Tombs

The inhabitants of these villages say that each house can contain a microcosm. The high peak of the roof contains a sacred compartment, the residence of the spirits where relics and clan heirlooms are kept. Everyday life takes place in the main bedroom. Below the elevated floor are the underworld where pigs and dogs scavenge for food.

In practice, this floor is the coolest part of the house, and women sit under their houses on hot afternoons weaving and chatting in the shade while watching their children play.

This was until the colonial era when Sumbanese society with Its six levels of castes were divided into high and low nobility, commoners, and slaves. There were often wars and victorious kings sold their captives into slavery or displayed their heads on an andung or skull tree a cut branch planted in a pile of rocks in the town square.

Huge limestone dolmens in the central square mark where the submerged burial chambers of local royalty are located. Nobles are buried in elaborate ceremonies that last days. The body is wrapped in traditional cloth sometimes in bundles of a hundred or more, and dozens of horses and buffalo may be sacrificed in a macabre display of wealth. Hundreds of men dressed in hinggi cloths and headbands, and women in tubular lau skirts participate in the procession.