Every year in the month of August tribes in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea gather peacefully to celebrate their ancestral traditions with singing and dancing in the Mt Hagen Show. It is one of the most extraordinary sights ever witnessed by international travelers. Beneath an intense tropical sun and surrounded by jungle-clad mountains, hundreds of tribesmen and women parade onto a sports field.
Their bodies glistened with pig fat and their faces with red, black and yellow ochre. The men wear pig tusks through their noses and quills from the cassowary, a giant bird the size of an emu. They sport glittering head-dresses made from bird of paradise feathers, and round their waists they wear grass kilts, known somewhat cheekily in Papua New Guinea's Pidgin English as "arse-grass". This is the Mount Hagen Show, the premier tribal gatherings held annually in the Mt Hagen.
What is it - Originally designed for calming tribal animosity by
exposing the positive side to life and celebrating cultural diversity,
today the show has transformed; growing to attract a large number of
regional, provincial and even national tribal dance groups. The
Sing-Sings (dance performances) are truly a sight to behold with over 50
tribes turning out to show off the best of their local tradition and
compete against each other.
Mount Hagen Cultural Show – Papua New Guinea
WHEN – 13th August – 22nd August 2013
LOCATION – Western Highlands, Papua New Guinea
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