PASOLA-WAR-FESTIVAL Sumba, Nusa Tenggara / Indonesia 3/2006

6 am.. Pieter & me in Wanokaka

tribe-eldests of 2 villages to battle

we are waiting for the seaworm "nyale"

tribal counselors`meeting

this earring is called "mamuli"

the chicken is to donate its liver to the priest

traditional clothes are worn

the horses are decorated well

and so are the riders

..prepared & waiting..

the minor battlefield on the beach..

..for a warm-up before the final pasola

but there`s already hot-blood cooking!

the warm-up has started..

villagers support their riders by screaming

it`s like soccer worldcup !

showtime at the good-harvest-festival

the atmosphere can change real fast!

now re-decoration for the final pasola

this guy got a lot of cheerleaders

wise spectators look for shelter now!

university video "meaning of pasola"

Sumba arts & culture

the pasola is a favourite topic for arts

horses are important & a sign for wealth

A) carvings to keep lime-powder

B) the mamuli & its story

C) ikats are handwoven cloths

D) every ikat tells a story..

E) ..about the culture & history

A) CARVINGS often made from buffalo-horn to keep lime which is needed to chew betelnuts, so many people carry something like this along in their bags. these cases filled with lime are also given to corpses after a burial for their long way to the "marapu" together with other grave goods.

B) the MAMULI is a tribal artefact worn mostly as an earring by both male and female after the marriage OR as an object to contact the "marapu". if as part of the bride-price to "replace the girl`s dark eyes" it represents the female power as reproductive power & sexual energy and is symbolic for the vagina and uterus. see the mamuli worn at the pasola-festival.

C) IKATs from east-sumba show most dramatic motifs of sumba`s history and it takes up to 7 months to produce a big one which shall be about 2 metres long. the ikats are made from all natural material, colors come from tree bark or earth. museum`s as Rotterdam have some collections of interesting pictorials from east-sumba, but most of the attractive ones went down to earth with formerly prominent clan chiefs who took up to 200 ikats with them to the land of the "marapu" when they were buried. on this IKAT we see priests reading from the liver of chickens for example to communicate with the ancestors to see if they are happy with the place where a house shall be built.

D) on this IKAT we see clan-members dancing in their ikats with the skulls of vanquished enemies. just 70 years ago the sumbanese were headhunters until the governement prohibited this tradition and took away the tree-trunks that used to be located in the centre of a village. nowadays headhunting is prohibited by law.

E) this is a SKULL-TREE or so called andung. go to "a traditional village" to see remainings of a skull-tree. heads of conquered enemies were cooked, cleaned and set on top of the tree-trunk to spread power from the centre of a village. there is the pasola below on this ikat too. Neldon, the founder`s daughter of our resort, came to sumba to find out more about her great grandfather who was once beheaded when he was on his way to the market on horseback. his son, her grandfather, was a wise man; he rearranged peace with the village by marrying one of that tribe`s girls, so he got back the head in order to give him an honourable burial- otherwise the spirit might be trapped inbetween the worlds and roam about menacing the living.

> Sumba glances: A traditional village, people & market next page

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