26-04-09 Indonesia

This morning a visit to the traditional villages Wogo, Luba and Bena near to Bajawa (= the place where we stay last and coming night). Over 60,000 Ngada people inhabit the upland Bajawa plateau and the slopes around Gunung (= volcano) Inerie (2.245 m). They were subdued by the Dutch in 1907, and Christian missionaries arrived in about 1920. Older animistic beliefs remain strong, and most Ngada practice a fusion of animism and Christianity.
The most evident symbols of continuing Ngada tradition are the pairs of ngadhu and bhaga. The ngadhu is a parasol-like structure about 3m-high, consisting of a carved wooden pole and thatched ‘roof’, and the bhaga is like a miniature thatched-roof house.
The functions and meanings of bhaga and ngadhu are multiple, but basically they symbolize the continuing presence of ancestors. The ngadhu is ‘male’ and the bhaga is ‘female’, and each pair is associated with a particular family group within a village. Some are said to have been built to commemorate people killed in long-past battles over land disputes, and they may be more than 100 years old.
In addition to ngadhu, bhaga and the ancestor worship that goes with them, agricultural fertility rites continue (sometimes involving gory buffalo sacrifices), as well as ceremonies marking birth, marriage, death and house building.

We will tell something more about Bena, one of the most traditional Ngada villages. Its stone monuments are a protected site. Houses with high thatched roofs line up in 2 rows on a ridge, the space between them filled with fine ngadhu, bhaga (which are smeared with blood after sacrifices). Most houses have male or female figurines on their roofs, while doorways are decorated with buffalo horns and jawbones – a sign of the family’s prosperity.

Particularly in the village Luba it was confusing to see these animist expressions together with Christian tombs in the middle to the village. The female villagers were selling Ikat (cloth in which the pattern is produced by dyeing the individual threads before weaving), but we didn’t see them weaving, so we wonder if this was really produced in the village itself.
One sees a lot of elder people with broken, missing and corroded teeth because of excessive use of betel nut. Also lots of elder people suffering of cataract (in Dutch ‘grauwe staar’).

Talking with our guide we learnt that we paid an entrance fee of 10.000 rupiahs = Eur 0,60 per person for each village. 80 or 90 % of this fee is going to the chief of the village, who uses this money for the education and healthcare of the villagers. 20 or 10 % has to be given to a tourist service and the tour guide is not sure if this money is getting anywhere else than the pockets of a civil servant….
Surprising that some villagers asked us money for having taken their picture …
We met quite some young villagers able to speak English and our local guide was born himself in such a traditional village, so indeed at least some of the villagers are educated.

After lunch we had the afternoon for ourselves (finally!!!) and we both walked around in Bajawa to meet lots of friendly people. Communication in English is not always possible, but one does not need a lot of words to get some contact, make jokes with the children, take some pictures (the digital cameras have the big advantage that one can show directly the result), give some balloons, etc. Arjan played some table tennis with locals and I talked quite some time with an Indonesian maid serving a family and talking an amazing good English. Difficult to ask her all the questions I would like to since the daughter in law of the ‘master’ was seated next to her… I was surprised to learn that she returns only once a year to her parental home, which was not even 100 km away.
Some villagers have very nice gardens with all kind of flowers blooming.
Ingrid photographed her first fire engine, an old, dusty, apparently long time ago used, Nissan! So far I have only seen 1 fire plug at Sanur at Bali and I am afraid that I have to wait till our return at Bali to see a 2nd one (I hope so, because I didn’t take any picture ..).

Something we forgot to tell earlier: 2 days ago (24-04-09) during our snorkelling day in National Parc Pulau Tujuhbelas on the way to that island, we passed the island Pulau Ontoloe, which has a massive colony of flying foxes (in Dutch, we call them ‘flying dogs’), fruit bats, quite impressive if they fly around.
Yesterday (25-04-09), leaving Riung, we paid a short visit to Chris, the local guide during our snorkelling day. It is heart breaking to see how simple these people still have to live …..

Tomorrow off for a new town village at the Flores island, according to Lonely Planet (edition November 2007) having no internet connections.

A&I Bajawa 26-04-09 nice sunny day, not too hot