The Pasola Festival occurs somewhere between February and March, every year. The lunar calendar dictates when the nyale worms (Eunicidae) spawn, on February's full moon. Those sexual organs drift to shore and are collected as a source of food both by the Sumbanese and by the Sasak Tribes in Lombok.Religious leaders / shamans, named "Ratus", in Sumba, predict the spawning and decide when the festival occurs. It consists of a traditional box contest, at night, in a beach; at dawn, there is the Nyale collection, followed by the Pasola.
This one is a staged fight between to teams of horsemen, armed with wooden spears. They try to push the other team back, and eventually out of the field. Traditionally, the spears had steel tips and both man and horses got hurt. Blood spilling was considered auspicious for the upcoming rice crops. Nowadays, there are no steel tips and deaths no longer occur.
Pasola happen in different days on fields and beaches across South Sumba.
On 2022, several CoVid restrictions were still in place (namely, the mandatory mask usage) and there were differences in opinion between the traditional and country authorities. Nonetheless we went from Bali to Sumba, to attend it, and to record the action. On the way, we captured some landscape and highlights of the Sumbanese lifestyle.
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A whole article on these festivities, from 2019, is on my website:
Also, have a look at our DP / Cameramen Ajiex Dharma Instagram:
Tânia Araújo, our drone operator is also there:
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