The Chimbu live in the Chimbu, Koro, and Wahgi valleys in the mountainous central highlands of Papua New Guinea. An ethnic and linguistic group, not traditionally a political entity, the Chimbu are speakers of Kuman and related dialects. Most people living in the Chimbu homeland identify themselves first and foremost as members of particular clans and tribes—identification as "Chimbus" is restricted primarily to occasions of interaction with nonethnically Chimbus. The term Chimbu was given to the people by the first Australian explorers (in the early 1930s) who heard the word simbu (an expression of pleased surprise in the Kuman language) exclaimed by the people at first meetings with the explorers. Approximately 180,000 people live in the 6,500 square kilometers of Simbu Province. Of those, more than one-third live in the traditional homeland areas of the Kuman-speaking Chimbu. In most of the northern areas of the province, population densities exceed 150 persons per square kilometer, and in some census divisions population densities exceed 300 persons per square kilometer.

The Chimbu, an ethnic and linguistic group, live in the Chimbu, Koro and Wahgi valleys in the mountainous central highlands of Papua New Guinea. They live in rugged mountain valleys between 1,400 and 2,400 meters above sea level, where the climate is temperate, with precipitation averaging between 250 and 320 centimeters per year. Numbering about 180,000, they live in the 6,500 square kilometers of Simbu Province. Archaeological evidence at the Chimbu area proper and other highland areas “suggest occupation as long as 30,000 years ago, possibly with agriculture developing 8,000 years before the present.” “Oral traditions place the origin of the Chimbu at Womkama in the Chimbu Valley, where a supernatural man chased away the husband of the original couple living in the area and fathered the ancestors of the current Chimbu tribal groups,” according to accounts.

The Chimbu tribes are well known for their huge headdresses made from feathers of birds of paradise, with some of them up to one meter long. The tribal people from Chimbu Province decorate their bodies with kina shells, and paint themselves with mud and clay mixed with oil from plants and pig’s fat to make the body shine and to keep it warm during the cold time of the day. The Chimbu people’s impressive “bilas” (body ornament) originated as a way to intimidate their enemies. As many other Highlanders, the Chimbu tribes practice the marriage ceremony called “bride price”, which involves a large amount of valuables, mainly pigs and kina shells, now replaced with money. The bride price is negotiated and given by the groom to the father of the bride in compensation for the loss of his daughter. The agreed bride price reflects the perceived value of the woman. One of the important ceremonies in Chimbu culture used to be the boys’ initiation where young boys live in seclusion while receiving the traditional male education. The ceremony, during which the young boys are subject to bloodletting and painful ordeals, culminates in massive pig sacrifices. The ceremony used to be held every seven to ten years. Although today this ceremony has slowly died out, large pig killing ceremonies are still held. Pigs are the most valuable asset for Chimbu tribes and the main exchange item in many ceremonies such as marriage celebration or death rituals. Pigs are also used to thank women for giving birth to a child to perpetuate the husband’s clan. The largest of these ceremonies is bugla ingu (pig killing ceremony), where hundreds or thousands of pigs are slaughtered, cooked, and distributed. Bugla ingu is an exchange ceremony where the giver creates a debt that the receiver must repay in the future in order not to lose prestige. These ceremonial exchanges are important in Chimbu culture in developing and maintaining relationships between the tribes.

An indigenous tribe named “Chimbu” lives in the mountainous region of Papua New Guinea, especially in Koro, Chimbu, and Wahgi regions. They are a linguistic and ethnic group and they are Kuman speakers. In Chimbu's homeland, the people must identify themselves as “Chimbus” while meeting with non-Chimbus. An Australian explorer in 1934 heard the word Simbu and gave the term Chimbu to the people. Chimbu is spelled as Simbu so both are the same word. In the Kuman language, “Simbu” means an expression of pleased surprise. The population of Chimbu is approximately 180,000 people and the area of Simbu Province is 6,500 square kilometers. In the northern area of Chimbu province, the population densities surpass 150 persons per square kilometer, and the population density surpasses 300 persons per square kilometer in some census divisions.

The term “Chimbu” was given to the people by the first Australian explorers in 1934 who heard the word “simbu”  (an expression of a pleasant surprise in Kuman language) exclaimed by the locals when they first met. One of the things that set the Chimbu tribe apart from others is their skeleton dance which originated to intimidate enemy tribes in what is a hotly-contested and highly-territorial country. It also expected that the enemy tend to believe they are not human and have some source of supernatural power. The Chimbu tribe are so remote that little is known about their real lives, but it is understood they live in a temperate climate in rugged mountain valleys between 1,600 and 2,400m, traditionally in male-female segregated houses but increasingly sharing as families.

The Bugamo Tribe – one of the more than a thousand cultural groups that exist in Papua New Guinea – live in Chimbu (Simbu) Province, high in the mountainous central highlands. Completely unknown to outsiders until the mid-1900s, elders tell stories about their first sighting of European missionaries – and thinking they were ancestor spirits. For generations, tribal groups fought with their neighbours over lands or imagined insults, and families still pay tribute to lost members. People lived traditional lives, looking after their pigs and crops, and traded with pigs, pig tusks, kina shells, stone axes, and feathers. Little is known about the tradition behind the Skeleton Men’s full body paint. The story I like best is that “the ancestors were scared to go into the woods to hunt, gather and garden, because they believed a ghost that lives in the mountain will come down and devour them.” The men painted themselves like skeletons to frighten the ghost, and so were able to go about their business in peace.