PASOLA: BLOOD SACRIFICE IN SUMBA

The Pasola festival takes places annually on the Indonesian island of Sumba – ushering in a bountiful harvest, it involves huge amounts of bloodshed.

 
Two young boys and their horses play in the ocean in Nihiwatu, Sumba. Horses play an important role in Sumbanese culture and distinguish Sumba form the rest of Indonesia.
West Sumba is largely covered in Padi fields. In order for the rice to grow sufficient blood must be spilt on the land.
Ratu Dangu Duka chewing betel before the Pasola, a ritualised battle and blood letting ceremony in Sumba, Indonesia.
Ratus preparing for the Pasola in Sumba, Indonesia.
Tradition dictates that Almarhum Keledepiku must throw the first spear in the Pasola.A responsibility that he has inherited from his ancestors.
The Pasola underway in Gaura, West Sumba.
The Pasola underway in Wanokaka.
Crowds gather to watch the Pasola, many people take to climbing trees to get a better view.
The Pasola underway in Gaura, Sumba, Indonesia.
This man is in charge of picking up the spears during the Pasola. His teeth are red from years of chewing betel.
A young boy celebrates during the Pasola in Gaura.
The Pasola continues until blood is shed. Without blood shed there would be no harvest.
Ratu Bapak Rato Kameme Bili from Waigaliis in charge of the pejora, a boxing match which takes place the night before the Pasola.
A young boy with a burnt dog's head. The dog was lunch during a hard day working the padi fields.
A man sharpens his parang before a funeral in Wanokaka.
Prayers are shared at a funeral in Sumba, Indonesia.
Christianity has arrived in Sumba and is just beginning to take a hold in small villages.
A young boy watches on as a prayer is read at a funeral in Wanokaka.
Pigs, buffalos and a horse are killed at the funeral.
The centrepiece of the funeral proceedings involves the slaughtering of various animals.
Animals are sacrificed at a funeral in Sumba, Indonesia.
Animals are sacrificed at a funeral in Sumba, Indonesia.
An elderly man watches on as the animal carcasses are burnt.
Two young boys and their horses play in the ocean in Nihiwatu, Sumba. Horses play an important role in Sumbanese culture and distinguish Sumba form the rest of Indonesia.
 
 

High on a mountain, three shamans sit cross-legged on a great burial stone, gazing out across a moonlit valley. They are singing, a slow ululation that fades into the predawn silence. This is the annual summons for the nyale, ancient spirits that manifest as sea worms, briefly swarming the shores of Sumba, a tiny island in eastern Indonesia. For the shamans, the nyale are augurs, telling them what the year ahead will hold. This is the central moment in a ritual cycle that will culminate in a few hours when hundreds of warriors do battle, hurling spears in a bloody war known as the Pasola.

The people of Sumba are as adept at divination as they are at the age-old ritual of sacrifice. They read signs in the eviscerated entrails of chickens; they butcher pigs, water buffalo and horses so that the dead are provided for in the afterlife. And they shed each other’s blood in clan wars and ritual battles with just as much gusto. Theirs is one of the last megalithic cultures on earth; the dead reside among the living in giant tombs etched with esoteric symbols. The animistic Marapo belief system continues to thrive, which is why the Sumbanese do not fear death, they see it as a gateway to an eternal realm where the ancestors reside.

The Pasola ceremonies take place each year in February and March. It’s a heady mix of portents, sacrifice and ritualized violence, where serious injuries and even deaths occur. Thousands flock to a deserted beach for the Pajura boxing matches. Under a waning moon, men beat each other with fists wrapped in tough plant fibre. Noses are broken, skulls fractured, but as dawn breaks, everyone sits down and sings songs passed down from the ancestors.

Once the shamans have retrieved the nyale worms from the ocean at dawn, the Pasola begins. Rival clans charge at each other head on, letting their wooden spears fly before wheeling away. The agility of the riders is astonishing – they ride bareback and full tilt, clutching rope halters in one hand, their spears in the other. The best among them duck the enemy projectiles, even catching them with practised nonchalance. Still, many suffer full-blooded strikes & some fall from their horses to jeers from their enemies.

But then that is the whole point. Blood sings a sweet song to the Sumbanese. Without a blood sacrifice, the rice cannot grow, just as it cannot grow without water or sunlight. Simmering clan conflicts are allowed to emerge on the battlefield – the visceral urge to violence is controlled through ritual. To die in Pasola is a great honour, a gift to the whole community.

Even as the Sumbanese enact their millennia old rituals, the world is changing around them. Sumba is being touted as the next big thing in island tourism and a real estate gold rush has begun. Many are predicting that this tiny island no one has heard of will soon emerge as the next Bali. Perhaps the shamans have already seen the omens… it remains to be seen whether they will be for good or for ill.