The statistical office of Indonesia's easternmost province, Papua, has registered a new Papuan tribe and Sumatra resident Katemi, who recently turned 145 years old
A population census is underway in Indonesia. The Papua Provincial Statistics Office also reported more than two dozen people over 120 years of age.
About 700,000 employees of the Central Statistical Office (CSO), its provincial offices and volunteers began work to determine the exact number of inhabitants of the fourth largest country in the world in May, but the final results of their work will not be known until August. Some preliminary results of the census, which takes place every ten years, are published.
"Checking the information received from the missionaries, we found thousands of members of the (previously unknown) tribe - more precisely, 2 thousand 868," - said the head of the statistics department of Papua Suntono.
According to him, this tribe of hunters lives in the mountains at the junction of the Mappi, Yahukimo, Asmat and Boven Digul regions, and its members do not speak Indonesian.
“They live in trees and don't wear clothes. They feed on the leaves and meat of wild animals. And we intend to reach out to various parties for more information to find out if there are other (unknown) tribes somewhere,”says Suntono.
In Indonesia, half of the second largest island in the world - New Guinea - is home to only about 2.5 million people, including 290 (according to other sources - 312) Papuan tribes, each of which speaks its own language - in other words, the constituent 0.01% of the planet's population Papuans account for 15% of the world's languages, and they communicate with each other in the state Indonesian.
Most of the Papuans still live in the literal sense of the Stone Age. Armed conflicts are not uncommon between tribes, in which sometimes hundreds and even thousands of warriors armed with bows and spears take part, and their elders reject any laws other than traditional tribal ones.
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The Papua census also brought other surprises - already at this point in only four districts of the province 22 people are registered, claiming that their age is from 124 to 130 years.
“Eight people live in the Merauke district, ten in Nabir, two in Yapen, and two more in Keerom,” the head of the provincial statistics department said. According to him, such information is being verified.
Papuan centenarians, however, are far from the record holder of the current census - a resident of the village of Bukit Batrem in the province of Riau Katemi, whose age at 145 has already been confirmed on the basis of interviews with several of her descendants, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
“We felt it necessary to confirm the initial data on Katemi because we wanted to be sure that the data was correct and no error occurred,” the head of the local statistical office, Syafruddin, told Antara National News Agency.
Nevertheless, the accuracy of the conclusions of the scribes from Riau raises serious doubts: it turns out that the difference in the dates of birth of Katemi and her younger sister is 47 years, and the oldest resident gave birth to her youngest daughter at the age of 70.
Much more credible are the statements of the scribes that in the city of Tasikmalaya in West Java alone there are more than ten people over a hundred years old.
