Pasola Sumbas hard fought Harvest Festival

---

PASOLA Lamboya 18th February

So we set off again after the false start on 15th, We choose to start late missing the ceremony on the beach and the Nayel worms heralding the commencement of the initial battle between 2 riders before the whole Pasola starts in earnest up on the field.

Previous experience of the dawn start with traditional ceremonies had resulting in us standing a wood for hours with the appointed holy man coming out of his hut from time to time to scratch his nuts and go back in again. So we would just do the main event.
I am glad we did people reported later that is was a small spiritual affair and tourists had intruded, some pigs ignoring the pleas not to take photographs and snapping away anyway, pure ignorance. One guy even stood in the spot required for the ceremony the horseman came over and wacked him out the way with a spear, excellent.

Once we had a car fixed it soon filled up with folk who had left it too late to hire motorcycles etc.
This time it’s different the closer we get to Lamboya the more people there are, there starts to be groups of horse men riding to Pasola and trucks piled high with exited people all heading in the same direction. People stop to water there horses in the river.
There are not so many westerners around at the event maybe 15 to 25 at a guess. It is set on a flat field to the one side there are dramatic hills and the other side goes down to a south coast beach with the usual huge waves and white sand there are small hills around the area as well.

We get there well before the main event starts, riders are warming up galloping to and fro across the field small groups of western camera guys set up there telephotos on the hill at the edge of the field. We forge on down to the field standing as close as possible to the path of the galloping horse to get in on the action they swish by you can feel the wind from them. Gradually the telephoto guys make their way down to the field. Riders and camera wielding tourists. The field is awash with activity it really gets the adrenalin going as riders fly past showing off to maximum effect, much more fun.

The actual start of the event is after a small ceremony by the fighters from the beach on the main field, battle commences. Though I could not see the beginning it just gradually seemed to move from the warm up with more and more horse men joining in to the spears starting to fly.

You have a choice were you go on the hill side more of a distance away, safe and easy but in the main crowd it depends were you are, Some areas closer to the battle get the odd stray spear and getting pictures is hard with all the heads in the way. But go out on to the main field and stand behind one of the Teams much more exiting. The riders leave from one side of the team and semi circle round to throw their spears from as close as possible to the opposition, once they are out there the opposing team tries to hit them with a rain of spears, some of these spears come over where you get to take the photos and more slide past at ground level the riders seem OK to dodge you as they finish their run, you have room to manoeuvre out of the way of the horse and spears. Its great fun and the riders love to show off so they don’t mind you there. Some set up tripods though myself I wouldn’t want to be nailed to one spot need to keep dodging It’s like crossing a busy road with moving traffic you have to stay alert. You are a long way from the cloying grip of the health and safety police here and its bloody exhilarating you lose track of time.

The action soon settles down with riders after rider circling, throwing a spear then hiding behind the horse to dodge the hail of spears that come when he is closest to the opposing team. Every so often there is a burst of activities and spears seem to rain down in all directions. There seemed to be 2 main areas of battle one at each end of the field. To hit an opponent with a spear gets the crowd fired up. As does the cool guys sitting there smoking catching a spear and flinging it back, or just whacking it out of the air with one of their own spears. How they do all this while sitting on a loose blanket and smoking is a mystery to me but they don’t seem to fall off much. With about 200 horsemen in the battle spears frequently hit home sending the crowd into great whoops of excitement. With most of the riders sitting waiting for their run this goes on for a long time with ever more daring loops being performed. Still keeps kicking off every so often there will be a general mealy and this keeps the level of activity high with many spears being exchanged. Hence the action ebbs and flows. Each team has a leader and they are generally more upfront and in the thick of it, a lot of taunting and bravado is on display. Apart from no fighting on the ground and don’t throw spears at the guys running around collecting spears to pass back to the riders there do not seem to be many rules, and no formal structure. Over a periods it seemed to settle in to the main man doing more and more of the runs (the fighter in red) after a few hours we reluctantly had to depart as the other people in the car share were hanging around the car getting hassled by drunks and were uneasy they had been asking to leave for about 1.5 hours by the time they dragged us away. So reluctantly we moved back to the car.

Found a couple of irritating drunks around the car demanding money for cigarettes and generally being a bit Leary brushed them off no bother (35 years offshore and Merchant navy training comes in handy) and set of home trying to get of the Field we had the windows open we get 4 pissed locals with their heads in the car one kept switching the engine off. They were laughing at the time but well things can get out of hand so quick particularly when its people not used to drinking. Our driver was like the proverbial rabbit in the headlights couldn’t do anything and he only needed to drive off slowly. Folk getting more agitated but driver’s presents stopping us doing anything. More and more folk around. Eventually got the driver to move and the guys backed off they had not been aggressive but would not go away so a situation best avoided. So what can you do well leave early if it bothers you, It’s possible to tell when the critical mass of pissed young blokes builds up. Easiest was to leave in a car with the Windows up and the doors locked, why our driver didn’t do this I don’t know got is boss to tell him when we got back he seemed pretty freaked by the whole incident. If they had taken the keys we would have had a big problem.

It seems we managed to get out at the right time the chech crew stayed longer and a few minutes after we left the crowd started throwing stones at each other right where we had been standing, this soon kicked off at the other end of the field as well. The police sprayed some automatic gunfire into the air and the crowd dispersed in just a few minutes leaving only a few die hards and riders fighting on the battlefield the film crew waited till most had dispersed then made their way out with doors locked and windows closed no problems, they had a smarter guide than us.

From what we were told later this seems to be a fairly normal ending as either someone is killed on the field or the crowd riot and the police shoot in the air leading most to get the hell out a.s.a.p.

I would say that although the Indonesian authorities insist they use blunt spears (cutting down the injury and death rate) the participants would still like to use sharpened spears I think there objective is still to make a sacrifice on the field of battle sacrifice is still a big part of the Sumbanese culture hence, they don’t mind if it goes past the diluted ‘’spill blood on the field’’ intention they now work to. A few years ago the event spread into general rioting back in Winagapu and there were a number of fatalities.
Our Pasola well we found out later one guy had a spear through his leg so they got their blood and another was concussed when a spear hit him in the head, all sorted by local healers.

This is one amazing event and well worth the effort to see it to keep it in perspective many are happy to see injury in the sporting events they attend unfortunately its in our genes. Sumba in general will be remembered for a long time and I would certainly go back and do it again.

---

Photos

On the way to Pasola
No horse box here

And the people came to
Sumba Bus

The man in Red
Here and ready for battle

Having fun
Tried to look scary but failed

Leather jacket
That and the Ikat cloth around the stomach is as good as the body armour gets

The man in Red
Relentless the bigest guy on the largest horse just did spear run after spear run never smiled completly focused now he scares me.