09/07/2026
IT IS COMPULSORY FOR THE GIRLS FROM MURSI AND SURI TRIBES IN ETHOPIA TO CUT A ROUND HOLE IN THEIR LOWER LIPS AS SIGN OF BEAUTY AND MATURITY TO ATTRACT BOYFRIEND OR HUSBAND BUT THOSE WHO FAIL TO DO SO WILL NOT GET MARRY
lip plates are a symbol of pride and beauty
The men pay the chosen girl's father with cattle for marriage and the bigger the lip plate the more cattle it will cost.
Any girl that fails to make a round hole in their lower lib will not get a boyfriend or husband.
The women understand how much their husbands have paid for their Mursi or Suri Tribe marriage and wear their symbolic lip plate when they serve food to them or in celebrations or ceremonies.
However, often the girls have been promised to a man for marriage before they start the lip plate process with the bridal dowry already agreed.
There is no doubt that the men see it is a sign of beauty and the women with lip plates take great pride in this symbolic part of their culture and their identity.
The lip plates can be made of wood or clay, but most often clay. Often decorated with patterns and paint from their local resources - especially the lip plates in the Mursi villages.
The Mursi Tribe lip plates
The Mursi Tribe are visited more by tourists due to their location close to the Omo Valley town of Jinka. The Mursi Tribe live within the Mago National Park which borders the Omo National Park. The Mursi Tribe lip plates attract many tourists that are intrigued by this tradition. When travelling from Jinka you pay the entrance fee for Mago National Park and then a mandatory armed scout will es**rt you to a Mursi tribal village.
The Suri Tribe lip plates
The Suri Tribe are in the Upper Omo Valley, which doesn’t look far from the Mursi Tribe when looking at a map, but due to the mountainous terrain and inaccessible roads the Suri are quite isolated.
There are additional challenges in getting to the Suri Tribe and staying with them, so they receive a lot less tourists.
Photographers love the Suri Tribe as many of them love having their photos taken and are extremely creative with their styling.
The Suri Tribe live around the town of Kibish in South West Ethiopia very close (within 20kms) to the border of South Sudan.
why do Mursi Tribe and Suri Tribe wear lip plates?
Like many traditions and cultural history of tribes the stories are passed down verbally from each generation.
Local elders in villages and local guides can have different opinions based on what they’ve been told.
There are a few theories on how the lip plate tradition started, but it is something that will never be 100% known. It is most commonly believed that it was to disfigure the girls and women to make them less attractive from slave traders.
Then in time the Mursi and Suri Tribe lip plates have become a much loved and wanted symbol of beauty.
The lip late process begins when a girl is 15-16 and it soon becomes linked to fertility and eligibility to marry.
