Qualla: Highland Papua

Highland Papua: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dzhalina, CC BY-SA 4.0. Indonesia became independent in 1945, took over Western New Guinea in 1963, and carved Highland Papua out of the old Papua province on 25 July 2022. This made it, at birth, the only landlocked province in a country of more than seventeen thousand islands. There is no sea coast here. There are, instead, 1.47 million people scattered across 51,000 square kilometers of mountain and valley, speaking dozens of languages, living in a region that was still being systematically mapped in the middle of the twentieth century. The capital sits in Jayawijaya Regency. The roads, such as they are, wash out. Everything else moves by air.

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Image: Dzhalina | CC BY-SA 4.0

Highland Papua: Discovered Three Times

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Spasimir Pilev, CC BY-SA 4.0. Dutch explorer van Overeem and his colleague Kremer reached the Swart Valley - now called the Toli Valley - in 1920, meeting the Lani people who farmed there and opening a northern approach to the peaks later renamed Trikora. The Baliem Valley's two hundred thousand people remain...

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Image: Spasimir Pilev | CC BY-SA 4.0

Highland Papua: The Shape of the Land

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lasthib, CC BY-SA 4.0. Highland Papua is mountains with valleys inside them. The Jayawijaya range runs through the province from west to east, part of the larger New Guinea Highlands that continue into Papua New Guinea. Puncak Trikora, 4,760 meters, and Puncak Mandala, 4,750 meters, dominate the skylin...

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Image: Lasthib | CC BY-SA 4.0

Highland Papua: Stone Burning and the Pikon

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nurul Ichlasiah, CC BY-SA 4.0. Almost every highland Papuan tribe practices bakar batu - the 'stone burning' tradition. Rocks are heated in an open fire until they glow, then layered into a pit with banana leaves, pork, sweet potatoes, vegetables, and more leaves on top. The stones cook everything together ove...

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Image: Nurul Ichlasiah | CC BY-SA 4.0

Highland Papua: The Honai

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nurul Ichlasiah, CC BY-SA 4.0. The honai is a circular house with a wooden frame, woven walls, and a conical thatched roof. The ceiling is only about a meter above the floor, and a fireplace burns in the center. Smoke fills the space. For the Dani who have lived under honai roofs for generations, smoke is not ...

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Image: Nurul Ichlasiah | CC BY-SA 4.0

Highland Papua: Air, Only Air

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Regency Government of Pegunungan Bintang Government of Indonesia, Public domain. There is effectively no way to reach most of Highland Papua by road. The Trans-Papua Highway is under construction in fragments, vulnerable to landslides, and in places actively contested by armed groups. What connects the province is its airports: Wamena in Jayawijaya, Nop Golia...

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Image: Regency Government of Pegunungan Bintang Government of Indonesia | Public domain