Ukarumpa is an intentional international community that is the main centre for SIL-PNG, located in the

Eastern Highlands :''"Eastern Highlands" also refers to Eastern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea, and part of the Great Dividing Range, Australia.'' The Eastern Highlands, also known as the Manica Highlands, is a mountain range on the border of Zimbabwe ...

Province of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. It lies approximately by road from

Kainantu Kainantu is a town in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. It had some historical significance as an airstrip town during WWII. It functions primarily as a market town for local produce growers and cash croppers. It is located on the " Hig ...

in the

Aiyura Aiyura is the name of a valley located in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. It is the home of the Aiyura Agricultural Research Station, which was operated originally as the "Highlands Agricultural Experiment Station, Aiyura" begun in 193 ...

Valley. The population consists of a variety of paid staff and volunteer staff who live nearby. The centre was established in 1957. The current population is approximately 600. It is at an elevation of approximately 1600 m (5300 feet) above sea level.

History

The 99-year lease for the at Ukarumpa was signed by Dick Pittman, accompanied by founding Director, Dr. James C. ("Jim") Dean for the Summer Institute of Linguistics on 4 October 1956. Jim Dean was the founding Director of the Summer Institute of Linguistics in the (then) United Nations mandated Australian Trust Territory of New Guinea and remained as Director until he was reassigned to establish the S.I.L. operations in India in the mid-1960s. The had been the Peacock Plantation, a failed commercial venture. Before that, however, it was a plot of land that was used as the tribal war lands of the nearby tribes (and traditional enemies), the Gadsup and Tairora. Because the land was vacant in the mid-1950s, and only a portion of it, near the Ba'e river, was suitable for gardens, the Australian administrators offered it as one of several potential sites for the SIL base of operations. Originally the land was open ''

kunai A is a Japanese multipurpose tool and weapon thought to be originally derived from the masonry trowel. Design A ''kunai'' normally had a leaf-shaped wrought blade in lengths ranging from and a handle with a ring on the pommel for attach ...

'' (a type of waist-high grass with sharp-edged leaves) with few trees and no development. The members built homes and planted trees which continue to attract bird life. Most of the buildings and roads were built by missionary volunteers with financial support from churches and individuals in their home countries. The function of Ukarumpa is to serve as an operations base for

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

s, literacy specialists, teachers and other professionals, who are mainly volunteer workers with SIL.

SIL International SIL Global (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics International) is an evangelical Christian nonprofit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, to expan ...

is an organisation that places a strong emphasis on linguistic research and Bible translation.

Geography

Ukarumpa is located on the Ba'e River. The Ba'e originates upstream from Ukarumpa and runs through the Gadsup area on to

. It lies at an altitude of approximately . The climate is Equatorial Highland; there are cool days and nights, with daily afternoon rains between November and March. The flora are primarily evergreen trees (

Pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

Casuarina ''Casuarina'', also known as she-oak, Australian pine and native pine, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Casuarinaceae, and is native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and e ...

); there are also

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

plantations nearby, and

kunai grass ''Imperata cylindrica'' (commonly known as cogongrass or kunai grass ) is a species of perennial rhizomatous grass native to tropical and subtropical Asia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia, Africa, and Southern Europe. It has also been introduce ...

-covered hills.

Infrastructure

Airstrip

Ukarumpa has its own

air strip An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes inc ...

located about a mile outside the compound,

Aiyura Airport Aiyura Airport is an airstrip in Aiyura, in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. It is the main air field for Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). The pilots and mechanics who work out of Aiyura Airport live in the nearby SIL to ...

, home to a fleet of

STOL A short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft is a fixed-wing aircraft that can takeoff/land on short runways. Many STOL-designed aircraft can operate on airstrips with harsh conditions (such as high altitude or ice). STOL aircraft, including tho ...

aircraft operated by SIL.

Store

A store run by SIL is the missionaries' source of most general goods like food, toiletries, and office supplies.

School

Ukarumpa has a primary school and a secondary school within the compound to provide good education to the children of the missionaries. _{''read more: Ukarumpa International School''}

References

External links

Ukarumpa International School website

SIL PNG Website on PNG languages

SIL PNG
{{Authority control Populated places in Eastern Highlands Province