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Hidden Mountain Tribe Mummified Ancestors With Smoke, Perfectly Preserving Them For Centuries

This hidden mountain tribe from Papua, has its villagers embalming their predecessors using smoke, keeping the remains in an almost exceptional state for hundreds of years.
Spectacular pictures have appeared, depicting a tribe chief holding the well-preserved mummified remains of one of his ancestors, in a remote Oceania village.

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Eli Mabel, the chief of the Dani tribe, is pictured holding the remains of Agat Mamete Mabel in the village of Wogi in Wamena in West Papua, an island in the centre of Papua New Guinea.

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The local tribe, living in a remote area of the highlands in central Papua, used to preserve their ancestors by smoking their bodies, helping to keep them in a near-perfect state for hundreds of years.
Although the smoking mummification ceased to be carried out, the Dani tribes still preserve a number of mummies as a sign of their absolute respect for their predecessors.

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Recently, the Dani tribe has drawn attraction from visitors all around the globe, with some villages even willing to demonstrate their conventional traditions and performing mock battles.
Every August, the Dani tribe would host mock war with their adjacent, neighboring tribes, the Lani and the Yali, to celebrate the fertility and welfare of the Papua province, as well as upholding prehistoric customs.

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The people of Baliem Valley, the Dani, Lani and Yali tribes, were discovered accidentally by American zoologist and philanthropist Richard Archbold, while on a zoological expedition to New Guinea in 1938.

Source: AFP/Getty Images

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