Survivorman | Beyond Survival | Season 1 | Episode 10 | The Mentawai Shamans of Indonesia

[Music] middle of an indonesian jungle with an elder of the mantoi tribe speak a word of english there's something burning in my left eye and he wants me to put ants with a really powerful bite on my tongue it's not going so well i'm les stroud and i'm in indonesia seeking out the true masters of survival some of the last indigenous people on earth before they're gone before the past is lost before their world vanishes i can learn their ways [Music] the manta i live in the jungles of an island called suburu the largest of four major islands located off the west coast of sumatra in indonesia my journey starts at the main port called moira dirty and polluted from here i'll travel 10 hours by boat the heart of the remote jungle island where the mental i live family clans and long houses called umass the mentor culture have survived for centuries because they've always lived in balance with their surroundings an intense intense indonesian heat sun and ridiculously polluted waters headed out of this uh this little port village here on the way into the jungle now it's going to be a 10 hour journey up this jungle river and i'm just going to hope that at some point the water gets a little cleaner i imagine when we get out of this little estuary village that it does and then it's just jungle all the way up there are times when heading upstream is almost impossible the river becomes too shallow unless they get the normal jungle rains but like everywhere else on the planet the climate is changing here too known for their teeth filing and tattooing the mantua i live deep in the jungle it only a day from civilization another culture straddling the knife edge of primitive existence and modern cultural in a smaller part of assimilation river now after getting out and get over uh logs over sandbars over rocks so it's becoming a bit of a job called pong pongs because of the sound the motors have propellers on a long pole so they can carefully navigate shallow waters like these serious dark clouds off in the distance there one side of the sky is pure blue beautiful on the other side black with the thunder clouds like so many remote cultures the mentaway who continued to live in the jungle are looked upon as savages by the outsiders many of whom themselves have meant to eye ancestry i'm here to share in their shaman system of tattooing and trance dancing to connect with the animal spirit world all right finally pulling into the camp here hello hello hello he's my main dude he's the shaman with mental way so he's apparently thrilled that i'm here each family clan is known by their uma or longhouse families of the same clan live together sleeping row upon row in huts made by machetes i'm here to learn of torocha's ways and to take part in shaman ceremonies he considers me as somewhat of a traveling shaman it was a way for him to understand why i would want to actually take part in the mantua way of life torocha will play host to me and some other mentalized shamans from other clans who are on their way here to join in a trance dance ceremony and to connect with me but first to prove my worth and show the integrity of my intentions i'll head out on an overnight trek into the jungle on a hunt for monkeys that's my mentality cam i'll call this we're going to start working on some poison arrows i feel that the poison here is extremely powerful we're just going to get the arrows going and get ourselves prepared for what's coming next which is the long hunter carving is different no matter where you go the knives are curved as such it wraps around his leg perfectly and then he's just drawing i'm familiar with a lot of different draw knives a lot of different methods of carving this is a new one again techniques may differ this is going to be for monkey some of them are for wild pig that's for monkey there's really intricate intricate work right on the tip a very fine line sliced all the way around it to figure out just make sure that the poison is potent they actually taste it but that's okay because the poison is not a problem in terms of tasting it's a problem getting into your blood [Music] so far we've mixed in a root leaves these little little tiny chili peppers but super super hot chili peppers that you want to touch every last drop of this has to be squeezed out of the mixture you watch be really really careful not to touch it too much [Music] i can always tell just how deadly or dangerous something is by how cautious they play it indigenous cultures are always cautious with me in terms of dealing with something poisonous or dangerous so i watch to see how are they with themselves when i see them moving extremely slowly and not touching then i know okay so it's real serious business right now kill never ceases to amaze me that the concoction of three simple plants can provide a lethal combination for hunting wild game and again for me just thought of how in the world did they ever figure this stuff out somehow they figure it out they've never had an outsider willing to go the distance with them on an activity that is at the base of their jungle existence then i'll hopefully earn the right to receive a tattoo but not without first earning their respect monkeys about once a week not always successful maybe once a month they're successful we have a long way to go it's going to be overnight so we're leaving a little village and uh heading out a lot of these trails here are well worn problem is that's years of walking in bare feet my hikers are wide enough that they don't even fit in the little tracks that all their bare feet have made over the years you try to be quiet when you're hunting with someone who's hunting in bare feet and you have hikers on or boots on it's just impossible