Previously known as Irian Jaya ,has riches concentration of plant life all over Indonesia including hundreds of species of medicinal importance and over 120 endemic genera. More than 2,500 species of orchids are found here. The island also harbors some very strange plants ,such as fungi Mycena, whose gills glow in the darkest nights for unknown reasons or a giant epiphytic Myrmecodia Brassi, whose bulbous base is honey combed with passageways hosting swarm of ants ,frogs and lizard.
Located in the most eastern part Of Indonesia, Papua is the countrys most spectacular region for tourism where whole great swaths of earth can still be accurately as totally wild.
In central mountain lies grand valley inhabited by Neolithic warrior and farmer ,The Dani people, Papua Indigenous people. The Dani have most captured the Western imagination,ever since explorer Richard Archbolds first glimpse of the breath takingly beautiful Baliem Valley.
This area supports around 70.000 Dani, a stone age people who have come to be known for their farming skills and fierce and glorious warfare.
Dani believe that once men and birds lived together in harmony, not realizing they were different. Therefore each clan has developed an affinity with a particular species of birds.
T
he Asmat people, who lived along the remote southeast coast, are famed for their artistic "primitive" woodcarving. Modern civilization did not reach this area until recently. Agats has an interesting museum filled with woodcarvings and objects. Amats craft received a boost in the late 1960s under a United Nation supported project encouraging local craftsmen to keep their art alive. Much of the area is still untamed wilderness.
