Asaro Mudmen Village, Eastern Highlands
Papua New Guinea
Sept 17,2026
In its long history of continuous human occupation of 60,000 years, the tribes in Papua New Guinea were never united until very recently in the 20th century. High mountains, deep ravines, dense tropical forests and swamplands served to isolate them as did fierce inter-tribal warfare.
But not all tribes used the same techniques; the Asaro Mudmen as they are called today, used quite a novel method. John’s village is one of the ten Asaro villages and some of the men enact their unique way of dispelling enemies.
We sit on a plank in a clearing as a man and a young boy creep out from behind a bush. They are covered in mud that has dried to a gray-white color. They move slowly with exaggerated steps, sometimes waving a clutch of leaves. The man carries a bundle of kindling and stops to light a fire. It is an age-old method of using friction but different from what I saw among the San of the Kalahari. He uses a flexible bamboo strip sandwiched between two wooden sticks. The bottom stick has a hollow, piled with dry straw. He pulls the bamboo strip back and forth creating enough friction to ignite the straw. Fed with dry leaves, the blaze catches and soon there is smoke. John explains that this is the guard alerting the tribesmen.
And soon they come, appearing like wraiths through the swirling smoke. All are covered in the same dried mud and on their heads are large masks. They creep in silence making menacing moves as the masks with grotesque features stare.
More and more of them appear out of the smoke. One man has long talons on his fingers made of bamboo twigs with the ends slashed. The tips are painted red to mimic blood. Most carry a bow and arrows; the bow is cocked and the arrow pointed at us.
When the show is over we get a closer look at the masks. Made of mud, they are crafted by hand and are quite heavy; it must not be pleasant to wear for long! The crooked teeth in the grimacing mouths are real pig teeth. The intent, John tells us, used to be to frighten the enemy. Made up to look like ghosts or demons, the tribesmen would make the enemy scatter without the potential loss of life and limb. A nice enough trick but I can’t help wondering how effective this tactic used to be in the face of bloodthirsty enemies.