so i've got to employ as much stealth as i possibly can because these guys other than talking barely make a sound going through the jungle classic water fine we're taking a short break likely for my benefit if you're breaking half an hour that's a long ways up what's really interesting is i'm dealing with three generations of man to my hair the eldest i'm a shaman we'll survive this time we can hear the monkeys that we want they're off the distance their territory to government decisions and the encroachment of the outside world as a result we've had to travel far to find an old hunting spot with available games this might be where we're stopping for the night but i'm still going to want to spruce it up just a small problem here this place is crawling with leeches and i just asked if they're a problem he said yeah they're a problem for sure as soon as he saw one on himself he pulled it off right away and they're everywhere just these little tiny leeches if they go into the skin he said yes okay you feel okay this jungle has plenty of snakes scorpions and leeches not quite as filled with deadly creatures like it is in the amazon but there's still plenty to watch out for the mental i believe that everything that exists has a soul human beings but also animals plants and the natural surroundings before using anything permission must be asked they are true animists now we've settled up in here the dogs are with us i'm not sure if it's because we're settled here now so we can do an early morning hunt for the monkeys or if uh we're just pausing and we're gonna go later big time language barrier brought in from the uma or caught fresh from the jungle stream when i wasn't looking i'm not sure which torocha has cooked fish in bamboo for lunch like rice in asia sago is the main food of the mantai the chewable sticks made of flour from the needed pulp of the sago palms i had absolutely no idea what i'm eating other than sago dipped in some kind of fish stuff harmony between one soul and the natural earth is a guiding principle in their lives they also strive to maintain balance with their own clans and close neighbors as well there are no chiefs so it's each individual's responsibility to maintain spiritual and social balance without the shamans there would be no one to turn to for guidance well sleeping here tonight i'll have to watch it for a lot of ants someone pack a big wallop but mostly i've got to watch out for leeches which is here they're small but they burrow into your skin really quickly and uh i remember hearing a story the guy was in the jungle like this was an adventure race over the radio this call comes in and says yeah this guy's here and he says he just watched the leech disappear up his urethra he wants to know what to do the killer part of that story is the answer and say well it's okay it'll engorge itself with blood and then it'll leave you just have to wait i'm doing my pants up tight tonight i'm in the middle of the indonesian jungle with three mantua shamans on a hunt for monkeys [Music] you don't really eat anything uh all day long except a few sticks of sago and fish one of their beliefs is actually that they don't like to take too much food when they go hunting because uh it takes their mind off the fact that they're hunting they want to be hungry in the hunt it turns out they've actually brought sort of a makeshift cotton tent and we're all in here together one big happy family this guy wants to snuggle the rain has been coming down for hours in fact all night long and this doesn't bode well for hunting these men to i know exactly what to do for survival when the weather is bad save your energy [Laughter] there are rare types of monkey and lots of species of plants that exist nowhere else a large chunk of traditional mantua hunting grounds have been designated as a national wildlife park and this has made hunting more difficult in the treks into the jungle further and longer for the clans we've decided we could have better luck if we split into two groups and circle around each side of the jungle mountain so torocha and i stop briefly to gather vine for binding a pig they've trapped for us to pick up on the way back to the village [Music] the pig will be part of the celebration feast for my tattooing and the animal spirit trance ceremony it will be a gathering of mentalized shamans and myself in a ritual to re-harmonize with the animal spirits and come into balance with them and the natural world this is a pretty jungling jungle [Music] as the cicadas of the jungle screech all around us tirocha spots a couple of monkeys fleeing in the trees what i just found out that those little leeches hurt they start to dig in your skin right away blood mark from opponents tiny little leachman man there so no luck there's a couple of monkeys but they made their way out of here as we know they're here i'm assuming that's the sound of cicadas in the background it's pretty intense it's in every jungle and they get loud girl jen and i have basically just completed a big circle in the jungle looping around actually back on our original trail and back towards the other two [Applause] they've done the same thing in the other action [Applause] the rains return and tarot and i have made it back to the shelter before the others it gives us the opportunity to do what shamans do connect with the natural spirit world when tarot sings he's harmonizing his spirit with the jungle and the animal spirits around him it's a mentality tradition to seek balance with their surroundings through song it's not only respectful for me to learn his songs and for he to learn mine it's vital to our relationship [Music] [Music] we're just getting ourselves ready to leave amanita has come back and uh nothing so we've been out here hunting for nearly two full days and