use of penis gourds, the only covering worn by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1216],"tags":[82,91,92,150,344,578,595,773,782,783,784,839,898,1059,1130],"class_list":["post-2737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","tag-adventure","tag-adventures","tag-adventurous","tag-baliem","tag-dani","tag-indigenous","tag-indonesia","tag-naked","tag-native","tag-natural","tag-nature","tag-papua","tag-primitive","tag-survival","tag-tribes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4629,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2737\/revisions\/4629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}