The Asaro Mudmen are a group of people in the Asaro River valley in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea who wear characteristic large decorative clay masks over their heads, accompanied by white body paint and long bamboo fingers. Likely inspired by traditional methods of obscuring faces during inter-tribal violence, researchers believe that the modern tradition of the Asaro Mudmen developed in the the village of Komunive during the second half of the 20th century, first as a marker of village identity, and then as part of a significant tourism industry. Today, Mudmen imagery has become a cultural symbol not just for Asaro, but for the province, and to some extent the country as a whole. This Asaro Mudman carrying his clay mask on his shoulder was photographed in 2008 in the village of Kabiufa, part of the Asaro valley.Photograph credit: Jialiang Gao
