The “balangut” depict on this stamp is a two-masted native canoe of which the accommodation was built on one canoe. The canoe was built by the Bilbil people. She was used for Inter-Island-Trades and difference from the “lalong” which is a one mast canoe but built on various canoes.
The last “balangut’” was destroyed by bombing by the Japanese forces during World War II.
The building of a “balangut” took around four months.
The “balangut” took part in trading trips.
Fleets of these canoes from Kranket, Yabob, and Bilbil (the Bel group) would set off together with their tanget leaves fluttering and with colorful designs painted on their sides. The natives knew what clan each canoe belonged to by the totem on the top of the mast.
Long trading trips would take them to the Rai Coast where they traded pots for wooden plates, bows and arrows, pig teeth, paint, food, and many other trade items.
The “Balangut” could take around 200 pots.
In 2013 a replica of a “balangut” was built the SPIRIT OF BALANGUT
More info on the canoe is welcome.
Source Sailing for Survivors by Mary R. Mennis.
Papua New Guinea 2009 K3.70 sg 1356, scott?
BALANGUT of the Bilbil people
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aukepalmhof
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BALANGUT of the Bilbil people
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