Land Diving

Land diving, known locally as Naghol (or Nagol), is a ceremonial practice of the Sa people of southern Pentecost Island in Vanuatu, in which men and boys dive headfirst from a tall wooden tower, traditionally twenty to thirty meters high, with vines tied to their ankles that are cut and prepared so as to arrest their fall just short of the ground, brushing the earth with their shoulders or hair. Traditionally performed around the yam harvest to ensure a good crop and to mark a boy's transition to manhood, with tower height and vine length calibrated to the diver's age and experience, the practice requires exact preparation because the vines have no true elasticity and a miscalculation can cause serious injury or death. Naghol is widely cited as the historical and cultural precursor to modern bungee jumping, which was directly inspired by footage of the ceremony, and it remains an actively performed ritual on Pentecost Island, drawn on today both as living Ni-Vanuatu custom and as a tourist attraction.