Original subtitles

I've never experienced anything even comparable in terms of pain.

This is an extraordinary

thing to put yourself through, especially when in order to become a man

community, you have to do it 20 times throughout your life.

I'm Ed Stafford. As an explorer and survivalist, I've made a career out of

mucking about in the wild.

If I'm honest, I've never really grown up. Look at that!

So now... Ready, guys?

I've set myself a mission.

See how cultures across the world navigate the messy business of becoming

adult.

I believe many of us in the modern world have lost our sense of identity.

But I'm hoping by immersing myself in the often extreme trials that young

face, I can figure out how these rituals make us better members of our

communities.

I've never experienced anything even comparable in terms of pain.

By joining them on their journey, I hope I'll learn to become a better man.

Maybe even grow up.

Okay, he wants me to jump out. I'm going to jump out. And successfully pass my

own.

Right of passage.

I'm heading deep into the Amazon jungle to visit a people called the Sataremowe.

I'm on the final leg of my journey, a two -hour boat ride up the Amazon to

their remote village.

They live on the Andira River, 80 kilometers from the nearest city.

This community has a unique rite of passage ceremony that involves them

their hands in gloves full of bullet ants.

The bullet ant of all insects has the most painful sting in the world.

Juan, I'm waiting for you. I'm waiting for you.

Thank you.

That all felt rather stiff, if I'm honest.

I think the guys knew that I was coming, but I think they were a little bit

nervous.

My name is Ed.

Mine is Adriana. Adriana?

Yes. Nice to meet you.

You know, let's face it, it's not every day that a camera and a man comes into

their village wanting to partake in this sort of ceremony. So I'm hoping that

things relax a little as this day goes on.

Just

been

given a necklace.

officially welcome to the tribe. That is a good start.

Obrigado.

So

I

believe we're going to the centre of the community.

Not sure what my Portuguese is good, but it's not amazing. I'm understanding the

majority, but not everyone.

In terms of sort of architecture, there's quite a lot of traditional

there's a lot of concrete structures as well.

Despite their remote location, the community's position on the river means

they are open to the outside world and the modern influences that brings.

Every time we stop, I keep getting bitten by ants, but they're these tiny

ones, and I'm trying not to react to them at all because, obviously, compared

bullet ants, they're absolutely nothing, and yet they're infuriating because

they're biting on my ankles, and these guys are starting to laugh because I'm,

like, literally picking these tiny little, minute ants off my ankles.

But they hurt.

I might be in trouble.

The centrepiece of the Sassarema way right of passage is the incredibly

Tucandera ritual.

Young men get stung by close to 100 bullet ants on each hand.

And they have to do it at least 20 times.

And one of those times is about to kick off.

OK, so this is the central area where they conduct the ceremony.

OK.

My understanding of the ceremony today is that these guys are veterans.

One of them has done it 34 times.

It's all becoming a little bit real.

It's been likened to walking on hot coals.

Insect venom is scaled in terms of the pain from a one to four.

And the bullet ant is number four, which is obviously the highest level of pain.

To put that into perspective, the sting of an average honeybee is generally just

a two.

Does something to the pain pathways within the body and stops the body

that pain. So it keeps the pain pathways open longer than you would normally

feel pain in any other situation in life.

This is an extraordinary thing to put yourself through.

From what I understand, it's the dancing and therefore the sweating that

allows the toxins to disperse and this is to help them manage the pain.

And now his hands are shaking badly.

You've literally got a veteran crying, shaking, trembling,

experiencing a level of pain that I know I have never felt in my life before.

It's scary.

OK.

This is the first time that I've seen him put his hands on her.

Glove like this.

So the ants have all been sort of secured into this with their abdomen

inwards, and obviously the stings are on the abdomen, which is why it's on the

inside.

Danico has been through the ritual more times than anybody else, and he will be

my mentor for the week.

Do

women

ever go through the ceremony?

No.

They might not have to physically deal with the pain but the women do seem to

help the young men throughout the emotional ordeal.

It's an extreme rite of passage.

So why do they do it?

We've done it many

times.

I mean,

this is an incredible number.

Why have you done it so many times?

While there's no

scientific evidence to show that repeated bullet ant stings improve the

system, I can see how it could make the boys understand and manage pain much

better.

Is it okay with both of you that I take part in a ceremony in a few days?

I can't believe this is day one.

I feel like I've experienced so much already.

The truth is, the ante's been hooked.

I'm under no illusions just quite how painful this is going to be.