i've seen maybe three monkeys we've come a long way and we've got a long way to go back and we're going back empty-handed not a good omen for the ceremony but they'll carry on nonetheless [Music] and away we go this is a long hard slog going back up turning you off it's not a good sign that we had an unsuccessful hunt and it leaves me wondering if toronto will remain agreeable to my involvement in the trance ceremony and receiving a tattoo trekking through the thick jungle on a long and arduous journey we finally meet up with some others to pick up one of their domesticated pigs for the trance ceremony the pigs actually wander freely in the jungle and have to be re-trapped caught for feasts and special occasions oh this is pretty rank it stinks here this is kind of disgusting this looks like it's going to be a treat uh apparently right beside the pig here is sago worms wonderful juicy tasty larva i can't wait so the shaman are actually not allowed to eat the larva it's tradition you can't eat anything that isn't sacrificed or prepared specifically for the anticipated ceremony and today this includes grubs he's not allowed to have the kids love it he's like all right i'm in okay okay oh that's disgusting i'm on the island of subaru with a tribe called the mantawai i'm about to share in a jungle delicacy sago yeah i'll take it i can eat it i'm not afraid here give me give me that give me that sucker did he eat the whole thing item oh that's disgusting i betcha it tastes good so this is the sago larva this is a treat for these guys the kid ate his first because it's a treat i just can't eat the head okay [Music] you know i'm have better oh no you know how you chew that last piece of grizzle and you can't swallow it but it's still in your mouth and you just keep chewing and you're looking around for the bread on the table just one of those moments didn't it look delicious oh yes well i feel like carrying a big fat pig on my shoulders now a few miles from the uma longhouse we now have to find a large pig trapped alive and get him back for the trance ceremony this pig is not happy at all he's sunk down into the muck and they're trying to lift up his rump end so they can get a noose around his legs and when they do all hell's going to break this i think they're going to get him right now oh no just say his leg exposed here we go oh man so they're actually binding the two feet together just outside the cage here it really stinks and this is a disgusting place they have a lot of problems getting hook worms in their body through their feet because of activities like these it's things to underestimate how powerful these animals can be pigs can be very strong and this one is just going to want to bite bite and bite get some nasty gnarly teeth so the bindings on the feet have to be extremely tight the pig is carried and kept alive until they're ready for the sacrifice pigs and roosters are as close as it gets to non-jungle-oriented survival for these mentality and the pigs are the main form of currency it's the pigs that are used as payment for apprentice and shamans but acquiring them is extremely difficult and poses the first of many obstacles that young boys like the one helping me carry the pig face if they want to become shamans yep i'd be kind of upset too to roche's preparations for the trance ceremony and my tattooing are interrupted when he's called to heal a little girl suffering from a serious fever there are no doctors here so torocha gathers the plants he needs to affect the healing shamans like torocha have a lot of responsibility to their own uma and their surrounding neighbors torocha has to rely on his intimate relationship with the spirit world to heal those who fall sick while at the same time prevent attack from evil spirits that they believe cause disease for the mental i the pharmacy is simply the natural world that surrounds them jacobus the young man who took me monkey hunting and a young boy who wants to become a shaman are leading me to a place where they have trapped another smaller pig it's my job to carry it home here little pig down in there he's uh he's not happy [Music] reality is that there's no point in dispatching the pig right here right now they want it to be fresh and ready for the feast so looks like i'll carry it back alive so that when they want to dispatch it and prepare for the ceremony they can i have no idea of knowing just how many brands of fleas are on the back of this pig or diseases or whatever else soon transferring to my back but i gotta do my part one way or the other that's not a pleasant job by any stretch of imagination this passing game for eating purposes or in this case ceremonial eating purposes is never pleasant matter which way you slice it hey you like bacon okay okay you go yeah good okay okay once we make it back to the uma the pig will be put in a small pen for an hour or two before being killed they'll remove the heart and the intestines for the sole purpose of reading the signs the organs have to tell to seek predictions or guidance that's just a quick burn off just to get rid of the ticks and the bugs and the hair and whatever else is on that pig that they want to get rid of burn it all off the manta i live communally so everything is shared it's taboo for one family to eat meat without sharing with the rest of the clan since they look at me as a traveling shaman they offer me the best cuts of the boiled pig and we sit in the uma eating sago palm and pig discussing preparations for the trance ceremony they tell me tomorrow i'll finally receive my mental eye tattoo i'm in indonesia with a man-to-eye tribe and i'm bonding with a group of shamans on my way to experiencing their tattooing methods and trance ceremony the sacrifice of a rooster is meant to consolidate and bless the clan they