Ngada

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Ngada (also Ngadha or Rokka ) is the name of an ancient Malay ethnic group and language group that lives on the Indonesian island of Flores .

The ethnic group, which currently comprises more than 60,000 people, is mainly located in the southwestern part of the island, in the area around the Inierie volcano and around the city of Bajawa , which is also the capital of the administrative district of the same name ( Kabupaten ) Ngada . She speaks a central Malayo Polynesian language , the Ngada .

As early as the 16th century, the population of Flores was converted to Catholicism by Portuguese missionaries . To this day, however, the Ngada are still as deeply rooted in their ethnic religion . In their villages, for example, there are shrines ( ngaduh for male and bhaga for female) decorated with rich carvings for ancestor worship, as well as stone steles and stone altars. They are divided into a kind of hierarchical caste system, in which some scholars want to identify previous Hindu influence.

The people in their small villages with thatched wooden houses sometimes still live as they did centuries ago. Their main line of business is slash- and- burn agriculture , with rice and corn being grown in particular. The area has opened up to tourism to a limited extent; some villages such as Bena, Langa, Boawae, Wogo and Ogi are sometimes quite well prepared for day tourists.

literature

  • Paul Arndt: The religion of the Ṅad'a. (West Flores, Lesser Sunda Islands). In: Anthropos, Vol. 26, H. 3./4. May - August 1931, pp. 353-405
  • Paul Arndt: The religion of Nad'a. (West Flores, Lesser Sunda Islands.) End. In: Anthropos, Vol. 26, H. 5./6. September - December 1931, pp. 697-739
  • Paul Arndt: Funeral celebrations and customs of the Ngadha. In: Anthropos, Vol. 54, H. 1./2. 1959, pp. 68-98
  • Paul Arndt: Sacrifice and sacrifice celebrations of the Ngadha. In: Folklore Studies, Vol. 19. 1960, pp. 175–250
  • Susanne Schröter : "Death Rituals of the Ngada in Central Flores, Indonesia." In: "Anthropos", Vol. 93, H. 4./6. 1998, pp. 417-435.
  • Olaf H. Smedal: Sociality on Display: The Aesthetics of Ngadha Houses. In: Anthropology and Aesthetics, No. 37. Spring 2000, pp. 106-126