I've never experienced anything even comparable in terms of pain.

That was a pretty terrible first night of sleep, I have to admit.

The bullet ant ritual is still playing on my mind.

It's a mix of emotions. It's a blender of butterflies and knives and all sorts

of things going around my chest.

I feel like the next few days are vital for me to nuance exactly my approach to

how I'm going to...

Conduct myself during the ceremony, but it's occupying every part of my being

right now.

I'm so aware of something coming that is enormous.

Absolutely enormous.

I guess my spidey senses were tingling as a morning storm quickly engulfed the

area. So, while we wait for it to pass, Adriana asked me to help prepare some

food for their meals.

Farina is a carbohydrate made of manioc root.

And is a staple part of the Amazonian diet when there is no fish or meat to

It's quite flamboyant, isn't it?

Is it always the women that do this kind of job?

Okay,

we're done?

Yes.

Excellent.

Golden nuggets of pure joy.

I took the moment with Adriana to find out what she thinks about the rite of

passage.

How painful do you think it is for the man?

I guess this ritual is basically the big equaliser.

You didn't want him to do it initially and you've now decided that you do want

him to do it. Why have you changed your mind?

Yeah, so she's 15.

I think if a 12 -year -old can do it, I'm hoping that at 49 years old I can do

it as well.

I am touched by Adriana's promise to help me through the ceremony.

At this point, with the bullet ant ritual only four days away, I'm going to

all the help I can get to overcome the pain.

Jose is helping to teach me the steps needed during the right as a way to help

deal with the pain.

You'd think that would be easy, wouldn't it?

It's because it ends on a right foot.

And then it starts with the right foot.

And so I'm like, I want to do my left foot.

I know it's not complicated, but that's quite imbalanced.

I'm not really renowned for my dancing.

I think I've got it.

You were really stamping hard.

Was there a reason for that?

I watched him almost come apart, you know, tears streaming down his face,

convulsing and shaking.

Obviously, it's somewhat intimidating, to say the least.

There's no rules or expectations surrounding crying.

There is no hiding the fact that this is going to be extraordinarily more

powerful than anything I will have ever felt through my nervous system before.

I'm aware that my mind state will make all the difference.

I think I just need to reset, recharge.

Sleep will give me the resilience that I need.

Morning.

and traditional preparations are in full swing for tomorrow's rite of passage.

It's making the gloves sort of making it hit home.

So what I'm doing is cutting the little strips that end up being woven together

in order to make the inner gloves, the ones that the ants are actually woven

into.

The outer gloves are permanent and they're held within the village hall.

Gloves woven.

The boys and I also need to get ourselves prepared, and it's suddenly

becoming very real.

How

long

will they stay on the body?

The boys being painted will do the right with me.

Danico's grandson, Etaú, is 12 years old. And like me, he's doing the bullet

ritual for the first time.

Are you nervous about doing it for the first time?

I can see it in your eyes.

It's your mum or your

dad giving you any last -minute advice?

They gave it to me so I wouldn't cry in the glove and scream.

Because that makes the singer sick.

She can only cry when she's already without the glove.

Okay? Yes.

Are you okay? Thank you.

Thank you very much.

My body is ready, and for the first time I'm starting to feel more confident

about the rite of passage.

But Tonico is asked to meet.

It dries the throat.

From time to time you have to drink a little water.

But the other thing is that our hands have no conditions for anything.

That pressure of pain, we don't have to force it.

We have to relax.

Just hold on.

It gets slow, then the blood comes and goes.

In terms of the order of the ceremony, Jose indicated to me that the reason he

was in so much pain was because he went first.

Obviously, I'm only going to do this once in my life. Would it be okay if I

first?

That's it.

There's no backing down now.

I just hope I don't live to regret it.

It's my last meal with the family.

And Adriana has made sure we're all well fed for the ceremony.

But it also

feels a bit like a condemned man's final meal.

How do you feel about tomorrow?

Now that I have more anxiety about tomorrow, I'm going to put my hand

in for the first time.

Yes, yes.

And you, sir?

I'm ready.

I think so.

I think so.

Big day tomorrow.

It has involved a lot of mental preparation. It has involved

feel like I'm there.

And it may well be the last time in my life that I ever experienced that

sensation. So I want to experience it. I want to relish in it. I want to revel

in it.

I want to explore it.

And dare I say it, I don't want it to be over.

It's the day of my rite of passage.

And it wouldn't be much of a ceremony without the star of the event.

