Bungee Jumping History

Though bungee jumping as we know it is a somewhat young sport, it was in fact inspired by an ancient ritual of manhood called "Gkol"---and it was far removed from the safety or comfort used in today's bungee jumping.

Vanuatu

The archipelago of Vanuatu is the home to Pentacost Island, where the Bunlap tribe has lived for thousands of years. This tribe has not been "Westernized"; it hands its history down from generation to generation through storytelling and has not adopted conventional clothing. The Bunlap women wear fiber skirts, while the men wear a belt that offers a leaf that covers or forms a tube over the penis leaving the rest of their genitalia exposed.

Liana

Liana is the name given to a variety of sturdy, wood-like vines that grow in rain forests at ground level and climb trees to reach the canopy. Liana compete for the light with other rain forest plants and often stitch together natural bridges that tree-dwelling wildlife use frequently. The Bunlap tribe performs Gkol using liana vines as described in a traditional Bunlap story.

The Legend

The Bunlap are well acquainted with a legend in which Tamalie, a Bunlap man, had a disagreement with his wife. In this tale, the woman ended up running off through the forest and climbing a banyan tree, which sends vine shoots downward to the ground. She bound her ankles with the liana and jumped from the tree when her husband caught up with her. Not being aware of her bound ankles, he followed and plummeted to his death.

The Tradition

During the fig-harvesting festival, men will prove their manhood by ascending a tower to a platform and binding their ankles with liana. These men will then jump from the tower, head first, diving toward the ground below. The liana should stop their decent before they hit the ground; however, this is not always the case. In the event of a broken or weak vine, a vine that is too long or one that is not well secured, a sloped patch of soft earth beneath the tower is used to help absorb the impact.

Today

In the 1950s, a BBC crew shot a documentary on these practices. The documentary inspired the Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club to perform the April first jump in 1979. Five men dropped from the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol wearing top hats and tail coats. Though they were arrested immediately afterward, they had started a revolution. Several more jumps stole headlines, including jumps from hot air balloons, cliffs, landmarks and one from the Golden Gate Bridge. The first commercial bungee jumping site was established in Queenstown, New Zealand, by enthusiast A. J. Hackett (the first man to bungee jump from a building) in 1988.