The Smoked Mummies of Papua

For a long time I have felt like taking you guys through some history lessons. Before I settled on being a Manchester United die hard I almost became a History teacher. 

What do you know about the Anga tribe of Papua New Guinea? Ulla Lohmann a National Geographic reporter conducted a study on the Anga tribe of the Papua New Guinea back in 2003. The Anga tribe are not accustomed to visitors. They live in seclusion because of the fear of their culture being known by outsiders. The Anga community has an ancient history of mummifying their dead. They smoke the remains of their deceased and put them on a rock ledge facing their villages.

After several attempts by the reporter to get close with them and create a relationship, she was slowly welcomed into the community to learn about their culture. Majorly she wanted to know how they did the mummification. 

She was given progressively more access over her first few visits so that she could understand the delicate structure of the tribe. After several more trips to the highlands, one of the tribe's elders, a man by the name of Gemtasu, disclosed to her that he wanted to be mummified when he dies.

The Anga do not believe in life after death as much, but they do hold the belief that famous people's spirits whose bodies are not cared for may roam the jungle and interfere with farming or hunting. Mummified bodies are frequently brought down for traditional celebrations, and family members may ask their mummified ancestor for guidance.

There before I knew only of the ancient Egyptians to mummify their dead. They would take the body apart from the inside, remove the organs, and then wrap it in some kind of cloth. Contrarily, the Anga smoke their dead over a raging fire for three good months them in a sitting posture - the smoking helps to preserve the corpse in a tropical environment where it would normally decompose quickly.

The mummification process has a set structure. As the body bloats, it is poked with sticks to drain its fluids, and then a stick is used to gently widen the anus to allow the organs to fall out. From start to finish, the mummifiers must stay with the body at all times, and no part of the dead—his fluids, intestines, or even his body—is allowed to touch the ground. It is a taboo which is considered a bad omen.

The most crucial aspect is to maintain the face intact. The only way to retain the image of the departed in a culture without photography is to personally behold their everlasting faces. The ghosts, according to the Anga, roam free throughout the day and return to their mummified bodies at night. Without seeing the face, the spirits are unable to locate their own body and will wander forever.

Papua New Guinea and other South Pacific islands previously practiced mummification extensively; this practice peaked in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was thought that finding a technique to preserve physical remains would prevent them from being buried beneath, where they would be quickly forgotten. In the middle of the 20th century, Christian missionaries, British and Australian government officials visited the remote village in West Pacific- for the sake of morality and hygiene they stigmatized the mummification practice.

Despite this, Gemtasu thought it was crucial to continue the ritual because he didn't know his precise age but felt as though he was nearing the end of his life. He would be able to safeguard his family if he could be mummified. He instructed his children to mummify him when he dies. In addition, he requested that Lohmann document his own mummification and tell the world.

Like many younger tribe members, his sons first refused. The tribe has abandoned mummification since it is time-consuming and labor-intensive, not to mention that the stench of slowly burnt human flesh is offensive. The tribe has also gone through periodic depletion as younger members are drawn to port cities that have been more influenced by civilization. Gemtasu however persisted in telling his sons how important mummification was—at least to him.

In 2015 when he died, his sons had nothing but to make his wish come true. Lohmann traveled back to Papua New Guinea in order to see and document the mummification as per his last request. Seven men started the procedure with white mud smeared on their faces as a show of sorrow, one of them being Gemtasu's grandson. They could only consume meals prepared over the fire that was smoking Gemtasu, and they were not allowed to drink any water. Only bamboo-derived sugar cane juice was allowed. Sticks were used to scrape off the top layer when his skin started to burn.

The body grew larger, turned black, and finally hardened, as Lohmann watched over a period of weeks. To keep Gemtasu's spirit alive, the seven men who were executing the rite smeared his bodily fluids onto themselves. The guys were subjected to stringent regulations that barred them from leaving the place or washing their faces during the three months of mummification.

In civilizations that practice mummification, the drive is typically the quest of eternal life, or at the very least, the continuous physical presence of the dead. The final step in the Anga's case entails carrying the mummified body, strapped to a chair, to a rock cliff above the hamlet, where the recently departed join a circle of seniors who are already slowly decomposing, their skeletons serving as eternal cues of the departed individuals.

I almost dismissed the class when they started smearing their bodies with Gemtasu's body fluids. What on God's fine earth was that ?

Most of the images are copyrighted - had to maneuver so much to find these. I don't own the copyright either.

Source: National Geographic

 

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