Wonderful Indonesia: Spectacular ethnic dance of Flores
Our third day sojourn in Labuan Bajo was focused on travelling to the faraway hamlet of Liang Ndara in the midst of Mbelling forest, around 45 minutes drive from the harbour town. Liang Ndara comprises three tiny hamlets- Cecer, Melo and Mamis.
We moved to Cecer hamlet to watch the traditional Caci dance performed by Manggarai community who are all Catholic Christians. The fascinating Caci dance- a welcome dance forms an indispensable part of the Manggarai community of Liang Ndara in which the dancers gear up with chamboo (whip), hairs of buffalo, bells, sarong(scarves), toda (protected shield), vado (a musical instrument that symbolizes problems) and indeki ( an instrument used to denote peace). The Manggarai community has been performing the Caci dance since nine generations.
Women welcoming visitors in a traditional way
Caci dance
The ethnic community displays a high level of hospitality to visitors who get to taste the home brewed Robusta coffee along with palm sugar. Palm liquor is also on offer to visitors.
Robusta coffee served with palm sugar
There are other popular traditional dances of Manggarai community like Ndun Ndun Dake- friendship dance performed exclusively by female folks, bamboo dance, Tetek Alu where young girls look out for partners and Akomavo dance signifying harvesting of rice where women remain in the centre.
Ndun Ndun Dake dance
Ethnic dancers of Manggarai Community
We rounded off our Liang Ndara trip with a visit to St. Mikael’s Church at Melur, the oldest in the hamlet.
St. Mikael's Church
On our return, we lunched at Tree Top, a reputed fine-dining outlet at Soekarno in Labuan Bajo that specializes in Indonesian delights. The food outlet is one up with Javanese paintings with Lord Krishna at the entrance. I did not miss the chance to gorge on Mediterranean veggie dishes like sphagetti punta nasta and capers.
Indonesian sea food
Lobster delights
In the evening hours we attended Tour de Flores 2016 organized by the Union Ministry of Tourism, Indonesia in an attempt to promote Flores as a potential tourist destination. Held at Kantor Bupati, Labuan Bajo, the exhibition flaunted the local products hand crafted by Manggarai community of Flores including terracotta works hand made by craftsmen of Compan hamlet in West Manggarai Regency, about 40 km from Labuan Bajo.
Terracotta works
There was a live display of traditional hand weaving technique of Flores- Tenun Ikat. We came across women coffee grinders of Manggarai.
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