Friday, July 19, 2013

Mola, Bajo’s Village That has landed on Watakobi

Mole, Bajo's Village

As narrow as 1.5 meter canals are quietly seen with sleek weak looking boats. Along those canals that connect to Wanci sea, a view of people from children to women relaxedly row their canoes that made the sea surface rippling has appeased my already peaceful morning.

This is Mola, a village that belongs to Bajo tribe in Wangi-wangi island. Bajo or Bajoe tribe is so peculiar. They call themself sea people, well they are. Born,bred and live in sea. The vast ocean is the yard of their houses. Traditionally their simple houses/Rumah panggung  are built on the pile or rocks stacked on the middle of the sea.

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Canoes or boats are their transport means. The fluctuating price of motor vehicles and the price hike of fuel never occures in the mind of these sea people. Small Oars would suffice to row the boats. With right amount of  strong willpower and few Kasuami wrapped in small packages, they head seaward and come back safely after.

Mola Village was built in 1950. There a group of Bajo people in Kaledupa, whic was their indigenous place before migration to Mola, were allegedly told involved in the DI/TII movement. A man was killed though not knowing anything about that national crises. Kaledupa was in riot, thereby they migrated to Mola.

The life of people in Mola generally is not unlike the life of fishermen in other villages. Poverty is still prominent despite rich natural resources, obviously can be seen  through the village. Education is not main priority of the family in this village. School-age children are seen helping their parents in the sea. But Bajo people in Mola slowly shift from their ancestral ruts as seamen.

Mola is now different, from other villages of Bajo across Kaledupa. Appear, some moderate houses with concrete walls, though  Rumah Panggung is still the type of houses on the coastal area. A tradition that has been intimidated by modernity. Will Mola village always stand up for its traditions inherited from their ancentors as sea people? I dunno...

Wakatobi, swimming at 'sacred' Lake Sombano, Kaledupa

Red Shrimp

”Can I swim here really?” I inquired Amin who brought me to the lake. “Yes you can,
nobody forbids” his answer excited me, the salty surface of the lake seemed so calm and
it would be fun to swim. But wait, a little doubt crossed my mind, the lake looked dead
and Amin didn't have any desire to join us swimming. What is going on? This feeling is
problematic. Is it safe to swim here? I was imagining those horror Thai movies , those
scary creatures emerging from the lake or Anaconda lurking inside the calm lake. What the
hell, at last I dropped my ass into the lake and swam happily with the cute red shrimps.

Sombano Lake

Sombano lake, a salt lake situated in village Somabo. A village in Kaledupa island,
Watakobi. Kaledupa island contains vast reefs which caused the island to have plenty
hollows in the bottom, those hollows are the channels of sea water flowing and coming
through the inside of the island.

To reach this lake was not conveniently easy, after having lunch. I and Vindya started
the trip with the help of two ojeks, Amin was one of them. Amin had told few about the
lake, when he said that the lake has bloody-red shrimps, I was afraid it would be like my
friend's shrimp farms in Juana. What does this lake have to offer? I already worked hard
to reach the lake, hoped it was worth it. We started heading to the southwest from Ambeau
where I had been lodged, we passed 8 kms of village ruined and abrupt roads. I saw many
copra farmers spreading what they harvested on the ground to dry under with the sunlight.
When I reached the village, I hurriedly began trekking to the spot of the lake with Amin
as our company.

How to get the Lake

We walked crossing along the coast for about 10 minutes, then entered shrubs forest ,
hopped from one reef to another for at least 20 minutes, but those suffering activities
had been paid by the great scenery of the Sombano Lake.

The water is crystal pure and clear, from above the surface I could see lot of blood-like red crustaceans comfortably floated off in the bottom of lake. The red color was so contrast to the green algae growing evenly almost on all the bottom of the lake. As I braved myself to plunge in the lake, thousands of red crustaceans were seen playfully joked to each other. Those shrimps were peculiar and amusing. When my hand tried to feel them, they orderly tried to reach my hand to pinch its skin.

Trekking

The sun began to fade, and I had to hurry to head back to Ambeau, avoiding the darkness that could add the trouble my trip through the ugly roads. I and Vindya hurried to Sembano Village where our motor bike was parked. On our way back, Amin uttered “That is sacred lake, only some villagers are brave enough to swim there”. What?? Why did he tell just now after I swam there. I suddenly cowered, what if bad luck hunts me after or cursed maybe. And the men who enjoyed coffee in the stall in front of our inn confirmed that.

Wowww Red Shrimps

As told by the men, local people are scared with with that lake. There said, a black big crocodile had lived in the lake as the controller and the red shrimps I had fun with were its cooked shrimps.

Let us set aside the myth,  that lake deserves to be research object for researchers. The biota can definitely enrich the data of aquatic animals in Indonesia. And if all that can be packaged into educational tour, that will be beneficial to local people in Sombano who depend on the seaweed as their livelihood.

The Great Mosque Bente of Kaledupa, the forgotten history.

The Stairs of bente Mosque

I sensed a piece of past glory in the Kaledupa land. The Great Mosque Bente. An ancient and historical mosque whose existence is linked with certain local cultures. The mosque is situated in a fort on the mount of hill. In the time of dawn and dusk, you can capture beautiful moments here.

Not different with the mosque I visited Mobarak in LiyaTogo in Wangi-wangi island, this mosque is the heritage of Buton Kingdom that came in rule here many years ago. These mosques became places for spreading of Islam religion in this nation.

Based on a famous story in Ollo village where the mosque is located, this mosque was unbelievably built by the same person who built the mosque in the Buton Kingdom, and to add my wonder, these mosques were built simultaneously at one time.

The Grave

The mosque has many of windows, in the center of the mosque is a symbol resembles the name of Muhammad in Arabic. People said, that spot were used to be the place where a born female babies were buried alive, attired with full set of custom dress. Well, I don't have enough sources about this and neither have I known what motivated them to do such thing.

Inside the mosque

This mosque is poorly maintained. If only they treated and maintained it well, this historic heritage would not lose its history. The local people still use the mosque for their daily worships and prayers.
For worship site, this mosque has many meanings. We could see interesting lessons from the architectural design of the mosque. Such as, the seven stairs of the staircase represent four levels of human's degree and the other three elements are the king's guard. As I mentioned above, this mosque has many windows and doors, I could tell that it is for the circulation system of the mosque, alas..the seventeen windows to my surprise are also symbol of the seventeen rakats of the compulsory five prayers in a day a Muslim should perform.

Indonesia is a nation with great history. The history spans the islands from Sabang to Merauke. By conserving the historical sites, we pass down the great history to our younger generations. A great nation is the one that appreciates its history, isn't it?