Korowai Country

The lowlands just below the central mountain range are the most traditional part of Papua. Several tribes here, such as the famous Korowai and Kombai, live a semi-nomadic lifestyle in small family groups, and build the famous treehouses. Many don’t speak Indonesian. The Korowai area attracts a steady stream of expensive “adventure-tours”, and has now become something of a tourist trap, where “perfect primitiveness” and even “first-contact” is routinely staged for visitors - along with extra high tree-houses built for photographers’ benefit. In reality they also wear some modern clothing and many of them spend some time in permanent villages. However the more moderately high tree-houses still exist for real, and the Korowai way of life still remains very traditional.