We finally found our tribal village

It only took us 3 months from our first attempt to visit a traditional tribal village in the Philippines. The first try back then only led us over a very bumpy "road" (in Europe this would've been called a hiking trail) and through several rivers that we had to cross on our motorbike.

But here in Indonesia, after 3 months of searching, we finally found it. And not only one, many of them. People still live in those villages and they are beautiful. I had never imagined myself seeing such a place in real life and up close, let alone being allowed to walk around in the village. The houses are made from wood, bamboo and thatch and they always have at least one stone megalith in the village, which they use for sacrifices and rituals.

The houses are built in a rectangle around a central space which is reserved for the megalith and the men and women symbols. The men's symbols are huge umbrellas and the women's symbols are tiny houses. For each clan living in the village, there is one men symbol and one women symbol.

When there's a problem that has to be solved, the men of the clan gather in the women's symbol to discuss about it and solve it. We've been told women are very important in those villages, but to me it seems pretty patriarchal with men solving all the problems. Not sure though, it's a completely different world.Read more