Sade Village

Sade Village, or Desa Sade in Bahasa, is a small village inhabited by local tribe, Sasak ethnic group. It can be found in West Nusa Tenggara, in the island of Lombok, Indonesia. This particular village, The Sade, up to today, preserves its original traditions and cultures.

It was as if I travelled through a time machine. As I arrived at this very village, everything seemed pause. Everything was so simple and natural, quiet and peaceful. Noises that I heard that day were noises that we, tourists made all through our visitation.

Houses made of wood, bamboo and hay with traditional hand made walls. Roads made of hardened clay soil. Floors made of lump mixed with buffalo excrement. I don’t know how they mixed them up, but it has no smell.

We entered into one house where the local guide had taken us into. It was a normal-typical house of Sasak tribe. The house has no window with only one door in front of the house. It is to preserve their tradition of marriage. It is said that whenever a Sasak man wants to marry a Sasak woman, he should kidnap the woman and bring her to his village. Then the chief village of the man’s village should go to chief village of the woman’s village to declare the marriage proposal. So the wedding of the two Sasak people was conducted.

 (I didn’t get the chance to ask if they were from the same village. sorry.)

I dared myself to enter one of the houses. It’s damp and dark. The only mechanical thing I saw was a clock. I cannot believe I stepped in a house with a buffalo excrement as its floor. Things that one never thought before. There’s also no electrical appliances. I even think that village doesn’t have any electricity. I don’t know exactly how they survive. I cannot imagine myself without laptop, blackberry, AC, TV and other stuffs.

Mostly, if not all, Sasak people do weaving. They said if a Sasak woman cannot weave, she is not allowed to get merrid. Pyyyuhh. Aren’t you glad that you are not from Sasak tribe? ;p I saw some children playing thread with their friends, I saw some middle-age woman weave and I even saw a very old woman still squad weaving in front of her house. What a tradition! That is why in almost all houses in this village, tourist can see and buy various kinds of hand made weaved shawl and fabrics. They are very beautiful and colorful, nice and cheap! A good thing to buy for a memorabilia.

Hahaha… can you believe your eyes with the last picture? 😉 yeah. it’s me, weaving. Out of my expectation, weaving needs energy. You have to push the weaving board. The stronger you push the board the neater the fabric will be. Now, that’s a knowledge that I learned only in this village.

There are so many things about Sade village and its Sasak tradition that are beautiful which no words nor pictures can tell. I am one of the lucky people who can go and share some with you. So what are you waiting for? Pack your stuffs and fly to Lombok, Indonesia and experience a time travel to Sade Village.

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All photos are personal collection.