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Interesting Tribes from Around the World

Interesting Tribes from Around the World

April 15, 2014

Last Updated on April 6, 2020

Having been to over 140 countries, I’ve had the fortune of meeting numerous interesting tribes who live in isolated, remote corners of the world and have truly preserved their cultures and traditions. For certain places like Papua New Guinea, the intriguing tribal culture was what drew me to visit. As always, I believe it’s the people who make a place. To pay tribute to the amazing people I have met, here are some of the amazing tribes around the world: from Namibia to China.

Interesting Tribes Around the World

Table of Contents

  • The Huli Wigmen — Papua  New Guinea
  • Nomadic Maasai Warriors — Kenya and Tanzania
  • READ MORE: Why I Travel to ‘Dangerous Places’
  • Karen Women with Elongated Necks — Burma/Myanmar and Thailand
  • The Ochre-Covered Himba People — Namibia
  • The Hardworking Hmong Women — Vietnam and China
  • Bush-hunting San People — Botswana
  • READ MORE: World’s Most Extreme Places

The Huli Wigmen — Papua  New Guinea

The Huli is the largest ethnic group in the Highlands, with a population somewhere between 300,000 to 400,000 people, covering the whole of Tari. Huli men are best known for their custom of wearing decorative woven wigs, that are used as elaborate headdresses and decorated with bundles of multi-colored feathers during singsings (celebratory festivals).

These wigs are specially made by a unique clan known as the Huli Wigmen, who attend wig schools and live together in isolation from the rest of the community. During my visit to Papua New Guinea, I met the teacher and students of Poroiba Akua wig school, and had an interesting lesson on how to grow wigs. According the Kupunu, the teacher, hair can only grow into a wig with the teacher’s spell.

A Huli wigman with face painting
Huli wigmen

Nomadic Maasai Warriors — Kenya and Tanzania

The Masai (also spelled as Maasai) are a semi-nomadic people from East Africa who are known for their unique way of life as well as their cultural traditions and customs. Living across the arid lands along the Great Rift Valley in Tanzania and Kenya, the Masai population is currently at around 1.5 million, with the majority of them living in the Masai Mara.

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They are reputed to be strong warriors who hunt for food and live closely with wild animals. Dressed in bright red Shuka cloth and colorful beaded jewelry, the warrior men proudly adorn themselves with what looks to Western eyes like women’s attire. According to the Masai people I met in Kenya, they have little interest in the supposed benefits of modern life.


READ MORE: Why I Travel to ‘Dangerous Places’


The Masai doing their jumping dance
Making their own fire

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Karen Women with Elongated Necks — Burma/Myanmar and Thailand

In the border mountains between Burma and Thailand live the Karen people, a tribal group related to the Tibetans. Today, their tribe numbers around 40,000 people as more and more of them are moving to the cities. The Karen people are most famous for the neck rings worn by the women of the tribe for beautification purpose. The first coil is applied when the girl is five years old and with the growing is replaced by a longer coil.

Sadly, the number of Karen women who still practice this custom is dwindling and many people are exploiting them for tourism. We met a few Karen women at Inle Lake, Myanmar/Burma, who had traveled thousands of miles to live there to work in tourism.

Karen people in Myanmar/Burma
Karen women weaving cloth for visitors

The Ochre-Covered Himba People — Namibia

A group of indigenous people live in the harsh, dry deserts of the Kunene region, northern Namibia, and they’ve become well known throughout the world for their practice of covering themselves with otjize, a mixture of butter fat and ochre, to protect themselves from the sun. The mixture gives their skin a reddish tinge, symbolizing earth’s rich red color and life, and is consistent with the Himba ideal of beauty.

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Himba women like to braid each other’s hair which is also covered in the ochre mixture. There are now 20,000 to 50,000 people left and most of them making a living tending livestock or welcoming visitors into their villages. During my overlanding trip in southern Africa, I had the chance to meet a Himba family in Damaraland and it was definitely an experience talking to them and understanding their way of life.

