Land Diving - Pentecost Style

Each year during the harvest period (generally May), the men and boys of Pentecost Island gather to perform the land-diving ceremony. After climbing to various levels of a 21-meter/70-foot tower, they then dive headfirst from it. Liana vines tied around their ankles stop the fall just short of the ground.
Certain procedures are followed in building the tower. It is constructed on a hillside around a large tree. All brush is cleared in front of the tower and the ground is dug up to soften it. (Throughout the jumping ceremony, villagers rake the ground.)

Each diver builds his own diving platform at the desired height and location. He carefully selects the vines for his legs, calculating the length so his head just brushes the ground at the end of his jump.

After the vines are secured around his ankles, the diver climbs the tower. With the vines fastened to his platform, he falls. The vines extend fully just before he reaches the ground. The platform he has constructed breaks with the pull of the vines tied to it, minimizing the vines' recoil on his legs.

According to legend, land diving originated when a woman trying to escape her husband climbed a Banyan tree. He followed her and when he had nearly caught up with her, she jumped from the tree. He followed, not realizing that she had tied the lianas from the tree around her ankles before jumping. She survived her fall, but he perished. Today, only the men have the right to land dive.