Simple beauty: Traditional houses line up in the Tololela customary hamlet in Ngada regency, East Nusa Tenggara. Despite their high tourist potential, many customary hamlets or villages in the province have been struggling to gain attention, mainly due to lack of transportation access. (JP/Djemi Amnifu)

Offering an array of natural beauty and unique cultural experiences, the Wae Rebo customary hamlet in Manggarai regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), has managed to draw the attention of tourists visiting the country'€™s southernmost province.

Located at the hilly Satar Lenda subdistrict in Satar Mese district, Wae Rebo can only be reached by walking nine kilometers from the Denge subdistrict, the closest inhabited area to the hamlet.

It takes around four hours for visitors to reach the hamlet, situated at a height of 1,200 meters above the sea level, with a normal pace. They, however, will immediately forget their fatigue upon reaching the area, which welcomes newcomers with breezy air and wisps of mist.

Customary Wae Rebo leader Alexander Ngadus said the life of the local residents was centered in seven traditional houses in the hamlet, locally known as Niang Mbaru.

The cone-shaped houses, the roofs of which are made of massive layers of ijuk (palm fiber), had been built by the hamlet'€™s early settlers and collectively maintained by local residents for centuries, Alexander added.

'€œA traditional house is inhabited by six to eight families. Thus, the social life in Wae Rebo begins inside the Niang Mbaru,'€ Alexander told The Jakarta Post during a recent visit to the hamlet.

Tourists visiting Wae Rebo are accommodated in a traditional house located in the center of the hamlet.

However, before entering the house visitors must follow a welcoming ritual called Pa'€™u Wae Lu'€™u to ask for blessings from the hamlet'€™s ancestors.

'€œBefore the ritual is completed, visitors are not allowed to do anything else, including taking pictures,'€ Alexander said.

Wae Rebo Cultural Preservation Institute (LPBW) secretary Yosef Katup said almost all residents in the hamlet worked as farmers who grew various products, including coffee, cloves and nutmeg.

The popularity of the hamlet, he said, had increased in recent years after it received a UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation in 2012 in recognition of the local community'€™s efforts to restore and conserve the Mbaru Niang houses.

'€œThe hamlet has been seeing an increasing number of visitors after receiving the award. From January to September alone, there were 2,975 people who visited Wae Rebo,'€ he said.

To help improve local residents'€™ capacity to develop the area'€™s tourism potential, Yoseph said the hamlet had since 2013 received assistance from the Jakarta-based Indonesian Ecotourism Network (Indecon) Foundation in the form of skills and management training.

'€œLocal residents, for example, learned how to arrange village tours, during which visitors can be involved in many activities, like harvesting coffee beans and making pottery,'€ he said.

Located in the western part of Flores Island, one of the largest islands in NTT, Manggarai is home to about 300,000 people. The regency is situated around 400 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital of Kupang, which is located on Timor Island.

Known as one of the country'€™s poorest regions, NTT is offering a number of popular tourist destinations, including the Kelimutu Lakes in Ende regency and the Komodo National Park in West Manggarai regency.

Despite the wide range of their art and cultural heritage, many customary hamlets or villages in NTT have been struggling to gain recognition, mainly because of limited transportation access and promotion efforts.

To help develop the province'€™s ecotourism potential, Indecon recently invited a group of journalists and travel agents from the country'€™s major cities to visit a number of customary hamlets and villages in NTT, including Tololela and Gurusina in Ngada, Liang Ndara in West Manggarai and Wae Rebo.

'€œThe tourism activities in the areas are independently managed by their respective indigenous community institutions. Travel agents can communicate directly with them [to arrange trips],'€ Indecon director Ary Suhandi said.

Popular

Indonesia sends first direct shipment of frozen durian to China

MR. D.I.Y Indonesia marks 1,200th store opening as the fastest expanding retailer

Lots of clicks, few arrivals as ‘New Bali’ dream hits snag