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The women of the Suri tribe, originally from Ethiopia, hold large plaques on their lips to show the value of their dowry.
The larger the piercing plates, the greater the value of their equipment, per head of cattle.
According to the tradition of the African tribe, young brides wear plates embedded in their lower lip to show how much cattle is worth to them, which come to be magnified with age.
Some of the Suri tribal women wear decorative plates on the edge up to 15 cm wide.
Tori Bohn, 56, from Bali in Indonesia, stayed with the tribe of extreme body decorations and photographed their lives in Kibish, southwestern Ethiopia.
One of the scenes shows an old female of the tribe with a corn decoration on the head, and elongated edge after removing the plaque, which hangs down to the chin.
Kibish is located in the Omo Valley, a region inhabited by eight wild tribes, with a total population of 200,000.
Tori spent three days with the Suri tribe learning about their lives and decorative lip plates. He says: “I could not take my eyes off the first woman I saw with the plate embedded in her lip. When you look at them alone, you are very impressed. “It was an extreme practice that I wanted to learn more about.”
“The girls of this tribe first make an incision in the lower lip at the time of puberty, and together with it they remove two of the lower teeth. This is done so that later in life they do not hit them on the decorative plates of the lip. ”
“They then use an ever-increasing system of clay tiles, reaching extraordinary proportions. “I was told that there were women with lip plates up to 22-23 centimeters.”
“For the Suri tribe, lip plates represent beauty. The larger the plate on their edge, the higher the bridal dowry is negotiated. But already the number of women holding it has been declining. “Some of the younger women we spoke to said they did not like the difficulty of eating or the leakage of saliva from the extended lip.”
“Most people preferred to have elongated earplugs, in which they put mud discs.
“Women had no problem telling us how to put lip discs on, or how to remove them later.”
“They had a good sense of humor and laughed a lot together.”
To reach the distant tribe, Tori traveled three days on foot.
It is estimated that there are about 7,500 members of the Suri tribe who live mainly on goat farming.
Tori added: “To visit there you have to get permission and have your own tent, food and water.”
“We hired an armed guard to accompany us on the three-day journey. “The Suri people were happy to see us as visitors, as such a thing was rare.”
“But now some sugar plantations are being built along the Omo River, with which this tribe lives, and this may cause Suri and other tribes to give up their traditions in exchange for factory work.
Earlier this year it was reported about the Suri tribe, how men fought in “manhood duels” to win the hand of the bride.
Spanish photographer Xavier Gil Tabios, 62, had witnessed the “Donga” stick fights after staying with the Suri tribe for seven days.
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