In 1774, when the navigator and explorer Captain Cook explored the Pacific Ocean for the third time, he was inadvertently attracted by the flames erupted from the volcano on Tanner Island. He stopped the boat and landed on the island. Answered: Tanna, that is Tanner. In the local language, “Tanna” means the earth, so this island, including the island’s original customs, simple people, and pulsating mountains and seas, are all properly included and named by Tanner.
Tanner Island is 40 kilometers long and 19 kilometers wide, and the highest point, Tukosmera, is 1084 meters above sea level. Tanner Island is the most fertile island in Vanuatu. The volcanic ash produced by the regular eruption of volcanoes makes the land on the island very suitable for the cultivation of various crops. Kava, coffee, coconut and many other fruits and vegetables are important local products. Tanner Island is located in the tropics and has abundant rainfall, so it is warm and humid in all seasons.
Although Tanner Island is small in size, it has long been attracting international attention: the Chinese New Year film “Zodiac” starring Jackie Chan, and the “Forbidden Love” nominated for the best foreign language film at the 89th Academy Awards were all filmed on Tanner Island. With the release of these films, Tanner Island has also launched its beautiful picture-like beauty to the world: the shaking volcano and the quiet and pure sea all affect the hearts of world travelers.
“The Fireworks of God” and the “Sapphire” Mountains and the Sea
Yasul Volcano, located in the southeast of Tanner Island, is the most desirable attraction on the island. Captain Cook calls it “the firework of God’s fireworks”. Yasul Volcano is located in the Pacific Rim Volcanic Seismic Belt and is one of the most active active volcanoes in the world. The locals have been admiring this volcano for thousands of years, so they gave the sacred name “Jesus Volcano”.
Regarding the origin of Yasul volcano, there is a legend in Vanuatu folks: In ancient times, there was a giant named Yasul. He married two women on Tanner Island, and after the marriage they had three children. One day, the wives took their children to the beach to collect water. Yisul wanted to make a joke with his wife and children. He turned himself into a big pig and waited for them to return at the door. But waiting to wait, Yasul fell asleep accidentally. When the wife and children returned, they saw a big pig lying at the door. The wife and children thought that something bad had happened, and they were very scared. Eventually, Yasul whined and turned into a volcano before he woke up, and the wives who learned the truth shed tears, and the tears turned into rivers under the mountains.
Yasul volcano is considered to be the most accessible active volcano in the world, because the direction of its magma eruption mostly straight up and down, rarely sloping obliquely. So people have the opportunity to climb the volcano and watch the fire like nature’s heartbeat at close range. In the evening, I hiked on the sand dunes where volcanic ash accumulated, as if it landed on the surface of the moon, and it was full of desolation. The air was filled with a thick smell of sulfur, but at the same time I could feel the vibrations under my feet, and I heard a loud noise from the crater. . When the sun dissolved in the night, the red flame appeared from the crater and jumped upwards, as if there was only this ancient light left in the world, which was beating and shining endlessly. Time seemed to stop for a moment when it jumped out of darkness and flashed into people’s eyes.
The picture on the left and the above are aerial images of Yasul volcano. It is really like a giant lying down, surrounded by the river turned by the tears of his wife and children. The rumbling sound of the volcanic vibration may be the giant’s grunt. The big banyan tree in the picture below stands solemnly and mysteriously in the rainforest of Tanner Island, with a large body and dense branches. It is called “the largest banyan tree in the world”.
The ancient and secret Tanner Island always brings the illusion of outsiders staying in time. The natural landscape that was formed thousands of years ago still maintains its original appearance, and it has not stopped transmitting energy for a moment. One of the most negligible energy is the stunning beauty. Yasul volcano is the same, as is the blue cave.
The Blue Cave is another fascinating landscape, it is located on the northwestern coastline of Tanner Island. When the high tide disappears and disappears, it is connected to the surrounding coral for several miles; when the low tide is exposed, the blue cave reveals a narrow entrance, and after a dive, enters the cave, another world appears in front of you, and the deep mysterious blue Colors, thousands of creatures moving in the water as if placed in blue amber. Sunlight will shoot into the cave from the gap at the top of the cave, especially around noon, and you can clearly see a beam of heavenly light coming straight in. Everyone calls this spectacle “God’s Light”. The sun shines into the cave, and the water shines brightly, with various forms of coral and colorful fish swaying in the light. Being in the cave at the moment is like falling into a colorful dream formed by nature. Many tourists will also climb the ladder to the top of the cave entrance, jump into the sea again from the cave entrance, and discover the beauty of the blue cave from another angle. The charm of Tanner Island comes from the fact that the ultimate beauty is intimate. It is even more rare for a natural island with a great contrast-a heated volcano and a quiet and pure sea-to coexist on a small island.
The richness of Tanner Island is endless here: waterfalls hidden in the mountains, sulfur hot springs under volcanoes, the world’s largest banyan tree standing in the rain forest…
The picture shows the naked people, they are an important part of the indigenous people of Tanner Island. Men wear penis sheaths and women wear straw skirts. Songs, dances and shooting are their most traditional ways of life and entertainment.
Drinking national wine Kava to experience the traditional culture and customs of its own
It naturally nourishes the daily lives of the island residents and protects the island’s original culture from infringement. Today, Tanner Island still maintains the most primitive lifestyle and cultural customs. Entering the primitive tribe of Tanner Island is like jumping into another parallel time and space. Some of the higher villages here are called “Kastom”, which is the traditional village form of Vanuatu. The male surname in the village wears an ancient penis sheath, which is a kind of straw wrap around the lower body; the female surname wears a straw skirt. Residents on the island mostly eat cassava, taro and other root foods as their staple food. Vanuatu’s famous national dish, Lapu Lapu, is made into a paste with tapioca yam, soaked in water with crushed coconut, and then added with pork and chicken, and then wrapped in coconut leaves and placed in hot rocks underground Baked.
