The Tomb of the Mili Mongga
Fossils, Folklore, and Adventures at the Edge of Reality
by Samuel Turvey
Travelogues about scientific fieldwork have the same appeal for me as mystery novels do for fiction fans. I like them because they always tell entertaining stories, are often funny, and can also teach you a lot.
You will find plenty of all this in “The Tomb of Mili Mongga” — Samuel Turvey is a wonderful guide to the Indonesian island of Sumba. He comes across as a very warm, considerate person, with an eye for humorous detail, as in this example: „It was a relief to land, as the local airline names and logos hadn’t filled me with confidence: ‘We strive to succeed!’ ‘Flying is cheap.’ ‘We make you fly.’ And we definitely hadn’t wanted to travel with Icarus Air.”
But there is much more here than scientific adventure. For the author, the colorful recollections of his expeditions are only the starting point for a deep dive into disciplines as diverse as island biogeography, species extinction, cryptozoology, and folklore, to name just a few. The result is a fascinating volume written in a similar vein as Elizabeth Kolbert’s or David Quammen’s books — and mind you, they are writers, not active scientists like Turvey. This makes him a creature almost as rare as the mili mongga.
Here is another short quote: “The existence of endemic human species on islands brings home the fact that we are just another animal that adapts to local environmental conditions, with an evolutionary tree that radiates and branches in response to ecological and geographic barriers just like we see in other non-human species. The hobbit reminds us forcibly that we are not divorced from the natural world; instead, we are dependent upon nature and fundamentally shaped by it.”
His search for an Indonesian wildman resonated even more deeply with me after reading two interesting books on Bigfoot recently — it is extraordinary that such different cultures create such similar myths and legends.
And it is also an urgent call to save the richness of our planet. As Turvey writes towards the end:
“The same processes of globalisation that are driving the loss of global cultural diversity are also responsible for much of the world’s ongoing biodiversity loss, thanks to worldwide demand for tropical timber; the clearance of rainforests to make room for rubber and oil palm plantations and mineral extraction; the unsustainable demand for threatened wildlife species from traditional Chinese medicine, the luxury food market and other commercial drivers; and increased opportunities for accidental transport of invasive species and pathogens. So, as we move ever closer to becoming a unified ‘global village’, the path we’re travelling is bringing about the destruction of global biodiversity, the traditional cultures that live alongside nature, and their unique ways of thinking and perceiving reality. We are in a biocultural diversity crisis”.
Many thanks to the publisher, Bloomsbury Sigma, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
