A NIRA Trees is one of a tree that is almost the same as iboh trees, Merry (Meuria) trees, palm trees and date palms. But the Nira tree has many benefits, just like a banana tree, all of which can be used for something what we want.
Banana tree for example, the banana trunk can be cooked and eaten, the leaves of banana trees can be used to wrap a rice, to wrap the fish and so on. Moreover, That the fruit has a lot of benefits from the banana itself. Very used.
That's how the Nira tree, there are so many Nira trees that have even become for a staple food for the Papuan people. In Papua there are very many Nira trees compared to other areas in Indonesia. Aceh itself has A Nira trees but not as many as there are in Papua.
The Papuans, of course don't eat the nira tree but them eat the sago that is in the trunk of nira tree, is what they eat. In Papua a sago is called by the name Papeda, maybe if we call it a sago they not understand but if we call it a papeda they immediately understand for what we mean.
The Staple Food of The Papuans
Before it becomes a papeda or the sago, the nira tree that has been cut is split open, then the contents inside the trunk of a tree are taken. Likewise, making a sago must go through several stages of the process before it becomes a sago.
The first, after the tree has been cut down, that the trunk of trees is cut down according to the wishes and after that the stems that have been cut according again to a certain size are split open to extract for the contents in the trunk of nira trees.
After the contents of the nira tree are taken and then chopped again in very small sizes, after being small in size they are dried in the sun for a while and then ground it until smooth, after grinding to become for the powder from the nira tree, that powder is mixed with a water.
The powder that has been mixed with a water is then filtered again using a filter, usually the filter is made of cloth. The filtered water is stored for a few days and then there will be pure a powder from the nira tree trunks, this powder is called a sago or papeda by the Papuan people.
Sago can't be eaten if it hasn't been cooked, it has to be cooked first and then it becomes the sago or papeda of the Papuan people. A Sago from the nira tree trunk, after cooking that can be eaten using sugar. Aceh people often eat the sago that has been mixed with sugar.
A Nira Tree Very Much Use
If the Papuan people cook a sago without mixing anything, they eat the sago with a fish, gravy and other. If a generally people in Indonesia eat the fish with a rice, the fish is a side dish rather than a rice. That is the difference between Papuans and generally Indonesian people in how to eat a sago.
The nira tree does not only produce for a sago but much more such as nira water, the fruit can also be eaten which is called kolang-kaling, nira hair can also be made into rope, the name is rope from a nira tree and so on.
A nira trees usually often grow in areas that are slightly damp, in moist soils they grow easily such as in swamps and the other, they cannot grow in dry and arid lands for example in the eastern-central areas a nira trees cannot grow on there.
Thank You
April 18, 2023
Kind Regard
Thayeb Loh Angen
Author’s asst. Syukri Isa Bluka Teubai.
All Photo by Jamaluddin-Lodin LA. With the Nikon D7000 Camera, Nikon 18-55mm Lens.
Captions for All Photos: A Nira Trees, April 13, 2023.