touch the rooster to everyone's head individually before they sacrifice it to call the spirits they need me to connect with the spirit of the rooster as a request to have me take part in their ceremony the mentor i believe hearts and intestines conceal messages and the shamans spend years learning how to read them so he's reading the intestines of the chicken right here i tell by the intensity of his face i was taking this really seriously is really examining me only shamans can read these omens and know whether they are bad or good [Music] three shamans discuss the signs until they can agree on the meaning they say they can see my visit in the reading of the heart it's taken as a good omen that the spirits are happy i'm here to learn and share in their ways this morning torocha prepares the mixture needed for tattooing to make ink they make sugar cane juice with black soot scraped from their pots and pans for the mantua ink markings and plant adornment have the purpose of making their bodies look attractive so that the good spirits will inhabit them and won't feel the need to leave they use an old semi-sharp needle or rusty nail sharpened on a rock this is a young shaman apprentice the mentality tradition originally is that only shamans are tattooed as they grow older the tattoos continue down their bodies in stages until as a full-grown man and shaman they finish with an ankle bracelet style tattoo this young boy wants very much to become a shaman and is willing to undergo the pain and dedication it takes to do so but boys like him are rare now not far away the distraction of the outside world gets louder every year in a day or two it'll be my turn to feel the sting of the tattoo nail fishing for small fish is an absolute staple for the month right here the women have gone up ahead of me catching up to them going to show me how they position these kind of little creeks while we wait for a couple more shamans to arrive from deeper in the indonesian rainforest the women of the clan have asked if they can show me their own ways of survival in the jungle they make themselves skirts out of banana leaves because this is the traditional attire to go fishing the mentawai have always dressed in leaves and plants but lately they opt for more modern clothing for their day-to-day activities gathering food like this is not meant to be long-term it's simply for the day's food or an immediate meal streams can replenish the supply of shrimps and small fish daily making a quick bite easy life for the to why women has changed a lot in recent years as the clans get smaller men have started taking two or three wives this was never their way in the past and it's troubling for women as mothers they put very few restrictions on their children [Music] mentai children are expected to watch their parents and learn their role within the uma based on gender this makes for a slippery slope into assimilation the outside world should the next generation choose to not follow the traditional ways [Music] the fishing continues into the night and we use torches not to attract fish but to simply make it easier to see this plant here is full of resin so it's a really good burn going on the mental i rarely fish when the moon is full or it's raining the catch is just too poor at those times the torch burns bright it's not so hard basically classic night fishing using the torch just so many of the aquatic creatures crabs crayfish shrimp even fish there's so much mellower at night and use a torch you can get pretty close to them increase your chances of catching so that's all this really is same type of fishing that you can find all [Music] though now the women aren't wearing their leaf skirts they still carry the hollow bamboo shafts on their backs for stashing the bounty they'll catch from the i have absolutely riverbed idea what they're talking about but it's a pretty lively discussion [Music] foreign you see the difference in the night fishing crabs and shrimp much bigger [Music] having paid my dues in the jungle and proven to the mantua that i come in respect for their ways shaman are ready to give me the beginnings of my tattoo but first they're asking me about my own western style tattoo part of the world called a wolf two wolves and the moon and they represent my children yeah my children are wolves first the tattoo is drawn on the skin as a guide no different from the north american practice [Music] as i am an outsider getting a tattoo here in this uma is a big deal to this family clan they're offering me respect and accepting my respect in return torocha and i have connected on a deeper level through our time together he's very pleased to do the work on me it will ever connect the two of us the singing is meant to communicate with the spirits and to seek their acceptance of my process the women often keep a close eye out for the quality and placement of the tattoo and have no problems voicing any concerns that the men aren't doing it quite right just like getting a regular tattoo or that is a modern style tattoo you want to say okay enough already and you know you can't stop because they have to finish the design and it's just that that constant annoying pain that uh normally you would stop them from doing is quite possibly the last shaman of this uma so the honor of receiving a tattoo from him is great surrounded by the clan i can feel the excitement and the energy in the air as i share in this tradition this manta eye tradition is a devotion to personal beautification preening their bodies filing their teeth and inscribing tattoos to honor the beauty in the landscape that surrounds them and the spirit that lives within there are some meanings and some stories behind the tattoos too often you know in an ecological sense we try to put way too much meaning on certain things