Good morning everyone, I am Stefanus Diky Setyawan and I’d like to give you an overview of a tradition

in Papua named Iki Pale.

My talk will be in 5 parts.

The first the introduction,

The second the history

The Third the meaning

The fourth the process

The last one is the end of the tradition

The introduction:

Now let’s move to the first part of my talk, which is about the introductory of Iki Palek.

So what is Iki Palek?

Each tribe in Indonesia had a ritual of mourning over their loss of its family members. Starting from the
normal one to the extreme like the Dani tribe did. So, Iki Pale is a tradition from Dani tribe in Papua
which requires someone to cut off their fingers as the symbol of mourning when someone died. If your
parents died you have to cut off two knuckles of yours but if it is your relatives you have to cut of only
one knuckle of your finger. And fun fact, this dangerous tradition is mostly done by women but
sometimes you can see there are men did this thing too. In addition, for men actually have different
things to do instead.

Next we move into second part which is the history.

The history, I don’t find any specific reason what is the background of this cruel tradition happen, as far
as I know the Dani tribe was first known in the Baliem Valley estimated hundreds years ago. This
tradition was carried out by their ancestors long time ago when someone died and became a hereditary
ritual that derived to them.

Now let see the meaning, so basically the meaning is to show the mourning. So the Dani tribe
considered the fingers is like a family. It represents the harmony, the unity, and the strength.

The fingers is also considered as “WENE OPAKIMA DAPULIK WELAIKAREK MEKEHASIK” Which means
symbol of living together as one family, one clan, on house, one tribe, one ancestor, one language, one
history and origin.

A completed family is like fingers that work the way they’re supposed to. Meanwhile the death
considered as uncompleted fingers so they cannot work the way they’re supposed to.
The pain they felt was thought to represent the heart and soul torn from loss. The pain may
unimaginable nevertheless as the loyalty as family this is the only way they can do.

So that’s all for the meaning now let’s move to the process.

1. First, the woman will tie the finger for a while until the blood flow stops.
2. Second, when it stopped they will cut off the finger by biting a finger or with a help from an ax
or knife. I cannot even imagine how it feels like.
3. And the ritual usually is continued by men cutting their ear lobe with a sharp two bamboo blade.
And it is called Nasu Palek.
4. And after that the last step is mud bath. It is to complete the process of mourning. It has deep
meaning that said all who live will basically return to the ground.

And of course all of those lead to disability to them. They cannot work so well due to the ritual.

And the last part is the end of the tradition…..even though, among Dani’s members there are still people
among whom the old people have lost fingers as part of this tradition. In fact, there’s a total loss of
fingers. The severed fingers indicate the large number of families who died. Regardless of all of those we
don’t have to make a judgment to them who have done the ritual, we have to show them respect
instead and we have to be grateful that nowadays this tradition is disappeared.