The INDONESIAN island of FLORES
Mount Kelimutu
Flores island is one of the island on East Nusa Tenggara province. It stretches between the east longitudes of 118? and 125?, and between the latitudes of 8? and 11? south. The east Nusa Tenggara cover the area? 49,880 sq km and it has a population of 3,500,000.?? Flores becomes one of the biggest island on the territory of East Nusa Tenggara or NTT which comprises 566 islands, including many smaller islands which are not in-habitated and unnamed. The three main islands are Flores, Sumba and Timor from which comes the term ‘Flobamor’, which has been familiar as one of the names of NTT.
Flores is the volcanic island and has unique and spectacular attractions. Mount Kelimutu has become a favourite destination, with its three crater lakes of different colours. Sumba is the island famous for its arts, handicrafts, particularly the textile weaving, and cultural assets. Timor, being the principal island with Kupang as its capital, serves as the centre of government and economic activities.
The other permanently inhabitated islands are Lembata, Adonara, Solor, Palue, Nules, Komodo, Rinca, Sumba, Sabu, Raijua, Rote, Semau, Alor and Pantar.
Roughly 57 percent of the territory is hilly with mountains rising to 2427m (Gunung Mutis) in Timor and 1792m (G. Kelimutu) in Flores. The mountains of East Nusa Tenggara are not as high as in West Nusa Tenggara where the highest mountain of all of Nusa Tenggara is G. Rinjani in Lombok (3726m).
Geologically, East Nusa Tenggara can be regarded as being divided into two zones:
- a volcanic inner curve formed by the islands of Rinca, Komodo, Flores, Alor, Pantar, Adonara, Lembata and Solor, which have fertile soils; and
- an outer curve of limestone and other rock formations, made up up of Sumba, Sabu, Rote, Semau and Timor.
Village of Mokantarak
Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, an island arc with an estimated area of 14,300 km? extending east from the Java island of Indonesia. The population is estimated to be around 1.5 million, and the largest town is Maumere.? Flores is located east of Sumbawa and Komodo and west of Lembata and the Alor Archipelago. To the southeast is Timor. To the south, across the Sumba strait, is Sumba and to the north, beyond the Flores Sea, is Sulawesi.
Welcome Ceremony
On December 12, 1992, an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale occurred, killing 2,500 people near the island of Flores.
There are many languages spoken on the island of Flores, all of them belonging to the Austronesian family. In the centre of the island in the districts of Ngada, Nagekeo, and Ende there is what is variously called the Central Flores Dialect Chain or the Central Flores Linkage. Within this area there are slight linguistic differences in almost every village. At least six separate languages are identifiable. These are from west to east: Ngadha, Nage, Keo, Ende, Lio and Palu’e, which is spoken on the island with the same name of the north coast of Flores. Locals would probably also add So’a and Bajawa to this list, which anthropologists have labeled dialects of Ngadha.
Dancing
Portuguese traders and missionaries came to Flores in the 16th century, mainly to Larantuka and Sikka. Their influence is still discernible in Sikka’s language and culture. In fact, the island’s name, Flores, means “flowers” in Portuguese.
Note ikat weave skirts
Flores is almost entirely Roman Catholic and represents one of the “religious borders” created by the Catholic expansion in the Pacific and the spread of Islam from the west across Indonesia. In other places in Indonesia, such as in the Malukus and Sulawesi, the divide is more rigid and has been the source of bloody sectarian clashes.
CULTURE
- PEOPLE ? Hoga Sara
- GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION
province of Nusa Tenggara Timur, Flores island, regency Ngada, district Golewa, administrative village Sara Sedu - LOCAL CONDITIONS
subsistence, traditional villages (nua) and clans (woe), great houses (sa?o meze) composition of clans; important ritual objects that serve as symbols of group identity (sa?o meze, bhaga, madhu, peo, ture, nabe) ; madhu/peo ? cosmological significance, social structure, rights to land - RELIGION
traditional belief system and ritual practices, indigenized form of Catholicism; important rituals include: rituals of installment and renewal of symbols of group identity, rituals of the annual agricultural calendar, life-cycle rites
Creating the Ancestors through ritual and sacrifice:
- Ancestors of the inside, specific forms of nitu: named, mainly benevolent and protective ensuring fertility, well-being, and continuity of group through granting life-generative potential
ebu nusi / ebu kajo
believed to be embodied in the various objects symbolizing group identity - Ancestors of the outside, generalized ancestors, nitu: inhabit invisible villages in the forest jungle; specifically in lake/pond/river/stream beds (i.e. water sources), large stones and boulders, large trees of the Ficus type ? banyan trees and especially hebu (Cassia fistula); these are mainly potentially malevolent if their place of habitation is breached by improper human behavior but benevolent when approached in the context of ritual; beneath the earth ? particularly as guardians of the agricultural garden and of the village;
- Both types of ancestors can be a source of life-generative potential; will assume similar forms?human, snake, buffalo, wild pig
- Beliefs about human soul and village of the dead: nature of the soul (mae), ritual (regha mae) of chasing out the soul of deceased from human spaces of the inside to uninhabited spaces of the outside, representations of the village of the ancestors (nua nitu), the gate to the village at the roots of the tamarind tree (kabu nage)
- Ancestors of the outside are periodically reclaimed and transformed into specific ancestors of the inside through rituals of renewal and installation of symbolic objects of group identity
- Ritual extraction and transport of large stones for the construction of ture and nabe; ritual extraction and transport of hebu tree for madhu / peo, bhaga, sa?o meze
- During this process in ritual chant and song instruct the spirit to stay within stones/trees as if it was their soul
- Dangerous time for humans until ritual installation in village (ancestoral spirit could abduct the human soul and cause illness and death; or assume form of ritual specialist and mate with his wife killing her)
- During the ritual installation must smear object with sacrificial blood and while doing so must name with an ancestral name; smearing is said to seal in the ancestral spirit, to convert its nature — potential harm into continuous generative potential, to set up boundary between humans and deceased (categories of living and dead should not mix unless sanctioned by ritual)
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Visit the beautiful island of Flores in the Azores, where to find pure nature, spectacular places by the sea, where you can eat best regional food. Come visit the island of Flores