Watching Pasola In Sumba February and March 2009
State/Province : SUMBA TOURS
Pasola Horseback Fighting Festival
Pasola is the name of a war game tournament played by two groups of selected Sumbanese men. They riding their decorated selected horses fling wooden spears at each other. (The government allows the ritual game to take place, but the spears much the blunt). Pasola is a traditional ceremony of the Sumbanese held in the way of uniquely and sympathically traditional norms, every year in February and March and has become the focus of attention of the people since it is a part of the sacred homoge to the Marapu.
Marapu " The Leader Man "
Pasola is, above all, the most exciting ritual of Sumba-where else in the world can you see colorful horsemen trying to kill each other? Where else in the world can you see the shedding of blood, the lost of and eye, and occasional death coloring the event and being the part of the game?. The ceremony occurs during February in Lamboya and Kodi and during March in Gaura and Wanukaka. The main activity starts several days after the full-moon and coincide with the yearly arrival to the shore of strange, and multihued sea worms - nyale. The precise date of the event decided by Rato during the wula podu (the month of pasola the fasting month).
Pasola Story by Mr. Ron Gluckman
AFTER MAKING HIS LONG INCISION, THE PRIEST pushes aside the bloody organs and indicates that I should take a closer look. Feathers fill the air, which smells of death. Voodoo curses come to mind as I gag my refusals and peer into the gaping wound.
Still gripping his bloody knife, the priest screams, and I leap away. My guide chuckles, then translates the priest's incantation. "He says the signs are good. Now the festival begins."
It was only much later, after marching in the moonlight to the sea and splashing in the waves looking for worms, after watching warriors on horseback fight and fall in a rain of bamboo spears, and after the sacrifice of still more chickens and water buffalo, that I gained any insight into what the priest saw in the entrails.
By then, the battles were over and the warriors were licking their wounds. Pasola was proclaimed a big success. Sufficient blood had been spilled to certify another bumper rice harvest. Sumba had been saved.Such is the cycle of life upon Sumba, where the Pasola fighting festival rages across wild lands that have never been tamed. Sandalwood Island is what the Dutch called Sumba, a small Indonesian isle on the Australian side of Flores and Sumbawa. Sumba supplied slaves - trophies of tribal warfare - as well as wood, but rebuked all attempts at colonization. The Dutch did not manage a presence on the island until the 20th Century.
War is the heart and soul of Sumba. Pasola is a huge jousting free-for-all that takes its name from sola, the word for spear. Pasola is preceded by pajura, boxing contests, while some vilages host competitions in which contestants exchange verbal abuse for hours.Nobody really knows when Pasola started, or exactly when it will take place each year.
Tour Itenary :
:: B=Breakfast :: L=Lunch :: D=Dinner ::
| :: TOUR PACKAGE RATE :: |
| USD per-person with minimum 2 persons |
| USD for Single Traveler |
| Group 4 or more will get special rate |
