IRIAN JAYA PAPUA
BALIEM VALLEY

IRIAN JAYA GENERAL INFORMATION

West Papua Province (before called IRIAN JAYA) somewhere in the southern pacific. There have not probably many people known the Papua very well except for those who like adventures. This Province comprises the western half of the huge island of New Guinea situated just northern tip of Australia. The eastern half of the island is another country of Papua New Guinea.

Located in the most eastern part of Indonesia, Irian Jaya is the country's most spectacular region for tourism where whole great swaths of earth can still be accurately as totally wild; thousand of kilometers of jungle with unknown and unclassified flora and fauna, ice capped mountains, swamps, isolated and primitive cultures; all are waiting to be explored

The population of West Papua province is about 2 million. About 10 percent of the population live in the cool central highlands of Baliem Valley.

Almost half of this province - was once base of the American and Allied Force during the Pacific War led by General Douglas Mc Arthur - is hilly or mountainous and about ten major peaks reach over 4,000 meters. The tallest is Carstensz Pyramid (4,884 meter above sea level/16,023 feet from which flows a glacier.

IRIAN JAYA PEOPLE AND WAY OF LIFE

The indigenous people of this province are Melanesians with black skins and curly hair. They generally have a root crop subsistence agriculture based on sweet potatoes and taros.

The people of Irian Jaya obtain their starch from the sago palm which gives and extremely generous yield for remarkably little effort. Feral and domesticated pigs on the island is originally came from Southeast Asia was an event which has had vast cultural and ritual significance for its people. Pigs are often treated as members of the family and are sometimes suckled by women.

While many other people of the world were still hunters and gatherers, Papua people had begun to garden. After fairly recently, many of them lived with a simple Stone Age Culture wearing little clothing and decorating their bodies with paintings, shells, pig tusks, feathers and skins. There is a plethora of language in the province, perhaps some 250 in all, each representing a tribal group which mixes little with the others. Some of the more remote groups still have virtually no contact with the outside world.

IRIAN JAYA FLORA AND FAUNA
Papua island may have the richest wildlife and concentration of plant life in all of Indonesia, or perhaps the world. No other islands in the archipelago can match its various kind of Birds of Paradise, Parrot families, pigeons and Flightless Cassowary.

This province is also home of 150 species of lizards, 30,000 species of beetles, 200 frogs and 800 spiders. A high percentage of the island's 100 snake species are poisonous, including all 17 species of sea snakes.

There are altogether some 2,700 species of orchids found in Papua Province, 600 species that are medicinal importance and over 124 endemic genera. The lush vegetation of the province is in fact a deceptive cover over poor soils badly leached by heavy rain and containing no rich volcanic materials. Mangroves and Nipah Palms ensnare the brackish estuaries of the coast.

> IRIAN JAYA GENERAL INFO
> IRIAN JAYA "OLD & NEW" PERMIT
> IRIAN JAYA MAP
> BALIEM VALLEY GENERAL INFO
> YALI TRIBE OF IRIAN JAYA
> ASMAT TRIBE OF IRIAN JAYA
> KOROWAI KOMBAI TRIBE OF IRIAN JAYA
> 5 DAYS BALIEM VALLEY TREKKING
> 8 DAYS BALIEM VALLEY TREKKING
> 12 DAYS SOUTHERN & NORTHERN BALIEM TREK
> 11 DAYS YALI TRIBE TREKKING
> 10 DAYS ASMAT TRIBE ADVENTURE
> 10 DAYS KOROWAI KOMBAI TRIBE ADVENTURE
> 13 DAYS ASMAT & KOROWAI ADVENTURE
> BIAK DIVING
> RAJA AMPAT PAPUA DIVING
> IRIAN JAYA CAPITAL CITY : JAYAPURA
> WAMENA
> BALIEM PILAMO HOTEL
> ABOUT ADVENTURE INDONESIA

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