Cobia Crater Top
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Panoramische foto door
Frank Taylor
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Cobia Crater TopThe World > Pacific Ocean Islands > Melanesia |
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View from the highest point on the crater rim of Cobia. Cobia is just inside the northern part of Budd Reef and is a few miles north of Yanuca - where the village is located. You can actually just barely see the vilage to the southwest in the photo. The son of the chief guided us on the hike. William (or "Wil") is standing near the camera in this photo.
This photo taken from the central part of the rim of the crater of Cobia in Fiji. Crews from several...
This is a scenic view of the beautiful northern coastline of Utu Vava'u, the main island of Vava'u, i...
We reached this location on ATV and karts as part of a special tour. It's on the east coast of the m...
This really shows off how beautiful the southern islands of Ha'apai in Tonga can be. The island we a...
This panorama is taken in Samoa about 1km from Virgin Cove, accessed by foot through the jungle, or b...
View of the Tavala Arches in Niue. Make sure you look UP to see the arch we are sitting under! We're ...
From the top of the grassy hills of Aitutaki. A beautiful almost-atoll in the Cook Islands. It is s...
This is the highest peak of Aitutaki in the Cook Islands. Here you can see the island is mostly surr...
This shot was taken in a tree off the path on a narrow ridge up in the mountains on the way to the "N...
Melanesia is a term describing Pacific islands inhabited by black skinned people. It includes the islands of the Torres Straits, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji. The long chain of islands is highly volcanic and is also known as the "ring of fire".
The people who inhabited these rugged volcanic islands thousands of years ago established small isolated village communities that persist to this day.The communities are genetically and linguistically diverse, with over 400 languages, often as different from one another as French is from Russian. People sharing the same language are known as "one talks" and are considered extended family (which they are).
Although culturally and linguistically diverse, Melanesian people share a common bond in a sense of identity with their island. The people of the island of Tikopea, for example, speak of themselves as "we the Tikopea" a term that encompasses the people, island, trees, gardens, and coral reefs as one living entity. Melanesians are masters at social harmony. You can understand why they have to be when you consider that 90 percent of them live in small, very isolated villages that have been in exactly the same location for thousands of years. Melanesians tend to stay where they were born until they die - generation after generation. If they failed to achieve social harmony they would not survive long. A person unable to "adapt" was (and still can be) banished from the village. Until the mid 1900's this usually was a death sentence as the concept of social harmony generally extended just to the boundary of the tribal lands and inter-tribal warfare and cannibalism was common.
Melanesia is one of the few places on our planet where one can see truly ancient custom dances and rituals performed with utter sincerity and cultural importance. Almost all of the Melanesian people are Christians but there are many who are Muslims and still a few who cling to their custom religions. But even dressed up in Christian clothes, their spirits remain one with their ancestors and their land. It is a fascinating part of our world, rich in powerful images.
