Mentawai is an ethnic in Indonesia who
lives in the islands Mentawai in West Sumatera Province, Indonesia. This
ethnic lives in the jungle or forest with traditional life style. They
live without electricity, no car, no restaurant, no smartphone, no
internet, or no hotel, and no modern clothes. You can just see houses
with woods and people with traditional clothes. If you want to escape
from the noisy of the city, visiting this ethnic is a good idea. It's
like your are visiting an island with no modern civilization. You will
only hear the sound of the birds and seeing the trees.
Mentawai people are kind people. They like to see new people, they are kind to the foreigners. They cannot speak Bahasa
Indonesia or English. It will be good if you bring an interpreter if
you want to communicate with this people to know how they live and to
join them in their routine life. Mostly they live by hunting in the
jungle and searching the fish in the river. The men hunting in the
forest and the women searching the fish in the river. They do not know
farming at all, they do not to grow anything for their life. They only rely to the nature, they only rely their life to what the nature can give to them. If you visit or traveling to this people and join how the live, it's like you live with the nature. You can enjoy hunting in the forest in the real which you cannot have in the city. You can enjoy searching the fish in the river in the wild life which also you cannot have in the city.
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| Mentawai man |
If you want to stay with them you should wear their clothes. They wear their traditional clothes and their clothes are so minim. For the men they wear cawat made from tree's bark, cawat is like an underwear for the men. The men also wear beads necklace, beads bracelet, and a headband. And for the women, they do not wear a bra, they wear a fabric skirt, accessories from the beads, and a headband. For the girls you can follow their rule to not wear a bra but if you won't you can wear a tshirt or whatever you want. Their house is called "umai", made from woods from a tree "koko". Their house is stilts house with wood floor. You will look like a prince and a princess from the jungle with wood palace.
For the welcoming ceremony they usually perform a traditional dance with traditional music.You can follow their dance, you can dance with them. Their dance is also close to the nature, their dancing's movements are the movements of the nature like the movement of the animal like a bird who flies in the sky.
Hunting with them is not hunting like on the films or on the TV but true hunting with no modern tools like gun or rifle. You can only use traditional hunting tools like arrow, spear, and knife or blade. It's not modern arrow but traditional arrow from the wood. They use poison from the plants on their arrow so once you shoot it to your prey, they cannot get away. This is an interesting thing you can do which you cannot found in the city. And searching fish in the river in the jungle with no modern tools is also a way to live with the nature. This is an interesting activity to do, the river is clean, you can catch the fish and have fun by swimming in the clear river. Swimming in the clean river in the forest is so relaxing, the water is so fresh.
And for you tattoo lover, who do you think the founder on the tattoo in this world? Who do you think the discover of the tattoo? I guess you will say Egyptian, but you are wrong, mentawai people are the founder of the tattoo, they are the oldest nation with tattoos. Tattoo is one of their tradition until now, every men and women should have tattoos. Tattoo for them is not a style or a fashion but it's the symbol of their relationship with the nature. Their tattoo's motifs are usually leafs, wind, and waves of the sea. They use traditional tools and traditional ink. They use the bone of the animal as the needle and they use plants and charcoal as the ink. They are a skillful tattoo maker. You can ask them to make you a tattoo if you want. One tattoo from them is an unforgettable memory from them and from the nature.
And when the night there are only moon and the stars in the sky as your light and the fire, for some people maybe this is a romantic night. Mentawai people live bound with their tradition, living with them make you feel like living in the old time, isolated, and untouched by the modern civilization. They keep their tradition and their way of live until now, we should proud of them. Mentawai people believe ruin the forest same like they ruin their life. They believe that all living things like the animal and the trees have a soul. This believe called "arak sagulungan".
Where you can live without smartphone, social medias, internet, TV, cars, noisy people, and many other modern things? Where you can live with the real nature? The answer is mentawai people.
