Papuan tribesmen ride a ceremonial boat during the Lake Sentani festival located in Indonesia's eastern Papua province on June 20. For decades, the only foreign visitors to venture into Papua were gold-diggers, anthropologists, missionaries and soldiers fighting imperial wars. But the vast, western half of New Guinea is slowly opening its doors to tourists as a "hidden paradise", a land of ancient tribal cultures, glittering reefs, soaring glaciers and teeming wildlife. The annual festival brings together thousands of people from 24 communities scattered around the huge lake.

A tribesman uses a shell as a horn during the Lake Sentani festival.

Papuan tribal houses are built on stilts on the edge of Lake Sentani, the site of annual festival.