Mountainous unspoilt Flores, a mostly Christian enclave, could very well be the highlight of your visit to Nusatenggara, the southeastern chain. Considered by many one of Indonesia's most beautiful islands, Flores has grandiose volcanoes, high mountain lakes, stretches of savannah, vast coconut plantations and tropical deciduous forests. Only Java and Sumatra have more active volcanoes than Flores.
It is also unquestionably one of Indonesia's most fascinating ethnological regions, the home of intact tribes practising their own brand of animism, as well as religious, cultural and artistic traditions little known outside obscure missionary journals and academic papers written by long-deceased Dutch scholars.
Besides its unsurpassed scenic beauty, the island has a unique, almost bizarre history. In the 16th century, carrying their god with them to be embraced by the heathens, the Portuguese began to include Flores as a stop for repairs and provisions on their way to the Spice Islands, eventually establishing a number of trading bases.
These vigorous and bold southern Europeans arrived in Indonesia a full 100 years before the Dutch and in the 1500s even Dutch merchants had to learn Portuguese in order to trade. Yet for their small numbers and for the brevity of their tenure, the Portuguese had a deep impact.
With approximately one a half million people, Flores is Nusatenggara's most populous island. Life in the interior is simple; most Florinese live by fishing, hunting, and simple agriculture revolving around palm and taro cultivation. The island features an amazing racial mix: Bimanese, Sumbawanese, Makassarese, Bugis, Solorese, Sumbanese, and inevitably Javanese. Flores is in fact a transition point for the Papuan and Malay races.
In the 16th century a Portuguese explorer christened the island Cabo de Flores or "Cape of Flowers," though Flores ironically has few flowers. Starting in 1566 the Portuguese began to build forts to protect their sandalwood trade in the eastern islands. Dominican priests were subsequently sent to the eastern reaches of Flores where they began converting the island's inhabitants to Catholicism.
Today the people of eastern Flores have Portuguese names, practice vintage Portuguese customs and dances, and even look Portuguese. Comprising the largest Catholic community in Indonesia, traditions still closely adhere to their Portuguese Catholic heritage.
One of the best shows all over the island are the Sunday morning church services when families arrive by boat, minibus, bicycle, motorcycle and bemo, all dressed in their Sunday’s finest. Old Portuguese relics from the 1500’s and 1600’s are still preserved in chapels as village heirlooms - vestments, devotional clothes, ivory crucifixes, silver chalices.
Portuguese influences are also still in evidence in the exquisite cloths handmade in the island’s hinterlands. Using locally grown cotton and organic dyes, fantastically ornamented and colored ikat textiles are woven on primitive backstrap looms. Peacocks, red and white roses, European architecture and other motifs can be easily made out in the fabric designs.
LARANTUKA
No other locale in Flores throws into such vivid relief the centuries old Portuguese connection than Larantuka, a picturesque port on the island's far eastern tip with a long-established Eurasian colony. Since Portuguese times the town has been a trading and administrative center for the eastern neck of Flores and islands to the east such as Solor and Alor.
Traces of the Portuguese era are still visible in the old stone and stucco houses; in the hirsute, large-boned, Latin-featured inhabitants, in family names such as Monteiros and da Silva; in the Iberian-style church architecture; and in the town’s place names such as posto (town center) and Jalan Fernandez, the city’s main street running along the waterfront.
An old Portuguese bell hangs outside the Church of Kapala Maria. In the corner of the Peca da Penha is the Portuguese font where generations of Larantukans have been baptized. One kilometers west of town at San Domingo Seminary is a museum that houses religious artifacts and cultural items relating to the history of Larantuka and its strong Portuguese legacy.
With its prayers (some recited in broken Portuguese), ceremonies, Christmas and Good Friday processions, the religious life of Larantuka follows such Portuguese traditions as the Easter celebrations, a time when cruise ship passengers and tourists pay visits to see the religious parades. Participants wear long white cloaks with high pointed hoods, costumes resembling those donned in Portugal during the Middle Ages, while carrying a bier which symbolically contains the body of Jesus.
Never is the old Indonesian proverb "customs come down from the mountains, but religion comes in from the sea” more richly and aptly demonstrated than in this remaining hot and dusty outpost of a bygone European civilization whose reign over these islands lasted a mere 150 years.
E-mail : pakbill2003@yahoo.com
Copyright@2003 PakBill
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