Description :
Incredible taste in Sumba Island
"Famous for incredible surf and rugged landscapes, Sumba is an unspoilt paradise"
Sumba island is an island in eastern Indonesia, one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, located in the province of East Nusa Tenggara in eastern Indonesia. Part of the East Nusa Tenggara province, and very small islands administered along with it are split into four regencies. There are west sumba-waikabubak, southwest sumba-tambolaka, central sumba-waibakul and east sumba-waingapu. The name Sumba origine from the word "humba" or "hubba", it's mean "original". All Sumba people sometimes call their island "Tana Humba" or "Tanah Asli". Sometimes refers to themselves as "Tau Humba" or "The original people".
Christianity formerly introduced by Dutch missionary. But the original cultural faith is still strongly held by the people. The people of Sumba mostly practice an animist indigenous religion, and the culture is megalithic with large stone tombstones built right next to towering traditional homes decorated with buffalo horns. Marapu, local animistic faith, is still practiced by 40% of the people in this island. Not only in terms of faith, all cultural ceremonies, such as birth, wedding and death are still rooted to the traditions passed by their ancestors.
You’re never far from animals on Sumba. Listen to the pounding of horse’s hooves galloping as their jockeys race for a prize of glory. You’ll hear startling bird calls as you go for an early morning or dusk walk, the cries of rooster in villages and the bleating of curious goats. The click-clack of water buffaloes on asphalted roads will reach your ears before you round a corner to come face to face with a friendly herd making a crossing.
There are many importance ritual in Sumba such as nyale and Pasola. Nyale is green-red-white sea worm. they are marching to the beach not far away from the village to look for nyale hoping taht they would see the colorful worms on the surface of the sea. For local people, the worms appearances symbolize bless and good fortune and bring luck to Sumba peolple this year. If the worms don't appear, so they won't luck.
After nyale, the ritual will continued with Pasola. People will head to the field where Pasola will be held. Those knights of Sumba will appear in Pasola. They with their horses wore their ceremonial attire, especially the knight on nyale horse. When this horse enters the fields, Pasola begins. When it enters the field for the second time, Pasola ends. Pasola has meaning that not only as battle to heal heartache. it's a form of dedication and obedience to ancestors. Pasola is the core of Marapu as a religion, unites two groups involved in the ceremony and all people. it expresses gratitude and happiness after harvesting the crop. This ritual is held between February and March for a day or two day in two or three hours. However, Pasola is not the only thing in Sumba. Other cultures and traditions in this area are also interesting.
About living in here, Sumba still live in traditional house called houses limasan. The main frame of the house is supported by four a metre pillars. the space under the house is used to keep their chicken, dogs pigs, horses and cows. Tomb stone is another attractive phenomenon in Sumba. Made of real hard stone and full of hand-made carving, it can be considered as a form of art. the carving on the stone depict all animals sacrificed in the burial ceremony of the deceased. Some of the stones are very big and presented in various shapes, like the shape of chicken, horse, crocodile, and humans. Usually these tombs are located not far from houses. the strong impression that we get is that the life after life is apart of life right now, and the death and the those who are still alive merges harmoniously.
Moreover, Sumba famous as terrific weaving. You can find a local woman weaving in the porch. While the female is busy with fabrics, the males are working with the cattle for daily consumption. In Sumba, woven textiles are noteworthy. that's famous for its striking warp ikat and supplementary weft textiles. Many old myths related to life and death are expressed through weaving. Some people believe that the threads of spiders’s webs and of woven cloth bind the living to their ancestors.
Warp ikat is made in western and eastern Sumba- each having typical colouring and motifs. West Sumba textiles are generally blue-black, plain white and black and plaid. East Sumba textiles, on the other hand, are much brighter, having glowing red-browns and blues. There are also very large blanket warp ikat textilles called hinggi, with fauna motifs having symbolic meanings. In 2012, Sumba ikat was nominated for the Urgent Safeguarding List of UNESCO.
Last but not least, Sumba has also very exotic nature. The scenery from East Sumba to West Sumba is very exquisite. You can find many savannahs here and there with wild horses wandering freely everywhere. White-sand virgin beaches can also be found in some spots.
So, are you interesting travelling in here ? come and join with us, Indonesia Trip Advisors J
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