Best of Sumba Annual Traditional Event

Pasola Event

Pasola and many more! Check out the numerous other Traditional Event that Sumba Island has to offer through-out the year.

Rediscovering Sumba

Returning to an emerging travel destination after a gap of a few years can often be a cause for disappointment. With the rush of unfettered development so often destroying the magic that makes a destination special, transforming it from pristine beauty to a tangled polluted mess, I wondered how much Sumba had changed since my first visit to the island. Would the lure of the tourist dollar have changed it forever or would the island’s wild nature and remote location have kept it off the radar?

The Exact Dates of Pasola 2016, Come And Visit Sumba, Indonesia

The island of Sumba, in East Nusatenggara Province, Indonesia will held The Pasola 2016 ritual jousting battles during the months of February and March

Pasola Schedule 2014

Pasola festival 2014 schedule in Sumba Island, Indonesia

feel free to make your arrival schedule to Sumba island, Indonesia.

The Pasola Festival 2014

Trapped in between the Indian and Pacific oceans, the archipelagic country of Indonesia is a home to tropical rainforests, pristine beaches, and people with rich customs and colourful traditions. Indonesia is truly an ideal place for getaway trips and holiday vacations. It caters to travelers wanting to splurge on lush hotels or indulge in stunning beach resorts, and it’s also a great place for those who want to do it the “Lonely Planet” kind of way.

Watu Maladong The Exotic Sumba Beach

Watu Malandong is probably one of the best-kept secrets of Sumba. Not too many Sumbanese themselves are in the know about this extraordinary beach. 

Enchantment of the West Sumba

West Sumba is one of island of Sumba regency in East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia which consists of six sub areas namely: district Loli, district Waikabubak, district Tana Righu, district Wanokaka, district Lamboya and district West Lamboya. The city is located in West Sumba Kabupten Waikabubak.

Where is Sumba located ?

 

The island of Sumba lies towards the eastern end of the Nusa Tenggara chain, which stretches from Bali in the west to Timor in the east. It is relatively small, undeveloped, island about 210 km in length with a population of about 510,000. Sumba lies to the south of Flores and the belt of volcanoes that runs through most of Indonesia. Its soil is based on coral and limestone and is not particularly fertile. The north and east of the island tends to be very dry, while the south and west is much wetter and more fertile. The rainy season lasts from December to March although it tends to be longer in the west and along the south coast. Because of the long dry season in many parts of the island access to water both for drinking and for agriculture is a big problem. Maximum temperatures throughout Sumba are uniformly in the low thirties centigrade although it can be slightly cooler along the central ridge of the low mountains.

About Sumba (Angga Story)

On July 4 to August 13, 2011 I was doing a geological mapping for my undergraduate thesis in Sumba Island. I got to meet new people, new culture, and I also got new experiences that I'd like to share with the world.

Sumba Island is divided into four regencies: Southwest Sumba, West Sumba, Central Sumba, and East Sumba with Waitabula, Waikabubak, Waibakul, and Waingapu as its headquarters, respectively. The funny thing is, each district in each regencies has its own language, thank God we have Bahasa Indonesia! Sumba also has beautiful sceneries almost all the way, such as Laliang Beach, Wanokaka Beach, Roa Beach, and one exclusive cottage at Nihiwatu, mostly occupied by foreigners. Everyday is summer here! Beautiful clouds, you could even see the stars at night (the most romantic scenery!).

Roa Beach

 

Pasola Schedule 2013 Release By Rato

Pasola Attraction

The Pasola Kodi 2013 schedule in Southwest Sumba District - East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia finally released by the Rato (elder) Pasola.

Sumba Island Best Kept Secrets

 A WELL KEPT SECRET

Three decades ago Bali was thrust onto the main stage of tropical island destination travel by surfers seeking the year round “perfect wave”.

Sumba, with its south coast exposure to Indian Ocean swells from the bottom of the world, is emerging as a more affordable and more private alternative. 

Birding Indonesia's Sumba Island

Our group of four Australian and three American birders had a fine four days birding on Indonesia's Sumba Island in the Lesser Sundas. Our group scored 11of the island's 12 endemic species and a good smattering of other Lesser Sunda specialties.

Sumba Island

South of Flores, between Sumbawa and Timor there is an island where the traditional customs are among the best preserved in Nusa Tenggara. This is Sumba, a relatively large island, 11.153 sq. km. with a population that reaches about 600.000, the name of the capital is Waingapu. Much of the island consists of a flat, elevated plateau about 600m above sea level, where the coast is mostly steep and rocky. The island is divided in two regions, west and east, along ethnical and cultural borders.

