Visiting Tarung Village in Sumba

Little Explorer in Tarung Village

Visiting Tarung Village in Sumba is another memorable experience that I shared with my two year old baby girl, Sienna. The village has its own charm. It’s one of the traditional villages in Sumba that still maintains the tradition, rituals, and culture for hundreds of years.

The houses are far from the type of house we live nowadays. The roof is thatched roof, the walls and floors are made of wood, all designed with the same style of ‘stage’ houses. How about the interior? All houses have pretty much the same design, not only from the outer look, but also the interior. Every house has only one or two bedrooms – for the parents and the daughters, a kitchen in the middle of the house, and a long bench that they use for many purposes: bed for the boys, dining room, and a space to hold traditional rituals. There’s not much light in the house, it’s quite dark. The sun rays get inside from the space in between the woods of the walls. Most houses have no windows.

All the houses have a little terrace where people normally sit and hangout. In the afternoon, you’d see the locals chillin’ on the terrace, chewing beetle nuts and chatting with their neighbors. Such a relaxing ambiance. The whole village is quiet, you’d only hear noises from their pets – horses, pigs, chickens, and dogs. Yes, these animals are running around in the village freely! 😀

In the middle of Tarung Village, there’s an old funeral. The tombs are made of big stones and if you pay a closer look to the stones, you’d see some delicate carvings. Beautiful! These tombs are old, dated from hundreds of years ago. And the locals still hold their traditional rituals here.

The locals who live in this village holds their own religion called “Marapu”. It’s like animism, where they believe in their ancestors’ spirits. They pray to these spirits to guard and guide them in their every day’s life.

Do you want to see how the village looks like?  Check out our adventure visiting Tarung Village in Sumba in the video below.

This episode has aired on NET TV last Friday :).

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