Vanuatu’s national wine, kava, is also not to mention. Although it is a wine, kava does not contain alcohol. It is made of kava root. The traditional way of making is that the male in the village chews the roots of kava pepper into a viscous paste, and then adds water to prepare it. Later, there are also manual grinding methods. The finished product looks like mud, with a slight bitter taste when it is drunk, and then the tongue tip will feel numb, and then the spirit will be calm and the whole body will be relaxed, people will get an unprecedented satisfaction and comfort. Each village has a place for drinking cava, called “Nakama”. Most of Nakama is in an open-air area surrounded by huge banyan trees. It is a place where people gather and exchange goods on weekdays. At night, it becomes an exclusive place for men to drink kava together. In the past on Tanner Island, drinking kava was a privilege for men, and women were even ordered to ban their viewing of the production process. Until now, more and more kava bars are open in villages and cities, and some women have begun to have the opportunity to drink kava in kava bars. Today, Kava has become a nutritional supplement in many countries in Europe and America.
The local Kastom in Tanner has original traditional festival customs such as Toka Festival and circumcision ceremony. The Toka Festival is generally held in October and is a three-day event held every few years. The exact time is determined by the local chieftain. By then, the tribes around Tanner Island gathered together. Local women will paint colorful patterns on their faces, people will dance 24 hours a day, and hold a lively and grand traditional country banquet. The circumcision ceremony was to celebrate the boys in the village becoming young men. Women will wear gorgeous costumes, stomping, applauding, singing and dancing. The food at the banquet included whole pigs, traditional jungle food and a lot of kava peppers. Obviously, the continuation of such primitive cultural tribes includes both respect for local traditions and consideration of the local government’s development of tourism. In some Kastom on Tanner Island, only one person in the village can speak English and can communicate with tourists. And the Vanuatu government stipulates that the guides that take tourists to the island must be local residents, and local residents are also happy to show tourists the unique culture of their hometown. Visitors enter the original village, not only have the opportunity to visit the local people’s original cooking methods, living methods, handicraft production process, but also experience the unique tribal dance and hunting activities.
Goods worship the product of modern civilization
The food and drink on the Tanner Island are sourced locally, and on the basis of relying on nature, individuals gradually establish their understanding of ethnic rules and living spaces. Anthropologist Joel Bonner Mason mentioned in “The Big Tree and the Canoe: History and Ethnography of Tanna Island” that the residents of Tanna Island refused to change because they insisted on their traditional views for hundreds of years And feel, internalize, and explain everything you see in a particular time and space in your own way.
Aboriginal people on Tanner Island still continue many traditional sacrificial ceremonies. The first picture on the right shows the last wizard on Tanner Island, and the third picture on the right shows the indigenous people praying under the volcano.
Tanner Island is like a tiny planet running on its own. Even if they were invaded by foreign cultures, Tanner Islanders incorporated it into their own cognitive system. The goods worship movement is the product of the aborigines using their own perspective to understand and interpret modern industrial civilization. Goods worship is a religious form of aboriginal belief and is called “John Bloom” on Tanner Island. After the start of the Pacific War in World War II, the Pacific Islands were involved in the war. The US military established a temporary base on Tanner Island, pulled up electrical wires, built runways and docks, and also brought a lot of materials. The islanders have never seen the product of these industrial civilizations. They call military aircraft “big iron birds” and warships “big iron ships.” And to a certain extent, the supplies provided by the US military at that time subverted their original understanding of the objects of life, and at the same time greatly improved their lives. After marveling, the islanders gradually developed a cult of foreign goods.
After the war, the US military left a small amount of supplies and then evacuated. But the islanders always believed that these strange people driving the “big iron bird” would return with magical goods. In order to summon the magical goods, they developed a series of worship services. Woodcut airplanes are totems of their religious beliefs. They will use wood to make airplanes and make bamboo into control towers. Every February 15th, people will wait for “John Bloom” to come back with supplies on the runway; men will also wear the ones left by the US military Military uniforms and jeans “marching drills”… Today, Tanner Island has been opened to the world, especially for Chinese tourists. Therefore, around February 15 each year, a large number of tourists visit the island to visit a series of special cargo worship ceremonies.
There is no reliable explanation for the origin of the name “John Bloom”. It is said that John Bloom was the name of a US military officer on the island at the time, but the name was not found in the archives. In any case, “John Bloom” is the general term for white men who can bring magical goods to the islanders.
The aborigines on Tanner Island lived for a long time on a small island that was occluded and far away. The original civilization on the island was not destroyed by foreign culture, but was continued with a simple concept. To talk about the relativity of time, in the history of the development of world civilization, the timeline of Tanner Island turns much slower than any country or region in the modern world. Looking back from the perspective of the high-speed modern world, Tanner Island is a static, undisturbed corner.
At the end of the movie “Forbidden Love”, young couples who fell in love but were not recognized fled together in front of Yasul Volcano. The red magma splashed enthusiastically behind the two, sketching the side faces of tribal lovers. The fire of the sky reflects the love of the lover’s endless breath, just like this volcano, breathing more than one moment. The movie compares love to ancient volcanoes. The past is now, and time will only stop on long, endless things: volcanoes that erupt forever, flaming flames, waves that keep chasing and chasing, continuing the waves of generations. Tribal culture, and simple and sincere emotions.