Engineer, 24, stop life in Norway to reside with Indonesian tribe surviving on monkeys and bats for meals

A NORWEGIAN engineer has described how he stop trendy life and went to reside with a tribe in Indonesia, surviving on monkeys and bats for meals.

Audun Amundsen, 40, first went to reside with the group on Siberut Island, off the western most coast of the nation, as a 24-year-old in 2004.

Audun Amundsen

Audun Amundsen spent three years residing with the Mentawai tribe in Indonesia[/caption]

Amundsen lived with the group and discovered about their conventional lifestyle[/caption]

A member of the tribe is seen utilizing a bow and arrow to hunt for meals[/caption]

He had been residing in a cushty condo within the metropolis of Trondheim, Norway and had a well-paid job as an engineer engaged on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland.

He determined to stop his job and go travelling, heading first to India and Nepal after which to Indonesia to “heat up” from the chilly local weather of the Himalayas.

After arriving in West Sumatra, one of many western provinces of the island nation, he says he needed to “go off the crushed monitor and go as far-off from my very own tradition as doable”.

“I obtained to listen to that these conventional individuals have been residing within the jungle on Siberut Island and I used to be like, ‘Wow, that’s actually fascinating. I need to see that’,” he instructed MailOnline Journey.

“I went to this island – a 12-hour journey on a shabby picket boat from Padang – and spent per week making an attempt to persuade somebody to take me upriver to the place I’d heard the tribe reside.

“After I obtained there, this man comes strolling in the direction of me and it was a fairly thrilling second.

“Fortunately he was smiling and we couldn’t actually talk that a lot however we turned buddies.”

Amundsen having fun with a festive night with the group in 2004[/caption]

Photographs present an eye fixed an infection Amundsen picked up whereas residing within the jungle with out Western comforts[/caption]

After his return, he constructed a photo voltaic panel to assist convey electrical energy to the neighborhood[/caption]

The person Amundsen met was Aman Paksa, a shaman and member of the Mentawai tribe, who agreed to host him.

The Mentawai are one of many oldest tribes in Indonesia and have a inhabitants of round 64,000 unfold out over quite a few islands off West Sumatra.

“As a result of he preferred me we made a deal for me to remain for a number of weeks,” Amundsen mentioned.

In return for the tribe’s hospitality, Amundsen helped with every day duties together with searching monkeys, bars, and shrimps in addition to constructing tools like canoes, arrows, and baskets.

Amundsen stayed for a month earlier than returning in 2009 outfitted with a greater vocabulary, medicines, and a digicam to allow him to remain for an extended interval and doc his time with the tribe.

The expertise is documented in a brand new documentary movie titled Newtopia.

“I discovered learn how to simply be and observe the rhythm of nature,” mentioned Amundsen.

There have been difficulties concerned within the new lifestyle, with one picture displaying Amundsen’s eye contaminated and coated in gunk.

He additionally says he witnessed the fashionable world starting to creep into the tribe’s lifestyle and the growing presence of plastic and trendy clothes.

He was capable of construct a photo voltaic panel locally to cost his digicam and convey electrical energy to Aman Paksa’s dwelling.

Reflecting on what his time with the tribe has taught him in regards to the world by which he grew up, he mentioned: “I do suppose we ultimately will discover a steadiness between nature and modernity.

“However sadly, I believe that loads of species and ecosystems will vanish earlier than we do.”

Newtopia is at present solely obtainable in Norway, with wider distribution being pursued, and all proceeds set to be donated to the Mentawai individuals.