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Jakarta Post

The charms of Flores’ traditional houses

Conservation: Traditional houses in the hamlet of Wae Rebo in Manggarai regency, East Nusa Tenggara, undergo restoration to preserve their original shape

Markus Makur (The Jakarta Post)
Ruteng, East nusa tenggara
Sat, April 2, 2016 Published on Apr. 2, 2016 Published on 2016-04-02T09:30:38+07:00

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span class="caption">Conservation: Traditional houses in the hamlet of Wae Rebo in Manggarai regency, East Nusa Tenggara, undergo restoration to preserve their original shape. (JP/Markus Makur)

The structures and cultural values behind traditional homes in West Flores are magnets that attract visitors, especially domestic and foreign architects and anthropologists, who like to visit the island of Flores, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) to inspect the houses.

The traditional homes are locally called mbaru niang, or mbaru gendang.

One of the places often visited is the Wae Rebo customary hamlet. The hamlet received a UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation in 2012. The hamlet is located in Satar Mese district, West Manggarai regency.

“West Flores is famous for the Wae Rebo traditional house. Architects and anthropologists visit the village to observe the unique mbaru niang customary houses,” Fransiskus Mudir, the head of the Wae Rebo Cultural Heritage Council, said.

Data shows that foreign and domestic tourists to Wae Rebo in 2014 reached 3,000 people. Last year, 2,700 tourists visited the place from January to September.

“Some of the architects go to see the Wae Rebo traditional houses to study their distinctiveness, and some are involved in restoration and conservation projects,” he said.

NTT anthropologist Inosensius Sutam said mbaru came from the local word mbau (room) and ru (alone), and meant a shelter belonging to or built by humans. Earlier, people in NTT lived in natural environments such as mbau watu/liang (caves) and mbau haju (trees).

The shape of a house for most Manggarai people, Sutam said, was straight and elongated, while the mbaru niang, their traditional homes, had cone shapes.

“For Manggarai people, a traditional house is the mother to all houses and also symbolizes the presence of communal ancestry. A traditional house is also a parent to all homes owned by the people of Manggarai in a village,” Sutam said.

He added that regency offices in three regencies were all in the form of traditional houses.

Kanisius Teobaldus Deky, a lecturer in culture from the Santo Paulus Teachers’ Training Academy, said traditional houses were part of the cultural expression of the Manggarai people who maintained a social system.

A traditional house usually represents six to eight family clans, and in this way, social life in Wae Rebo begins inside the mbaru niang.

Apart from being used as a place for people to socialize, it is also a place where community members go to resolve social conflicts.

Furthermore, the homes are places where issues of culture, custom, local economics and even politics are discussed by all community members.

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 offers the world a number of popular tourist destinations, including the Kelimutu Lakes in Ende regency and the Komodo National Park in West Manggarai regency.

Despite an impressive artistic and cultural heritage, many customary hamlets or villages in NTT have struggled to gain recognition, mainly because of limited transportation access, a lack of promotion and poor infrastructure.

“I hope the community and government continue to pay attention to the traditional houses in a sustainable manner. They are a provincial asset that must be preserved,” said Kanisius.

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