A Himba lady

The Hardworking Hmong Women — Vietnam and China

Our visit to the Sapa region of northern Vietnam was so memorable mainly because of these strong and hardworking Hmong women we met along the way. Even though the Hmong culture is patrilineal i.e. allowing a husband’s family to make all major decisions, Hmong women have traditionally carried a large amount of responsibility in the family.

The children learn gender expectations at a young age and young girls traditionally learned household skills from their female elders by the age of eight. Besides taking care of the household chores, the women also plant and harvest fields with their husbands. Many Hmong women now work in tourism, offering their houses to trekkers for homestays and also giving a helping hand during the hikes.

A Sapa lady weaving art work
Our Hmong host cooking in her home

Bush-hunting San People — Botswana

The San people (or Saan), also known as Bushmen or Basarwa are members of various indigenous hunter-gatherer peoples of Southern Africa (the most accessible groups are in Botswana’s Kalahari Desert). These indigenous hunter-gatherers were first made famous by the movie, The Gods Must be Crazy.

Sadly, the San people were evicted of their ancestral land in the 1950s (which went all the way to the 1990s) and they were forced to switch to farming as a result. Banned from hunting, and forced to apply for permits to enter the reserve, they are now being pushed to the brink of extinction.

In Ghanzi, Botswana, we went out to the bush with a group of San people who showed us how they gathered herbs for medication and plants for food. It was really interesting to see the way they behave and speak (their dialect has a lot of click sounds) and learn how they’re using the same survival techniques as they have for centuries.

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The San people showing us their way of life
The family


READ MORE: World’s Most Extreme Places


Have you met any of these tribes? How was your experience? What other tribes have you met?

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Nellie Huang

Nellie Huang is the founder of WildJunket. Originally from Singapore, Nellie has traveled to over 150 countries across 7 continents. As an accomplished travel writer, she has written for BBC Travel, CNN and Rough Guides. She is also the author of five travel books, including the latest Lonely Planet's Mexico guidebook. Read more about her here and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

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The Comments

  • @SandInSuitcase
    April 15, 2014

    Wow! You've certainly met some interesting tribes of people on your travels! Amazing photos…

    Reply
  • Dennis Kopp
    April 16, 2014

    Nellie those are some really beautiful photos! I definitely agree with you that the people and their culture are a very big part of every destination. And while it’s always amazing when one is able to accouter almost untouched tribal life, the case of the long necked women who weave in a tourist shop at Inle Lake is unfortunately not the most uplifting development. Hopefully it will be possible for all these peoples to preserve at least some of their culture and traditions for the future… :)

    Reply
    • Nellie
      Dennis Kopp
      April 21, 2014

      Dennis thank you for your kind words! I definitely understand what you are saying. Many of these tribes are slowly losing their traditions and heritage due to modernization and development. It is extremely sad to see the younger generation who would rather abandon their traditional way of life to move to the city for a better future. That is where tourism comes into play. It may be quite upsetting to see some of these tribal folks welcoming tourists into their villages and even putting up a show for them – but at the same time, I think tourism is helping them to sustain them and also teach them the importance of keeping their traditions. Sometimes it can be a double-edged sword but ultimately I wish the best for these people.

      Reply
  • Jeremy
    April 21, 2014

    Such an eclectic collection of tribal peoples from around the world … if I can make contact with only 1 or 2 of the groups on this list, I'll feel fortunate!

    Reply
  • Nellie
    April 21, 2014

    Definitely an interesting point there! How do we ensure the survival of the people and their traditions, without causing too much interference? I dont have an answer, but I believe that we as travelers can begin by having the right attitudes and mindset. I have met travelers who visit these tribes with the idea of educating them about their own way of life and showing them what is better. I find that disturbing and really wish we as visitors can be more humble and approach them with simply the desire to learn about them.

    Reply
    • Roberto Kaballiene
      Nellie
      August 1, 2019

      Exactly that is what I thought. I’m just really interested about the things that they have, the things that we don’t have today in modern world. I think tribes all over the world are the best examples and best resource for sociologists and researchers.

      Reply
  • vijay
    April 29, 2023

    would love to visit these places for exploring various cultural aspects.

    Reply

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