It is the most well-known of a number of local kastom (custom) villages whose people aspire to retain a traditional lifestyle with minimal Western influences.

Unlike some other kastom villages, which remain strictly closed off to foreigners, Bunlap has profited extensively from tourism in recent years.

The Bunlap people perform an ancient ritual called the Gol (Bislama nanggol) or "land diving", in which men tie vines to their ankles and jump headfirst from platforms jutting out from a tower.

The Gol legend says that in the village Bunlap a man called Tamalie had a quarrel with his wife and she ran away and climbed a banyan tree, where she wrapped her ankles with liana vines.

On the interior slopes of the island, villagers grow taro, a widely cultivated tropical Asian plant (Colocasia esculenta) having broad peltate leaves and a large starchy edible tuber.

The men celebrate after the circumcising ceremony by eating a special pie made of yam and coconut and baking it on hot stones.

Anthropologists Margaret Jolly and Murray Garde have both spent time in Bunlap and acquired knowledge of its language.