The horsemen of Sumba

A horseman trots happily after defeating his opponents at the Pasola Festival in Kodi, Southwest Sumba.

Every year, from February to March, hundreds of horsemen from all over Sumba Island gather at a field, to reenact a traditional battle known as pasola. Armed with blunt lances, teams joust against each other, in an age-old ritual that takes place just before the harvest. One inviolable tradition strongly held by the fighting horsemen is that their rivalry ends in the 'battlefield' and not beyond. It is an exciting and colorful tradition that over the years has attracted visitors from other parts of Indonesia and overseas. Tempo contributor Seto Wardhana filed the following report from Sumba.

It was dawn but still dark when horsemen, wearing kalambo (woven poncho-like wraps traditionally worn by Sumba men) quietly rode into Mbukabani hamlet in Kodi district, West Sumba. But their horses neighed loudly, breaking the silence. They hurried to a thatched-roof house on stilts at the entrance of the village, where the communal elders live. They were greeted by 60-year-old Rangga Mete, a rato the Sumba word for communal elder who was fastening wuluhoro, an ornament, over his horse.

They were preparing to take part in the pasola, an annual ritual organized to welcome the new year of Marapu, based on the local animistic belief. "The Marapu New Year celebration happens to be close to the early planting season," said Martinus Leonardo Wunggo, 26, a staff of the West Sumba Tourism Office, to Tempo. This year, pasola fell on February 16 in Kodi.

The pasola is a ritual which recreates a war, in the Sumba tradition. Two groups of horsemen, comprising dozens, sometimes even hundreds of men, throw lances of 1 to 2 meters in length at each other. The tips of the lances are blunted to prevent injuries. 

At about 7am, rato elders conducted a nyale ritual as a prerequisite to the pasola event. "The elders search for nyale (sea worms), which will determine the success of harvests in the coming season," said Gidion Gh. Panna, 34, appointed groundsman by the Tourism Office to look after the site. Locals believe the worms can show how the next season's harvests will go. The more worms that are found and the cleaner the shore, the bigger the harvests will be. "If the sea is dirty, the coming harvests will be poor. If no nyale can be found it means famine will prevail," Gidion explained.

Following the nyale ceremony, six horses hold a preliminary round of pasola on the coast for about an hour. Rato elders sit and watch the rituals thoroughly. When a lot more horsemen joined the fray, Rangga Mete signaled that the game be stopped. Then they headed for the Rara Winyo fields, where the celebration has been held for years.

By this time, the sun was scorching but thousands of spectators were packed on roadsides like sardines. They came from all over Sumba, in addition to tourists from other parts of Indonesia and other countries. The teams of horsemen galloped around the field, as if to warm up. The 'enemy' that day came from Tossi hamlet. The two teams separated on the sides of the field, plotting their war strategies. They each held five to six lances. After a while, a small truck appeared, carrying more supplies of spears.
They began in earnest when two rato elders crossed the field on horseback. Thereafter, the team of horsemen from both sides would take turns in attacking. They threw lances at their opponents. Others waited for their turn, mustering courage to rush into the field.

Tension hung over the viewers. They held their collective breath as a rider managed to ward off a spear hurled at him. They also applauded as another fighter succeeded in evading a lance attack by flinging himself to the side of the horse, much like the American Apache Indian, who probably does such tricks today in rodeos or cowboys-and-Indians movies.

Injuries are common in the fight. At the time, on one side of the field a rider fell down after a spear had struck his horse in the head. Several young men ran to him. An ambulance standing by promptly drove into the field. However, as he was definitely found without any serious injuries, he was only carried to the side of the arena and not to the nearby hospital.

The injured horseman was greeted by a rato, waiting to wipe his face and console him. According to local tradition, all injuries and illnesses can be healed by the elders with water that they have prayed and blessed. "Serious lance wounds can recover within four days after being wiped with water from an earthen jar. But if the injuries are light, the horsemen won't tell, because they're too embarrassed," explained Gidion.

The pasola ritual ended at 3pm, after five to six hours of 'battle.' This year, one complicated problem arose: the fans and supporters of the fighting horsemen decided they wanted to fight one another. So, the rato elders halted the event by again crossing the field on horseback. Then they closed the ritual by reading the fortune of coming harvests from a liver of a chicken. They also gave offerings to the spirits of ancestors to wind up the ritual.