Hinggi East Sumba Traditional Ikat

Hinggi, a traditional ikat cloth, is one of East Sumba’s foremost material culture. As a component of the East Sumbanese traditional man’s dress, hinggi is visually impressive. Its patterns display attractive motives, decorative and symbolic, that depict religious conviction, power, wealth, status, honor and gender prestige, based on local and foreign sources that comply to traditional standards of quality. Intrinsically it indicates hinggi’s central role in social and ritual context, making it a highly prized item among the East Sumbanese, a matter that has been taken place since ancient days, and the international audience as well.

Throughout its long history, the making of the hinggi came in contact with outside powers i.e. through trade, colonialism, education, and industrialization, including today’s international tourism. From a cloth that functioned to serve the internal culture of its producers, hinggi became a commodity for outsiders that consequently affected its aesthetical aspects. Hinggi’s patterning went through changes towards new forms adjusting to external demand, especially for the past 30 years, resulting in salient differences between hinggis made for sale and those made for internal use. Significant visual changes are that of the introduction of secular designs depicting local cultural themes such as ceremonies and mock battles, conveyed in realistic expressions with smooth lines in a coinciding asymmetric configuration within a narrative set up, replacing traditional spiritual iconography which is relatively stylistic, abstract and stiff, in a diametrical symmetric setting with no expository relation.

New hinggi designs principally sprung up from three main themes i.e. the papanggang, a spectacular burial ceremony carried out for personalities of high social status; the pasola, a ceremonial (in the past real) battle between opposing parties; and the palai ngandi, a folk tale about the groom’s kidnapping of his bride. The three themes are presented in numerous variations, partly in combination with traditional symbolic motives, which now play a minor role in the overall configuration, besides the many more without them. However, the new designs have no role in East Sumba’s tradition. Traditionally designed hinggis continue to exist due to their importance in the East Sumbanese internal culture.

East Sumba Island – Ikats and Textiles Tradition

East Sumba
East Sumba has a different climate, it is more dry and mountainous, and the people here belong to one single ethnical group with one common language. Waingapu, the capital, is located here and is a hub for transport to and from the island. There are some facilities here, but the main attractions are located west and southeast on the island. Some traditional villages are located southeast of Waingapu.

This region is better known for its “ikat” weaving. Traditionally only members of the highest clans and their personal attendants only used for special ceremonies and ikat. During important funerals the corpse was dressed in the finest textiles to make a good appearance in the afterlife, and piles of extra textiles was often sent with the dead as well. Later the Dutch started to export ikat to Europe and Java, where it quickly became very popular. Other products from here are horses and cattle. Horses are still used for transport on Sumba and are a symbol of high status; the large grass fields in the interior of the island are well suited for horse rising.

 

Handicraft:
Aside from ikat you can get others artifacts of primitive art in Sumba: Wood carvings, sculptured stones, lime containers, traditional jewellery (Mamuli,Marengo,Tabelo), basket work, long knifes( Parang), traditional bag(Kalieku), primitive musical instrument, household items and artefact for fishing or hunting.
There are 45 different clans (Suku) in Sumba and each one has their own Marapu and their own invisible spirits.

In a traditional Sumbanese house (Uma), you can find wood or stone carvings which are images of Marapu even human or animal representation.
In such house the are four pillars: one for men, one for Marapu (ancestor ) one for women and the last one for articles of value (spears, long knives, weawings, jewelry) and special plates, special earthen waterjar for Marapu. In some villages, you can still see skull trees dating from the time they were headhunters.

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.

Magic in Sumba

By : Kathie Armstrong Founder of the Quiksilver Foundation

A heartfelt mother-daughter experience outside a village hut on a remote jungle island proves that women of all ages, from many different backgrounds and cultures, can indeed change the world one moment at a time.

Pajura, Boxing Under the Moon Light

Tentena in District Wanokaka Coast, West Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara seem crowded communities. They come from all villages in the district is to follow the ritual Pajura.
There are 14 villages that are usually involved. Indeterminate number of participating boxing. Depends on who wants to play.

Pajura Tradition

Blood, Sweat and Cheers

 When the worm turns, the spears fly and blood flows in the wildest islands of Indonesia, where headhunting is commonplace and sacrifice appeases the gods who send the sea worms for the magical frenzy of sex in the surf that keeps Sumba safe for another year

By Ron Gluckman / Sumba, Indonesia

AFTER MAKING HIS LONG INCISION, THE PRIEST pushes aside the bloody organs and indicates that I should take a closer look. Feathers fill the air, which smells of death. Voodoo curses come to mind as I gag my refusals and peer into the gaping wound.

Ratenggaro and Wainyapu (KODI) - Southwest Sumba

Ratenggaro Village - Southwest Sumba

If you’ve got a sharp eye for funky tribal architecture and you happened to see our recent post on the back roads of Sumba, then you probably noticed that shot of Thomas fording the river backed by a series of unbelievably vertical thatched huts. That was Ratenggaro, perhaps the most stunning village in the entire Kodi tribal region (and perhaps all of Sumba).