Indonesia is an archipelago country that has a variety of very attractive beauty, ranging from tourism, ethnicity, race, art and culture. discussing this one country is never ending to talk about. On this occasion I will discuss the diversity of ethnic groups in Indonesia, one of which is the ASMAT tribe.


The Asmat tribe is a tribe that resides in the Earth of Cendrawasih / Papua. This tribe is known to have unique wood carvings. The population of the Asmat tribe itself is divided into two, namely those who live on the coast and those who live in the interior of the forest. The two tribal populations differ from each other in dialect, way of life, social structure and rituals.


For the Asmat tribe, there are those who live in coastal areas with distances ranging from 100 km to 300 km, but in contrast to the Asmat tribe who live in inland areas, they live surrounded by heterogeneous forests containing rattan, wood (gaharu) and tubers. umbian, it takes 1 day and two nights to reach one residential area to another. Meanwhile, the distance between the village and the district is about 70 km. With such geographical conditions, walking is the only access to reach each other's village areas.


In the belief of the Asmat people, the Asmat tribe are descendants of gods who descended from the world of magic. The gods came down to earth and landed somewhere in the mountains. From there they went on an adventure with various challenges along the river until they arrived at the area where the Asmat tribe currently resides. One of the known gods is Fuumeripitsy, who is considered the ancestor of the Asmat tribe in the Flaminggo bay.


In its existence the Asmat tribe has certain rituals and special events as the explanation below;


1. Pregnancy

During this process, future generations are properly guarded so that they can be born safely with the help of their birth mother or mother-in-law.


2. Birth

After that the birth of the baby is carried out by a simple salvation ceremony with the ceremony of cutting the umbilical cord using the Sembilu, a tool made of stretched bamboo. Furthermore, breastfeeding until the age of two or three years.


3. Marriage

In a wedding procession for the Asmat tribe who is 17 years old and carried out by the male parents after both parties reach an agreement and through a test of courage to buy a woman with her dowry of antique plates based on the money value of the Johnson boat boat agreement, if there is a shortage In interpreting the price of Johnson's boat, the man is obliged to pay it and during the repayment period the man is prohibited from committing acts of abuse even though he has been allowed to live under one roof.


4. Death

If the tribal chief or customary chief dies, his body is kept in a mummy form and displayed in front of the tribe's joglo, but if the general public, the body is buried.


In the Asmat community, there are languages ​​which linguists call the Language of the Southern Division language group, namely the languages ​​of the southern part of Papua. In particular, linguists divide these languages, namely the division of the downstream Asmat language into parts of the northwest coast or Flamingo coast groups such as Kaniak, Bisman, Simay, and Becembub and parts of the Southwest Coast or Kasuarina groups such as Batia and Sapan. .


A little snippet about the Asmat tribe in Papua, hopefully it can add insight into the existence of the Asmat tribe.




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