Sumba Part 2: Ratenggaro Village & the Pasola Festival

Ratenggaro Village as seen from the beach

One of the things that Sumba is known for is the Pasola festival. It is celebrated each year in February or March, but the exact date isn’t set until about a month before. This year we got lucky that after we had already planned our trip, the festival was scheduled for the same week. We arrived early on the morning of the festival, so we first visited Ratenggaro traditional village, located just outside the festival grounds.

Entrance to Ratenggaro village. The houses have the tallest roofs in Sumba.

The village was bustling with people preparing sacrifices for the festival. It looked like in addition to the regular residents there were people from visiting villages there cooking outside.

A tiny solar panel on one of the traditional homes.

People cooking outside in Ratenggaro village. This man is wearing a traditional sarong and head scarf and carries one of the large knives common here.

Outdoor kitchen with a beach view. These folks were cooking chicken, but nearby people had killed a dog and were butchering it. Apparently dog is a common meat in this part of Indonesia, like in Sumatra.

A man who appeared to be an important person in the village allowed us to enter his house. It was packed with women and children cooking and enjoying the relatively cooler temperatures inside.

The tombs outside the village’s traditional houses.

The kitchen area of a house in Ratenggaro village. Women were busily preparing food while looking after young children.

A chicken had been sacrificed as part of the festival celebration and its feathers saved. We were told these traditional mats are woven from pandan leaves.

Like in the house at Prai Ijing, this house had pig jawbones lined up along the ceiling.

When we finished with the village tour it still wasn’t time for the festival to start, so we decided to check out the nearby beach. No swimming there, however, as crocodiles can be found in the water.

Panorama of the river and beach below Ratenggaro village.

No swimming, despite the heat! This sign at the beach reads “beware of crocodile prone areas”.

Hanging out at the beach with our student guide, Dion. He was 18, and turned 19 just two days later. He is from a nearby area, so his family came to the festival and we got to meet his parents and younger brother later that day.

Finally, it was time for the Pasola festival to start. We left the beach and walked the short distance to the festival grounds. It was already packed with spectators and riders alike. Our guide Dion found us a spot in the crowd and we settled in to watch as the horsemen from two villages rode at each other hurling spears.

Spectators surrounding the Pasola festival grounds.

Men from the village waiting to take a turn riding out to the other village’s side of the field. You can see that the spears don’t have much of a point so that people don’t get too injured if one hits them.

Men from two villages confront each other on the field.

This man is attempting to hide from the spear that’s about to be thrown.

Sometimes the men just rode past the other team, waving spears and calling for others to come out. The men only threw spears at other armed men who were also riding out on the field, never at the crowd or at horsemen at the side of the field.

The man in the white headdress was one of the most active riders from our side. His spear hit someone several times while we were watching, and the celebration from the crowd was gleeful each time.

This rider has an elaborate headdress, in addition to his horse’s decoration. There was a lot of variation in the amount of decorations worn by horses and men.

The skill with which these men were able to ride and stay on their horses was amazing. Some were riding totally bareback, but even cushions like these were not attached to the horses in any way.

The festival was exciting, but the heat was deadly. At one point, I started to feel dizzy and decided it was time to find somewhere to sit down. Dion had given us umbrellas, so I put it up for some shade and had a soda to drink, which fixed me right up. Thanks to my umbrella, I also made some friends! It wasn’t only foreigners who were having trouble with the heat. Anytime we used the umbrellas, strangers would sidle in to share their shade. While I was sitting down along the sidelines, first one women and then her friend joined me in the shade. When they started taking selfies with me, I thought it was time to take my own! Overall, we felt lucky to have gotten to experience the Pasola festival, a one-of-a-kind event, and to see so much of Sumba.