The Mursi or Mun as they refer to themselves are a Nilotic pastoralist Ethnic group in Ethiopia. They mainly reside in the Debub Omo Zone of the Southern Nation; nationalities close to the border with South Sudan. According to the 2007 national census, there are 11,500 Mursi, 848 of whom live in urban areas; of the total number, 92.25% live in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region (SNNPR).
Surrounded by mountains between the Omo River and its tributary, the Mago, home of the Mursi is one of the most isolated regions of the country. Their neighbors include the Aari, Banna, Bodi, Karo, Kwegu, Nyangatom, and the Suri. The Ethiopian government grouped them with Me’en and Suri under the name Surma.
They speak Mursi language as their mother-tongue and its been classified as Surmic which is a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. The Mursi believe in a greater force which they call Tumwi. This is usually located in the Sky; although sometimes Tumwi manifests itself as a thing of the sky (ahi a tumwin), such as a rainbow or a bird. 
Just like other African traditions, the Mursi undergo various rites of passage into adulthood. The lip plates are a well known aspect of the Mursi and Surma, the lower lip is slit open as early as puberty and the plate, called a dhebi, is inserted. The girl must not only make, bake and paint the dhebi, but swap it for a new one over the years, so that the mouth area grows with it while the men go into ceremonious battle, they are armed only with a two-meter long wooden stick called a douga. Dwelling with men from other villages, to achieve the right appearance, they give themselves decorative scars which also tell stories of battle fought; the men also undergo body painting as a form of ritual. The Mursi people believe becoming a living work of art is an important aspect of their development.
