Post #164053 by I dream of tiki on Mon, Jun 6, 2005 7:23 PM

"On the left is a necklace made out of cowrie shells that came from Flores island, Indonesia."

"Below, this man wearing the traditional Luba Cowrie Necklace is the proud owner of a new house. The skulls of the animals sacrificed to the spirits upon completion are displayed on its porch."

"This rare traditional necklace was used during special ceremonies and celebrations
& worn by important Headmen from the Ngada tribes of Flores, Lesser Sumba Islands, Indonesia. It consists of a handwoven rattan neckband decorated with smaller cowries with larger old cowries surrounding it. The large egg cowries have great age and patina and were salvaged from an older piece as they are passed on when the weave deteriorates."

"Flores is one of the islands in the province of East Nusa Tenggara with many various ethnic groups each with a slightly different culture and different language. There are more Melanesian characteristics in the East and more Mongoloid-Malay characters in the West."

"The Ngada religion is a fusion of animism and Christianity. Their traditional homes are Ngadhu, a thatched cone shaped hut, and they represent the relationship with the people’s spiritual ancestors in their creation, construction and arrangements.

Megalithic tradition has steadily disappeared, is indeed extinct in most parts of the world. As it is admitted, the tradition contains values very basic to the social life of human beings such as basic values of friendship, collectiveness, and deep love to the parents or ancestor’s, homage to the great magic of nature. These basic values were expressed in many ways according to the environment, and in Flores, still exist.

Although the vast majority of Flores is Catholic, many people still follow those old ways, by living in traditional villages and placing food offerings on megalithic stones, to appease their ancestors.

In the mountains, around Bajawa the Ngada people continue to follow the laws laid down by their ancestors. The Ngadanese are divided into set clans that have head chiefs and elders who decide over matters such as landrights, funerals, marriages and other ceremonies.

In the Ngada district for example, an area that maintains its status as the spiritual heartland of Flores, indigenous animist religions flourish and the villages maintain fascinating houses, megalithic stones and interesting totemic structures. In the centre of most of them stand several ceremonial edifices which represent the ancestral protection for the village. These include the Ngadhu , which resembles a man in a huge hula skirt, the thatched skirt sitting atop a crudely carved, phallic, forked tree trunk, which is imbued with the power of a male ancestor. The female part of the pairing, the Bhaga, is a symbol of the womb, a miniature house. The symbolic coupling is supplemented by a carved stake called a Peo, to which animals are tied before being sacrificed."