Station: [52] Bamboo and Palm Leaf Cathedrals

The gables of the Abelams’ ceremonial houses once soared above the settlements, reaching heights of 25 metres.

We’re on New Guinea, with its enormous cultural diversity and more than 800 languages.

From their height, the large, colourful faces on the gable wall looked down on the central square and the squat dwelling houses. They embodied the villagers’ great mythical ancestors. The local men loved to spend time in the shade of the projecting gable wall.

Inside the house were secret carvings and images of the ancestors and of yam spirits. In the religious experience of the Abelam, these powers ensured the fertility of the gardens and gave special protection to the ritual cultivation of yam tubers, a task reserved for the men. For women, the ceremonial house was taboo. It was where boys were inducted into the community’s religious life.

This initiation took place step by step and involved up to eight stages. It began in childhood and might continue for the next 20 to 30 years. Each initiation was associated with costly ceremonies.

For the novices, the rites were meant to be an intense experience. The boys crawled into the ceremonial house through a low entrance resembling a tunnel. Suddenly, they found themselves face to face with garishly painted figures. In the flickering torchlight, those figures seemed to move and be alive. From invisible hiding places, they heard flutes, bullroarers and drums – the voices of the spirit beings that were being depicted.

Each of the eight initiations involved a separate dramatic presentation. Novices had to undergo several steps in their initiation before they were allowed a first glimpse of the most sacred figures – and that was a spectacularly staged event. These larger-than-life figures, a woman and a man, embodied the parents of the clan.

After they’d been initiated into the mystery, the candidates were regarded as fully fledged men and permitted to play an active part in the community’s religious and social life. That in turn was shaped by the yam cult.

The lifespan of such a house in a tropical climate is about 20 years. The gable wall of our house was taken down around 1975,

cut into pieces and transported to Europe, where it was restored and put on display here in the museum.