that various indigenous cultures do the same thing here with the manitowoi and their tattooing it has meaning but it may not necessarily be super deep super metaphysical and super spiritual as we want to assign to it could simply be designed nothing more a visiting shaman wants a turn at tattooing me as he's still in training but his hit is much harder than torocha's when it comes to making sure the nail is breaking through my skin unfortunately for me he's not paying attention to how much ink paste he's using first time around they did the entire design didn't put enough ink into the skin so they've redrawn over it and he's redoing the tattoo puncturing into the holes that are already punctured this time hopefully with enough ink you know what it's like to like re-stab an injury following the tattooing we'll prepare for the mentality trance dance ceremony i'm on the island of sibiru with the mantua and receiving a shaman tattoo it's an occasion for celebration and the elder women of the clan have decided that my hairy chest and red nipples are something to laugh about the pain of the nail is only temporary but these markings of acceptance into the manta white clan are permanent and i'm beginning to understand why they like to give a nice place for their spirits to live it is after all only flesh and it will heal in this hot and humid place the tattoos must be rubbed with medicinal leaves to prevent infections [Music] [Applause] finished we're done so the traditional mentality tattoos in place tells the story of their connection to the sun story is that the sun was too close it was burning people so they shot arrows to push the sun away and the tattoo the markings of the story so they always remember that story so the children remember they remember their connection to the sun and it'll probably connect me to their tribe forever and a day if i were to show up here even five ten years from now they're going to see those tattoos and they'll know this is part of what they do and part of how they live and their beliefs and that hurt the tattoo incomplete it's time for the trance dance ceremony the purpose of these ceremonies is not unlike the same purpose in other ceremonies around the world to bring harmony between these humans and the earth itself between the mentwe and the natural world in which they live just getting ready for more ceremony here the women are being done up beautifully with their headdresses the pools put out front to let people know that there's a ceremony going on here they didn't have to come in there's two holes to show that there's two pigs sacrificed for the ceremony that's kind of like a wedding preparation hopefully we don't end this day [ __ ] that i got married without knowing it but it's still vital and important ceremonies for them it's the one type of thing that brings them together as a people it creates a community where there is nuts which is hard to come by so these types of ceremonies are are held in high esteem because of that any evil spirits that may be present have to be chanted sang and danced away including any bad spirits within the pig itself this way the pig becomes fit to eat [Music] torocha and the visiting shamans sing and ring the bells to call the spirits to the ceremony to welcome them and bear witness to the sacrifice that is being performed for them everything's been prepared and uh they're going through uh having a feast everything is set out very evenly so that uh everyone is is perfectly fed nobody uh nobody's missed in the feast at all [Music] the people who are not shamans are eating outside of this room in their separate family plans eat together and they allow especially the connections to the spirit world stay strong [Music] the feast completed it's time for the all-night long trance ceremony the men fully adorn themselves and the intensity is about to heat up like the tattoo the dance is influenced by the shaman who performs it taking on his own style spirit the stomping of the feet and the bell ringing all serve to intensify the emotion it eventually sends one of the shaman into a trance he falls to the floor convulsing while the young men run to his side to protect him from injury this visiting shaman said he was struck by the vision of a spirit dancing beside him and he was overcome as the ceremony continues there are more sacrifices [Music] there is yet another reading of the signs in pig as well as rooster intestines i've been asked to join in and we dance to the animal spirits monkeys wildcats birds we connect with the spirits through mimicry tattooed painted and adorned with flowers i've transdanced in deserts and jungles i've tasted the plant medicines of people from across the globe and i've felt the energies of the earth rip through my spine and manifest as greater understanding the mental i are just about as primitive as it gets on this planet and in their lack of progress they retain a connection to the natural world that my culture has lost they retain a balance and harmony that i and my civilized world can only envy but can we do more can we take the lessons of the remote earth cultures and heal the disharmony of our own society can we learn from the last indigenous people how to regain our balance of a natural sustainable life can we get past their primitive appearances and learn from them how to go beyond survival you

Channel: Survivorman - Les Stroud

Views: 120,522

Rating: 4.9252667 out of 5

Keywords: survival footage, connecting to the earth, ancient ceremonies, ceremonial footage, Beyond Survival, Survivorman, Survivorman TV, Beyond Survival Season 1, indigenous cultures, Survivorman Les Stroud, Les Stroud, Survivorman TV Series, Survivorman TV Show, survival

Id: D-LJeRfMNDo

Length: 46min 34sec (2794 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 02 2021