The Ultimate Bungy!!

By Steve Dickinson

On the remote island of Pentecost in Vanuatu, one of the worlds most dramatic and heart stopping events takes place every year. Young men and boys plunge over 20 meters to the ground with nothing to break their fall but the slender vines attached to their ankles. Rather than a manly right of passage or some warrior bravery ritual, this unusual and sensational event has its foundation in a myth about a beaten woman.

It began centuries ago when a woman was treated badly by her husband, eventually the beaten woman ran away. Tamale, her husband, in a great rage ran after her. He eventually found her hiding in a tall tree, he called to her telling her to come down straight away and he would only beat her a little. However, if he had to climb the tree to get her down he would beat her badly. She refused to come down, so Tamale climbed the tall tree. Finally he got close to her and stretched out to grab her, to his surprise she jumped. In his angry grab for his falling wife Tamale tumbled after her, not realizing his wife had tied liana vines around her ankles that broke her fall. She survived the fall, Tamale perished.

Now every year on the island of Pentecost this tragic incident has evolved into a ritual 'N Gol' or 'Land Dive'. At first a tree is stripped of its branches and a tower of sticks is built around it. The tower will be between 20 and 30 meters high and takes about 5 weeks to build. Platforms of woven leaves and branches are built into the platform. The liana vines, very elastic following the Wet seasons, are shredded at one end and tied to the tower at the other.
Men and boys, some as young as seven years, climb the tower and leap from the platforms with the vines attached to their ankles in a show of strength and a statement to women that they can never be tricked like Tamale again.

It is also a fertility rite, for as the vines stretch as the diver get close to the ground, the land diver's heads curl under and their shoulders touch the ground, making it fertile for the following year's yam crop. Each diver must select his own vine. Its size is of utmost importance and if it is only 10 cm too long, the diver could hit the ground and possibly break his neck on the ground. The jump is made to ensure a great yam harvest the following year. Young boys learn diving by playing and practicing their jumps from rocks over the ocean, or from small towers. They are only be allowed to take part in the N'Gol after circumcision, at the age of seven or eight. However, the story of the N'Gol does not portray the extraordinary feeling of power during this event. No picture can capture the feel of dozens of villagers dancing and stomping the earth during the entire ceremony. No words can express the awe of sitting beneath the tower watching these men and boys leap to a possible death.

By Steve Dickinson
Editor - NZ Adventure Magazine