Yentchan Village (Art-Pacific.com: New Guinea tribal art and Indonesian folk art)

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 technique uses a continuous figure eight.

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.

back to Guide to Sepik River Carvings

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Artifacts on this site were collected in the field by my husband, Ron Perry. I take the photographs, do the html, text and maps. 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.

Yentchan Village, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea