PRESERVING HISTORY THROUGH LOCAL INGENUITY -
Story and Images by Ferry R. Tan
Monday, September 7, started with nice, sunny weather. The roof covering work was carried out with the same enthusiasm as the previous day. Outside the construction site, residents carried out their respective tasks in the vicinity of the village.
Today I had time to focus my camera on the village life. In every corner, I found an interesting bustle: Women were busy in the village yard and the bustle around the construction site relentlessly continued. The villagers were already busy with their daily chores and routines.
Inside the Mbaru Niang, a group of women were gathering in the communal cooking area and prepare breakfast for everyone, while outside the men were collecting the building materials needed for the day. All were ready to face with a new laborious day at the construction site. In the Manggarai region there are many villages where ethnic groups live, but the community of Wae Rebo village is the only one that retained the traditional Mbaru Niang architecture of which there are seven houses left in Wae Rebo.
Like the villagers, I also prepared for my day after enjoying a delicious locally produced cup of coffee and breakfast together with the locals. The sun already presented itself against a beautiful clear blue sky, armed with my camera I start walking around on the plateau of the village to see how women fulfill their duties.
I saw a woman pounding coffee beans, while another lady took care of the drying process and the men buzzed like bees around the construction site. Loud conversations and cheerful singing can be heard on the work floor. The overall atmosphere in the village was pleasant and cheerful while I was clicking away and while scanning the surrounding forest I discovered the cemetery, overlooking the village from a hillside, where the deceased are buried.
"I saw a woman pounding coffee beans, while another took care of the drying process..."
In the village I saw small children playing while the elderly go to school in Dintor a village at the foot of the mountain and only come home at the weekend because of the long journey back. Dintor is also the place where people go to for medical help when they get sick.
"In the village I saw small children playing while the elderly go to school..."
It was a privilege to have the opportunity to spend a brief moment with the locals in a spirit of togetherness, and those nights in a space with more than 6 families were well worth the experience. Life in Wae Rebo seems to pass by slowly. For an urban dweller like myself it's surely a pleasant exchange with the hectic city life. Admittedly, the village life may not offer the luxury we're used to, but it gives us the chance to let off some steam and get out of the digital network.
Tuesday 8th September started sunny with a clear blue sky and it promised a day with perfect lighting conditions for photo taking. The village started to fill up with activity, the conically-shaped building was packed with workers, from the bottom to the top. Around the house, workers were busy attaching alang alang and ijuk.
The general atmosphere remained cheerful and full of good spirit. Inside the house people were not less busy with the installation of floors and other. By noon, the women have started preparing lunch for the renovation team and the residents.
The renovation work continued after lunch. From a distance, I saw a group of men enter the village with a pig from the hunt.
The animal was carried into the village with staves. Inside the Niang Gendang, the pig's meat was cut into big chunks. The rough cuts were performed by the men and the meat was neatly sorted into small pieces by the women, then cooked and served as the evening meal.
Outside, the roof of the house was covered for three-quarters.
At the same time, a group of workers began to produce a ladder of bamboo meant for completing the crown of the house. The ladder was actually a long bamboo stick with cutouts for foot placement. The bamboo stick exceeded the height of the house itself. The pole was erected and attached to the roof of the house.
Later in the day, we were approached by the village chiefs and invited to participate in the inauguration ceremony at the summit of the house. In the ceremony was sacrificed a white rooster. Then its blood was applied as a means of blessings onto the pole that is at the top of the roof of the house. The ceremony was repeated on the lower floor but this time with two chickens, one white and one black.
The ceremony was then closed by drinking coffee together. With that, the house has been inaugurated and declared as habitable. Today ended with the roof of the house in the completely closed state, except for the summit, that could not be completed in the absence of daylight.
To not cut short our report and coverage, we were promised that the closing of the last stage of the roof will be continued tomorrow and guaranteed to be finished before we depart back to Jakarta.
That night would be our last night in Wae Rebo and for the last time we had dinner together, then we gathered like a big family and relaxed while sharing stories. Around 22.00 PM I decided to go outside the drum house to shoot some night photos. If I was lucky enough, I'd even might see the milky way.
If Vincent van Gogh would be here, he’d definitely put the scene on canvas. But sadly he isn’t here, thus so much more reason for me to perpetuate this night onto the “canvas”. of my camera. Of course, there are many beautiful places and starlit nights but what makes Wae Rebo exceptional is its conically shaped houses standing out against a generously star filled heaven with only the sound of the nocturnal silence.
Wednesday, September 9th was the last day of our visit. Since dawn, we witnessed the activities at the construction site. As promised, the residents were in the last stage of installing the crown of the Mbaru Niang. In a few hours, the mission was accomplished. Around 11 am, the house was finished and we bade farewell to our hosts. And the people of Wae Rebo kept their promise.
It was a valuable experience for me to witness the rebirth of an ancient heritage in the form of the Mbaru Niang. It taught me to view architecture from a different perspective. It made me realize that local architecture is actually unconventional compared to modern urban architecture. Unconventional because of the rawness of the applied products and the primitiveness of the construction methods. A building made entirely of natural products is actually a piece of nature in a different form.
I am proud I could be part of an architectural odyssey in which I had the opportunity to gain new knowledge about life concepts that are far away from ours and where things are not always measured in the values of the legal tender that we all know as money.
Mohe Wae Rebo!
The End!
Ferry R. Tan - 2020
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