The Mursi Tribe

The Mursi live in the southwestern of the lower Omo Valley, numbering less than 9,000.  These Nilo- Saharan linguistic groups live in oblong shaped territory between mago and Omo River, and they are the most recognizable tribe in Omo Valley.

It said that, the Muris women are one of the last groups in Arica to cut the lower lip in order to wear large pottery or wooden lip-plate. When a Mursi girl reach’s the age of 13-14, she is most likely cur her lower lip and a small wooden plug will be inserted. Then she will be given a new identity- she become as Bonsai, which indicate a girl becoming a woman. When the lip stretched over the year time by inserting bigger wooden plugs, and in the end replaced by bigger lip –plate made of a clay , which characterized her as a mature woman alluring for marriage and bearing a children. This lip plate has its own other symbolic value, representing the strength and self-esteem, and as the same time, as their concept of beauty.