Yentchan Village, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea

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Figure 1: Small bilum or net bag. Bilum string is made from the inner bark of trees, pandanus fiber and other long-fibered plant materials. Sometimes additional decorative fur, feathers or other items are twisted into the string. The knotting tecnique uses a continuous figure eight.

Figure 2: Yentchan clan statue with man and hornbill bird.

Yentchan has a large Haus Tambaran sited on a bluff beneath the coconut palms that mark the location of permanent villages. Sometimes young boys scurry up to bring down fresh coconuts. A slice is cut off the top with a bush knife and the cool milk inside is refreshing on a hot, sticky afternoon. No one sits under the coconut palm; the falling nuts are deadly.

The women have bilas (shell jewelry) and bilums (string bags) for sale and sometimes the men have a few carvings.

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Photographs, text and maps copyright © Carolyn Leigh, 1996-2010. All rights reserved.
http://www.art-pacific.com/artifacts/nuguinea/sepikriv/sepikmid/yentchan.htm
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Artifacts on this site are collected in the field by my husband, Ron Perry. I take the photographs, do the html, text and maps. More background in Who We Are. Art-Pacific has been on the WWW since 1996. We hope you enjoy our New Guinea tribal art and Indonesian folk art as much as we do. Carolyn Leigh, P.O. Box 85284, Tucson, AZ 85754-5284 USA, Art-Pacific at http://www.art-pacific.com/