The Chimbu Tribe
Meet The Chimbu
Papua New Guinea is home to some of the world’s most unique and remote tribes. Of those tribes, the Chimbu are one of the most elusive. We still don’t know much about them, but in recent years, the Chimbu's haunting skeleton dance has captivated outsiders and provided rare opportunities to glimpse into the lives of these mysterious people.
Where Do They Live?
The Chimbu live in the central highlands of Papua New Guinea’s Simbu Province. Their villages are spread throughout the Chimbu, Koro, and Wahgi valleys, which are 1,400 to 2,400 above sea level.
How Many Are There?
There are about 180,000 Chimbu people living in Simbu Province, with most living in their traditional homelands in the north of the province.
Their Name
While we outsiders refer to them as “Chimbu”, this is not usually what members of the tribe call themselves.
Unless they are speaking with outsiders or people from different tribes, the Chimbu refer to themselves according to their specific clans. What the names of these clans might be, we still don’t know.
Their Name (cont’d)
The name “Chimbu” was given to the tribeby the first Australian explorers they encountered, in the early 1930s. When they first met, the explorers heard the tribespeople exclaim the word “simbu”, which is a term of pleasant surprise in the Kuman language.
