The other day Arts Central showed about weird rituals in the South Pacific. This particular one was in Vanuatu. I read about this before in Sir David Attenborough’s book – Life On Air. But it didn’t mention about the connection between the ritual and bungee jump. But I might be wrong. I could have forgotten about it if it’s only been mentioned in a sentence or two.
Anyway, this ritual in Pentacost, Vanuatu, is about yam harvesting, the most important food there. If first involves collecting vines by an experienced man. The vines chosen are crucial. To make the story short, they build a tower on a slope, using tree trunks or wood or whatever the name. A tower up to 100 feet tall, with platforms on different heights. They tie the vines between the top of the tower AND a man’s ankles. The vines are crucial because different thickness of vines is suitable for different sizes of people in order to withstand the man’s weight. And the springiness of the vines are equally important.
Men of different ages (as young as 8 years old), volunteers himself for this dangerous rite. Each time, one man, starts from the youngest on the lowest platform, will jump from there. The length of the vines tied on the man’s ankles is carefully calculated. As little as 4 inches too long would potentially kill the man.
The man then jumps, head down to the ground below. The other experienced person at the back has to cut or chop the vines at the right time after the volunteer jumps. The man’s head should touch the ground. If the vines are cut too fast, the impact between this man’s head and the ground will kill him. If the vines are cut too slow, he will spring upwards, and his head wouldn’t touch the ground. And THAT, means they wouldn’t be blessed with good yam harvest.
I know my English sucks and it’s actually very difficult for me to describe something like this. I hope anyone reading this can understand what the heck I’m talking about.
And here’s a crude sketch :
(It made my jaw dropped when I saw this on TV… When I saw the picture in Life On Air, I wondered how was it possible. I didn’t really understand how the ritual was done until I saw this footage on TV).
And then, when more people began to visit Vanuatu, this ritual became known. And visitors find them fascinating. Locals began to jump for tourists to earn some extra income. Even the British Queen came and requested to see it. But it wasn’t the harvesting time. Some locals worried that it might cause bad luck if they perform the ritual at that time. But still there were volunteers agreed to do it.
The first 2 “performers” did the jump safely. However, the 3rd one, both the vines tied on each of his ankles snapped. What bad luck… both vines snapped… It was raining heavily before that and the soil was damp and soft (I’m not sure if “soft” is the right word..). His head trusted into the soil, his backbone (or neck bone, I forgot) broken and he died…
Amazingly, that was the only death in history of this ritual. One man survived totally unharmed when one of the vines snapped. In some other incidents, they were never able to walk again. But death, that was the only case.
And slowly, this sacred ritual was transformed by fascinated westerners into – the bungee jump, in their countries.
I think the narrator mentioned that the organization of bungee jump agreed to put up a sign to state that bungee jump originated from a sacred ritual in Pentacost, Vanuatu, as to show some respect.
I supposed the people of Pentacost are still performing the ritual annually. It’s really an incredible “stunt”…
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