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Fire dance of Baining people in the mountains near Rabaul puts to rest the spirits of the recently deceased. Dancers put possessions of the dead on bonfires and kick burning wood into the air in a night-long ceremony of dancing and chanting to the beat of bamboo poles pounded onto wooden benches. This ceremony is held only once or twice a year. On this night there were some sixty male fire-dancers.

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STNMTZ_19991101_14.tif
Copyright
© 1999 George Steinmetz
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7282x4801 / 100.1MB
www.georgesteinmetz.com
Contained in galleries
Solomon Sea
Fire dance of Baining people in the mountains near Rabaul puts to rest the spirits of the recently deceased. Dancers put possessions of the dead on bonfires and kick burning wood into the air in a night-long ceremony of dancing and chanting to the beat of bamboo poles pounded onto wooden benches. This ceremony is held only once or twice a year. On this night there were some sixty male fire-dancers.

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