Papua New Guinea: Mount Hagen – Visiting the Tribal Chief
This guy, named Pajo, was a 90-year old important local tribal chief (accompanied by two of his five wives), dressed in full tribal ceremonial gear and facial paints. The skulls are from the enemies he extinguished when he was young (Papuan highlands remained largely un-visited by the western civilization until as late as 1970/80s). The chief has 25 kids and countless grand kids. The long string of what looks like sticks hanging on his neck is a sign of how many pigs the chief owned and killed during his life, each bar for 4-5 pigs. The big plate hanging on one of his wives is a piece of mother of pearl shell that was used as money in Papua until very recently.
