The History of Bungee Jumping

The roots of bungee jumping are still not known to the world, but how it spread and when was it first spotted are now well known to many. It has been going on for a few hundred years, at least. Bungee jumping has its origin from an ancient ritual followed by an old tribe. This ritual is known as the ‘naghol’ which means land diving. Let’s have a closer view of the history of one of the most adventurous sports nowadays i.e. bungee jumping.

In South Pacific, there is a country called the Vanuatu which is made up of around 85 islands; 83 islands to be specific. Out of the 83 islands is a small island which was discovered in 1768 by Louis Antoine de Bougainville, a French Explorer. This island was discovered by him while he was on his mission to tour around the whole world. In 1774, Captain Cook, who is well known for his infamous acts, saw this island and named it the ‘Pentecost Island’ as the day on which this island was spotted was a holy day for the Christians, the holy day of Pentecost. Though many Christian missionaries went there to change the people of the tribe to Christianity and even succeeded in doing so, they could not change some of the rites and rituals of these people. One of these rituals is the Naghol or bungee jumping, as it is commonly known today.

The people of this island have been performing this ritual for many centuries. They try to please the gods by doing this ritual. The belief is that the crops will come very good if god is pleased with them. They believe that if the jump is successful, god is happy with them and hence, the year will see a good harvest. But, if the jump is not so successful, then god is not pleased with them and hence, their crops will not be as good. Another ritual is that when a child performs a bungee jump, he is no longer considered as a child, but as an adult. There are no precautions taken except for that the ground directly below the place of jumping is fully covered with sand. Only the males perform this jump.

It is equally important for us to know how the ritual was performed as we should have the total knowledge of the practice. A wooden tower of about seventy feet in height was built one day prior to the jump. The tower used none of the modern day construction methods. It was latched together with the help of vines. It was not very strong, forget being stable. The ceremony sees a participation of about 15 to 25 guys. When the young boys jump from the tower to attain manhood, their respective mothers toss up an object of their childhood into the air to mark their entrance into manhood.

This is all that I have to give to you about the history of bungee jumping.