The High Life

Imagine that you have embarked on an expedition to explore the world’s largest tropical island. You begin on its eastern half in a country known as Papua New Guinea, home to a majority of its population. Despite being in a relatively populous area, you are unlikely to find many convenience stores or apartment buildings.

Papua New Guinea is larger than the state of New York, but it has only three cities and very few roads. Residents travel infrequently, and they use jungle trails when they do. In fact, interactions between communities occur so rarely that over 825 languages are spoken in the country.

The Kombai

While exploring, you happen upon a settlement belonging to the Kombai people. As you approach the small tree house village, the clan leader meets you first. It is a traditional mandate that he protect the community while the women and children hide in the tree houses.

At Home in the Trees

Once you assure the clan leader that you mean no harm, you might be invited to spend the night safe from the insects in one of the tribe’s tree houses. Without ropes or nails, the Kombai people construct one-room dwellings nearly 80 feet (ft.) above the ground, too high for insects to reach.

The Kombai home has four walls and a roof and is, on average, about 16 ft. by 10 ft. The trees used for the house are cut down using a stone axe head tied to a bamboo handle with twine made from grasses.

To enter the home, you need to climb a bamboo pole with notches every 36 inches or so for your feet and hands. All members of the family as well as their dogs spend the night in the home. You watch mothers making multiple trips to carry children and animals from the jungle floor to the treetop homes. Falling is always a danger. Younger children are tied to the house with twine.

On the Menu

The women in the family also carry nourishment, such as food and water, to the house. Water is stored in 4-ft. bamboo flasks. As an honored guest, you might be offered a special meal of freshly gathered grubs, fish, birds, or sago, the starchy, spongy center of the sago tree. Meals are cooked in the homes over fires whose flames flicker and illuminate the shared space. The floors are covered in a thick layer of clay to prevent the house from catching fire.

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