BALIEM FESTIVAL 2025

Explore the last frontier of Indonesia’s remote Papua Island, embark on a spectacular cultural journey and attend the Baliem Valley cultural Festival scheduled to take place Wosilimo district from August 7 – 9 – 2025

This is the one occasion when all the diverse tribes from the highlands of Wamena and the Baliem Valley such as the Dani, Lani, and the Yali congregate to celebrate their annual festival. This year the festival will be centered in the district of Jayawijaya. Located high in the Jayawijaya mountains on the Indonesian side of the island of New Guinea, Baliem is a stunningly beautiful green valley long hidden beyond soaring hills.

Highlight of the Festival is the mock tribal warfare held to maintain the agility and preparedness of the tribes to defend their villages.

To prepare for these mock battles, organizers have prepared an arena of 400m by 250m that will be filled with 500 to 1000 of warriors and dancers.

The tribal war simulation is scheduled to be held during two days featuring about 26 groups of 30-50 warriors. These mock battles are accompanied by the Papuan traditional music of Pikon. Pikon is a musical instrument made out of wood skin which produces sounds when one blows it. The sounds created produce soothing music. Not many people can play the instrument as it requires special skills.

Organized by the district government of Jayawijaya, the festival is aimed to introduce and preserve the values and culture of Baliem Valley traditional tribes. The Baliem Valley festival will be enhanced by various fascinating art and cultural performances, including traditional Papuan dances, pig racing, Puradan Rattan Spear Throwing, Sikoko Spear games, Papuan traditional musical performance, and many more.

There will also be a special competition of Sege throwing and archery competition for foreign visitors as a sign of appreciation for their attendance. Visitor can also experience the true meaning of being a Papuan by wearing the traditional costumes of Koteka and have their skins blackened so they can also be part of the festivities.

Join the crowd and learn what makes them smile, laugh, and cheer. The Baliem Valley Festival 2024 awaits, offering abundant memories of the magical land of Papua.

How to reach

To reach Baliem Valley fly to the town of Wamena via Jayapura. There are regular flights available to Jayapura from Jakarta, Bali or Makassar. To attend the Festival it is best to contact an experienced travel agent.

For complete information on the Baliem Valley, including flights, operators, how to get there, where to stay, and what to do, you can Contact us.

Tips:

Foreigners must obtain a travel permit, known as Surat Keterangan Jalan to get access into the interior of Papua. You can obtain the Surat Keterangan Jalan at major police stations, such as at Jayapura, Merauka, Timika, Biak, Nabire, Monokwari and other major cities. The permit will depend on your request, lasting from 1 week to 1 month or longer. Prepare copies of your passport, recent photograph and list of places you wish to visit. It is easy to obtain the Surat Keterangan Jalan, because the officers are friendly and helpful. A Guide is needed to explore the valley. The best time to visit is between March and August If you travel during the rainy season, prepare yourself with cold weather gear Ask your guide about Do’s and Don’t in the Baliem Valley. High up in the mountains of central Papua at an altitude of 1,600 meters above sea level, hemmed in by steep green mountain walls, lies the stunningly beautiful Baliem valley, home of the Dani tribe.

Baliem valley is 72 km. long, and 15 km to 31 km wide in places. It is cut by the Baliem river, which has its source in the northern Trikora mountain, cascading into the Grand Valley, to meander down and further rushing south dropping 1,500 meters to become a large muddy river that slowly empties into the Arafura Sea.

The first outsider to discover the valley was American Richard Archbold, who, on 23 June 1938 from his seaplane, suddenly sighted this awesome valley dotted with neat terraced green fields of sweet potatoes, set among craggy mountain peaks. This is Indonesia’s own Shangri-La.

Only recently emerged from the Stone Age, the Dani are known as the “gentle warriors”. With their simple tools of stone and bone, they nonetheless, managed to sculpt green fields that hug the hills, where they grow root crops, and raise pigs. They have also built outposts and lookout towers to defend their valley from hostile tribes.

Because of the fertile soil and their agricultural skills, the Dani together with the sub-tribes of the Yali and the Lani, are, therefore, the most populous in Papua, living scattered in small communities near their gardens among the steep mountain slopes. Today, they also cultivate bananas, taro and yams, ginger, tobacco and cucumbers.

The men’s and women’s huts (locally called the honai) have thick thatched roofs, which keep the huts cool during the day and warm during the cold nights.

By trekking, you can witness traditional ceremonies, traditional markets and the way of life of the Dani. There are a very limited number of restaurants inside the Baliem Valley. Your tour guide can bargain with the Dani people to provide you with simple meals. It’s strongly advised that visitors bring their own meals and snacks during trekking through and around Baliem Valley. Meals and snacks can be bought at grocery stores in Wamena.

To make your trip easier and to get the most value, it is advisable to find a packaged tour offered by several operators. Click on Find Travel Agent

To Eat

At the end of the mock battles, food festivities are held at the venue or nearby. When you book a tour package, the organizers usually provide places to eat. Dance performances and music shows are staged and visitors are welcome to join.

