The Pakuni are a race of humanoid-like primates indigenous to the Land of the Lost. They appeared in the first two seasons of Land of the Lost as well in variant forms in two reboots.
Bio[]
The Pakuni (singular: Paku) are a primate species similar to the extinct hominid Paranthropus of the Earth's Ice Age. They have edged out foreheads and travel hunched over, often speaking a simplistic language similar in aspects to the aborigine tribes of Earth. They are covered in hair with human-like faces except with flatter noses.
Culture[]
The Pakuni have their own language and go through a ritual every second day of the third moon cycle. The ritual consists of tossing a gourd into the Pylon Express, a Pylon that transports objects from the Earth's dimension to Altrusia. (In the ritual, the Pakuni seem to be worshipping the Pylon as if it is a god.) The door eventually opens to a grocery store, and due to The Law of Conservation of Temporal Momentum, they receive food back from the opening. However, it is not clear if the pylon always provides food or if it has distributed other items in the past. Another ritual the Pakuni practice is the passage to manhood in which the youngest are sent on a quest to retrieve an object. The child Paku will have to steal an egg from a dinosaur, usually Big Alice in The Lost City, but it is not clear if it is always an egg or if it is up to whoever guides the ritual. The only weapons they have is a bag of rocks that momentarily distract the dinosaur and a staff.
The Pakuni are easily startled and somewhat superstitious; unexplained phenomena is generally regarded as magic ("oh-GAHN-za" in the language of the Pakuni). They've also been seen engaging in chants and rituals. They are afraid of most dinosaurs except infants, although Ta and Sa fled the newly-hatched Junior and could not be persuaded of his harmlessness. Despite their usual skittishness, the three Pakuni once routed Spot, causing him to run into a tar pit. The older Pakuni tend to be stubborn and don't learn easily while the younger ones are more curious and trusting. The Pakuni have also been known to be loyal if they are bribed.
Habitat[]
The Pakuni live in a fortified camp in an area of the dense jungle of the Land of the Lost.
Population[]
There are only three known Pakuni. They are Cha-Ka, Ta and Sa. Ta is the oldest and largest male Pakuni and is the authority figure. He is not to be questioned. Sa, the female Pakuni, usually follows Ta without question, although she has been known to be a moderating influence on Ta. Cha-Ka is the smallest and youngest. He is generally bossed around and bullied by Ta. Cha-Ka is far more devoted to the Marshalls than either Ta or Sa.
While the relationship of the three Pakuni is never clearly established, it appears that Ta and Sa are Cha-Ka's older siblings rather than his parents. It is unknown if they are the last of their kind or merely three living in isolation from a larger community. In the official storybook "The Surprise Guests" 12 more Pakuni live somewhere in an area of the jungle not seen in the show. It can be assumed that they are distant family to Ta, Sa, and Cha-Ka, as they use a new word, "Congla" to describe their relationship. However, Will and Jack did once discover Pakuni tracks which disappeared at the face of a cliff. Whether this was Ta and Sa, or some other Pakuni tribe is never discovered. Following the great cataclysm of the Land of the Lost. Ta and Sa are lost, their wherebouts never revealed, leaving Chaka possibly the last of his kind.
2009 Version[]
The Pakuni are depicted as a large hominid tribe living together in a fairly large village; their Pakuni females looking far more humanlike than the males.
Trivia[]
- In the 1970s series, "Pakuni" is usually used to referred to the group in the plural sense while Paku refers to a member of the group; however, this rule is not strictly observed as even Cha-Ka sometimes refers to himself as a Pakuni. At times, even Rick Marshall uses the terms interchangeably.