Hospitality in The Remaining of Megaliths

Kampung Bena in Ngada district, Flores

Traditional village named Bena or Kampung Bena should be noted down in your destination list if
you visiting Flores. In this village you will back to the megaliths era.

Kampung Bena located in Tiworiwu, subdistrict of Aimere, Ngada District, Flores. This village is the only one village in Flores that keep their tradition hereditary.

Menhir stones in Kampung Bena

Going to Bena just like turning back the time to megaliths. In this place are so many ancient buildings as arrangement of flat stones, like menhir. The stone that identical with Obelix figure in Asterix comic.

The local peoples are still occupying in a house that made from wooden, bamboo and reed roof. In some houses, you can see an ornament like a doll with holding an arrow.

This is not an ordinary decoration, but a symbol that signed that the house is belong to the family from the male line of native villagers, they named tribes of Ngada.

If you find little house ornament which decorating some house's roof, that means the owner of the house derived from female line native tribes of Bena.

If you noticed, between the houses of the villager which are facing each other, there are 2 little custom house. The first building shaped like an umbrella that made with reed roof and a massive wood in the core as a pillar. This building named lopo.

In front of the lopo, thera is  little miniature of a house, named bhaga. Both of the buildings is an unity symbol of the family in the village.

Visiting Kampung Bena just like feel in your own home. Feel the hospitality of the original Bena, if you just walking around to the village, all the villagers who seeing you will say hi.

To reach this place is easy, and the important thing is no entry ticket, you just asked to give some little donation and filling a guest book before entry the village. The collected donation will be used for maintaining the authenticity of the tradition.

source : http://travel.detik.com/read/2012/06/05/120549/1933072/1025/