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BAJAWA-CENTRAL FLORES

Flores is one of the larger islands in the chain running west to east between Java and Timor. Bajawa is the harbor town for the small highland area along the southern coast where the coffee is grown. The coffee is reputedly of indifferent quality and is not seen much in the specialty trade. Royal Coffee, the importers, are gambling that this lot will change that reputation.

Bejawa is small and quiet town surrounded by mountains in the middle of the Flores island. Near the town, there are many places to see near the town such as villages(still retain their traditions / customs) volcanoes, hot spring, etc.

If you are traveling across the island of Flores you might want to spend a little time in Bajawa.

The villages of the Ngada all have a distinct layout, comprised of opposing rows of bamboo and thatch-roofed huts on either side of a broad courtyard -- the number of these huts depends on the number of clans in the village, and is a set number. In the courtyard are stone altars that serve as meeting places and for sacrificial ceremonies that almost always involve one or more animals (buffalo, pigs) getting their throats cut. Also in this courtyard are sets of totem poles (topped with a thatched conical roof) and miniature huts.

There is one pole and hut for the male and female aspects of their traditions. The huts on either side, that people live in, have a distinct roof that begins like a normal roof and then turns into a steeper, tall roof, which in turn is topped by either a little house (birdhouse sized) or a man holding a spear. The shape of these roofs are due to the fact that each hut has a 'spirit house' room in the middle -- a house in a house -- with a fireplace, bed, decorations, etc. The spirit house has a tiny opening and a very high roof, and this is where the Ngada believe their ancestors live. The spirit houses are very well tended, and also tend to have little shrines with portraits of Jesus near the doorway. By making it a holy place as well, conflicts with the tenets of Christianity can apparently be avoided. There is no doubt that they believe the spirits of their ancestors live in these houses, though. If a particular person was bad, or evil, breaking the various codes of conduct the Ngada have, then it is believed they will forever wander around the village, lost. People claim that sometimes they will see a cat change into a monkey, for example, and this is a spirit wandering around restless because they were denied entry into the peaceful confines of the spirit house.
 

The Ngada are an interesting sort. They are matrilineal and matriarchal, so the power rests in the hands of the women, and all property and inheritance goes through the female lines. In this, they are unique on Flores. Men join the clan of their wives, and can have more than one wife (I don't know what clan they are if different wives are in different clans). Women can marry more than once, but never more than one man at the same time. However, only women can end a marriage in divorce. When they do this, the women keep the kids and all property. There is also a class system involved that dictates who can marry who and what class the children will be, but it is cyclical and complex.

Some of the villages we visited were over 800 years old, and that was measuring from the time they moved from older sites up on hills. We visited one of these sites, or megaliths. Back in the old days they used to make the altars with huge slabs of stones, huge platforms surrounded by vertical slabs of rock as tall as a man.

Some of these were simply too heavy to move to the new locations, so were left at the old site (one presumes that they forgot how they moved them in the first place). The old sites are often still used on special occasions, but in general the 'newer' villages do not have altars that are as big and elaborate. As I said earlier, the number of huts in the village is limited by the number of clans. When the population grows too large, they move to a new place outside of the village. They are always part of that clan, however, and return to the original hut for special festivals, gatherings, ceremonies, and celebrations.