To Do

During the festival, have your camera ready. Very often you will come across unique moments that you never want to miss. A number among the more than a thousand war participants, do want to keep abreast with the outside world, so they adorn themselves with local regalia, while sporting flashy sunglasses: a personal ad of a trendy look meeting age-old tradition. Ask them politely to pose for you. It’s an unusual anachronism not to be missed.

All you need to do during the festival is just observe and enjoy the mock war. The longer it gets, the nearer the spears and arrows get to hit the opponents. The closer the miss, the louder the roar from the hundreds of spectators. They have participated in these battles every year so that participants do get better each year.

After the Festival, visitors can go sightseeing to the Dani Market in Wamena, and visit the traditional Wauma Village that can be reached by car from Wamena. In Aikima see a 250 year-old mummified village chief, or, after a 2-hour climb, see the salt springs, where Dani women have, for centuries, made salt in a simple manner. More info, please contact us!

Traditional cut Finger 🤞

 Indonesia is famous for its diverse traditions and cultures. One of them is the finger-cutting tradition of the Dani tribe in Papua.

The Dani tribe is one of the largest and most famous tribes out of approximately 466 tribes in Papua. The Dani tribe is located in the Baliem Valley area, Jayawijaya Regency-Papua Pegunungan.

Quoted from detik.com, the name Dani itself was given by researchers who conducted research and were in direct contact with the Dani tribe in 1926. The research was a joint expedition between America and the Netherlands and was led by M.W. Striiling.

One of the researchers named Le Roux said that the name Dani comes from the Moni language, namely 'Ndani' and means "east of the direction of sunrise". Meanwhile, the native Dani tribe themselves do not know who gave their tribe the name, but they know that "Ndani" means "peace".

The Dani tribe has many traditions, one of which is the finger-cutting tradition.  The finger cutting tradition is carried out when one of their family members, namely the father, mother, child, or sibling, dies, this is done because of the high sense of brotherhood held by the Dani tribe. 

The Dani tribe believes that cutting off one of the fingers is a symbol of the pain when left forever by a family member they love. This is also done as a prayer so that the same thing does not happen again. 

Most finger cutting traditions in the Dani tribe are only carried out by women. However, some men also do it to show deep sadness, because Dani men generally do not cut their fingers, but cut their ear skin to show their sadness when they lose one of their family members. 

This finger cutting tradition of the Dani tribe has been passed down from generation to generation and is still carried out today. Although the Papuan and Jayawijaya governments have prohibited this tradition, the Dani tribe still does it today as a way to remember their ancestors and express their condolences.

Wamena Papua Highland

 

Wamena is a district in Jayawijaya Regency, Papua Province, Indonesia, and is also the capital of the regency. Wamena is located an airport that connects the Jayawijaya region with Jayapura. 

Wamena is the only largest city located in the interior of central Papua. Wamena comes from the Dani language which consists of two words Wa and Mena, which means Tame Pig. 

Unlike other big cities in Papua, such as Timika, Jayapura, Sorong, and Merauke, Wamena is a paradise and a pearl that has not been touched much in the interior of the central mountains of Papua. The city, which is located in the Baliem valley and is crossed by the Baliem river and flanked by the Jayawijaya mountains to the south, has an altitude of around 1600 meters above sea level. The city of Wamena still has fresh air and is far from air pollution like other big cities in Indonesia. 

As with most cities in the interior of Papua, this city is developing according to the development pattern around the airport. 

"If you haven't been to Wamena, that means you haven't been to Papua," this kind of statement is usually said by residents when they arrive there. The real intention of the statement is to reward tourists who can finally break through the limited access to the city.

Only tourists with special interests and who like adventure really want to vacation here. Wamena is termed off the beaten track, aka remote and difficult to reach, not only for foreign tourists but also domestic tourists.

The hard struggle to get to this city in the interior of Papua will pay off when you arrive at the Baliem Valley. The place is truly beautiful, with a fantastic landscape. Tourists will also encounter a culture that they have never seen anywhere else.

When the Baliem Valley Festival is taking place, it is the best time to visit Wamena. Meanwhile, the recommended length of visit is a minimum of five days.

The air temperature around the Baliem Valley varies, between 14.5˚C and 24.5˚C. In a year the average rainfall is 1,900 mm and there are approximately 16 rainy days a month.

The boundary between the dry and rainy seasons is difficult to distinguish. However, March is the month with the highest rainfall and July is the month with the lowest rainfall.

 The Baliem Valley is surrounded by the Jayawijaya Mountains which are famous for their eternal snow peaks, including Trikora Peak (4,750 m), Mandala Peak (4,700 m), and Yamin Peak (4,595 m).

Witnessing the Local People's Traditional Ceremony

After finding and witnessing the interesting mummies, it is better to mingle with the community while watching the tribal war ceremony. This ceremony usually takes place in August before Indonesia's Independence Day. Traditional dances and music are used to enliven the atmosphere of this interesting ceremony. Not only that, travelers will also be greeted with a stone burning ceremony or also called Kit Oba Isogoa. When this ceremony takes place, there's nothing wrong with trying sweet potatoes which are a typical Papuan food.