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The word 'pasola' comes from sola or hola, meaning a lance. The pa affixed to it (pa-sola, pa-hola) indicates this ritual is a war game of lances by men on horseback. A pasola normally takes place in February or March, depending on the region. For instance, in February a pasola is held in Kodi district while in March it usually takes place in Wanokaka, Southwest Sumba, and in Gaura, West Sumba.

The participants in this ritual hold on to one inviolable principle. "Whatever happens, the pasola must never go beyond this field. No grudges are allowed. Even if somebody dies, there will be no prosecution and no police investigation," Gidion made it clear.

In addition, they are forbidden to hurl lances at those turning their backs on their opponents. "In the war game lances must not be thrown at fighters who are retreating," Gidion noted. Sadly, fighting between participants or spectators is frequently inevitable. "Such fighting has happened only in the last seven to eight years," said Martin. He thinks it may be because the younger generation don't respect the traditional rituals as much as their elders.

No special requirements apply to pasola riders. Both adults and youngsters are allowed to participate, as long as they are brave enough. Usually, the family whose member plans to join the event will slaughter a chicken, as a form of offering and prayer for his safety. A rato will later read the horseman's chances in the intestines and liver of the chicken. If they look bad, the horseman may cancel his plan to take part in the ritual.

The meaning of pasola differs from one area to another though the ritual is about the same. In Kodi, the pasola is celebrated to mark the Marapu New Year. People in Lamboya district, Southwest Sumba, hold pasola as a planting season ritual to ensure they have an abundant harvest.

Likewise, the myth of pasola varies from region to region. In Lamboya and Wanokaka, people believe that the ritual began when a man from the area of Wanokaka, Umbu Dulla, was thought to have died at sea. Rabbu Kabba, his wife, thinking that her spouse had died, married a youth from Kodi named Teda Gaiparona. When everyone realized her husband was still alive, Rabbu asked Teda to pay belis (compensation) to the family of Umbu Dulla. When all conditions were met, the elders of both villages held a pasola to mark the incident.

In Kodi the legend is different. Gidion tells the story of a fight between two brothers, Mbukabani and his younger brother Tosi, to win the heart of a woman. The competition was won by Mbukabani. Then they celebrated it by organizing a pasola. "The schedule is determined by Mbukabani and followed by its surrounding villages," said Gidion.

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Pasola is not only awaited by the people of Sumba, but by a large number of local and foreign tourists, who throng the grass fields and arena to watch this ritual. Officially, pasola is slated for February or March, but tourists find it difficult to pin down the exact date. Only rato elders can determine it.

This uncertain schedule has often prompted tourists to cancel their plans to visit Sumba. Apart from the quite high cost, transportation to the island is relatively difficult. There are no direct flights from major cities in Indonesia, they must all go through Kupang or Denpasar. Traveling by land and sea takes several days to reach their destination.

However, with Pasola being increasingly well-known, in 2000 rato elders reached an agreement with the government not to announce Pasola rituals at the last minute, but through a well-organized timetable. They decided to combine dates according to the traditional Marapu calendar, with the Gregorian calendar of the Tourism Office. "Our tradition and customs have been compromised to meet the tourists' demand. It aims to introduce Sumba and Indonesia to the world, while preserving the culture," said Martin.

With recent developments, the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Tourism Office can now plan a more organized visitors' schedule. This year it set a target of 750,000 tourist arrivals to watch the major event as one of the region's attractions. Additional infrastructure has been built for the comfort of visitors, like permanent toilets and seating areas. "With the seating areas, people can watch the event more comfortably, protected from the sun," Paulus Yo, a Lamboya resident living in Kabu Karudi hamlet, told Tempo.

In Southwest Sumba regency, newly established in 2007, most of the civil servants are still young and social-media literate. They frequently post pasola activities on their blogs, Twitter and Facebook networks. Unfortunately, in Tempo's view, most visitors are only familiar with the pasola and are ignorant of other interesting, traditional elements of Sumba.

Not many people are aware, for instance, that prior to the pasola rituals, there are other interesting ceremonies. "Most of them only know about the pasola," Martin lamented. At present, the Sumba and provincial administrations are striving to benefit from the popularity of pasola to boost the economy of local people though this effort has not yet been very productive.

According to Martin, the Tourism Office is cooperating with the Cooperatives Office to motivate Sumba's weavers so their woven products can be sold as souvenirs during the pasola week. Martin hopes Sumba Island will be famous not just for its pasola, but also for its other cultural features, particularly its creative industry and its beautiful natural environment: vast expanses of grassland where wild horses roam, beyond Sumba's annual pasola festival.