Chinico is blowing a musical instrument at the front, which is part of the

ceremony in terms of attracting the ants and drawing them out of their home.

The tobacco smoke and rubbing of the tree aggravates the ants and drives them

out of their nest, ready to sting.

Wow, that's quite a lot on the pole.

There's a lot of ants going into the tube.

Huge amount.

Every one of them has a sting.

Considerably worse than a scorpion.

Back in the village, while the boys and I steal our nerves,

Taniko sedates the ants using leaves from the tapabera plant.

It's a skillful art, and Tanika must work fast to weave the anth into the

before they wake up.

This is it. The sedative has worn off and the ants are ready to attack

and anyone that goes near them.

Undeniably, there's this surge of energy that is rising in my body.

It's kind of a mesh of excitement and elation and fear.

I think, actually, in my life, the closest I've come to this is a boxing

You know, somewhere where there's nowhere to hide, somewhere where if you

up, it's going to be very visible to a lot of people.

Once the gloves go on, I'll be entering a world of pain that I've never felt

before.

So the ants are going into the gloves now, being tied up.

And there will be nothing I can do to stop it for over 12 hours.

He roda. Voy a rodar.

I may look composed, but the pain is excruciating.

Somehow,

it's almost making me feel high.

I'm charged with adrenaline and completely focused on the dance.

repetitive steps are giving me something to focus on, but the searing pain is

like nothing I've ever felt before.

i've never experienced anything to this intensity in my physicality literally

like my hands are on fire right in the right in the heart of the fire

If you were to spiral into a panic with this level of pain,

it would be awful.

It would be then unmanageable by definition.

If it's this hard

for me, a grown man, I have no idea how the boys are going to cope.

Now it's all about withstanding the incredible pain.

Tanika warned me there would be intense peaks to this pain.

It feels like I'm hitting the first of these now.

I guess this is now the phase where there's no abatement.

The pain, if anything, it's growing slightly.

Then I think it's getting more painful and it's managing that.

An hour after the ritual and the pain is only increasing.

The decision is made to move us to the village hall so that we can be closely

monitored.

But it's close to as unbearable as I can contemplate right now.

Hats off to these people who do it 20 times.

You can watch it.

It's an ordinary way of facilitating them to turn from young boys into

A little bit of panic that the pain is still as bad as it is.

That I'm just trying to calm.

Within my shell.

Which is kind of the darkest part for me now.

As I put my hand in the gloves first,

and for a longer time, I received more venom.

Now, I'm struggling to cope.

and my team are concerned.

Okay. Okay.

After taking in fluids and being carefully monitored by the doctor, I'm

back on my feet.

But the pain was way more traumatic than I had ever anticipated.

It's kind of changed from burning fire to have been

smashed with a sledgehammer.

In the dance, I just sort of found myself next to another guy whose hands

completely messed up so that we couldn't kind of link arms.

and this quite young girl called Fran came up and linked arms.

There was just something so special about the fact that she'd noticed and

she cared enough.

I think their role is vital, absolutely vital, and it's funny, isn't it, you go

through all that pain, and the thing that makes you close to tears is the

that you've been presented with.

Offered.

Adriana, I mean, literally constantly helping me, feeding me, binding my

hands.

I've never been presented with so much care and love and I would never have got

through that ceremony if it wasn't for you all.

I'll never forget it.

I will remember it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

It is very good that you and Eric are here with us to rescue our culture,

to take it forward.

It is very good that we are speaking here.

I think I came here thinking that this ceremony was all going to be about

proving how tough I was, you know, proving how I could do this on my own.

And it's not true, is it?

It's not true of the ceremony, but it's also not true in general.

You don't have to do it all on your own.

You can let people in.

You can let them help you.

It's beautiful.

It's absolutely beautiful.

I feel a bit butted and bruised this morning, if I'm honest.

That level of pain for that amount of time just almost doesn't feel natural.

I think I've started to get an understanding of how rites of passage

essential to communities because on the face of it, they look like things that

allow young boys to show off, to prove that they're tough, so they can become a

man.

The ceremony last night changed my opinion on that.

It was about the community come together. It's the very soul of the

and it's what pulls everything together.

I've finished.

fighting my whole life, fighting to prove that I'm tough enough to survive

own. And the inherent epiphany of last night seemed to be that you don't have

to.

You can come into a village and seven days later they're calling you part of

their family and giving you so much love and support that you're reduced to

tears. I mean, I don't know of many things in life more powerful than that,

really.

Sounds like a cartoon anvil falling from the sky.