Sumba

Sumba is part of the Lesser Sunda Islands and spans 11,000 square kilometres, making it twice the size of Bali, but with only one-sixth of Bali’s inhabitants.

Just a one and a half hour flight brings visitors to Sumba where the terrain is quite different – undulating hills replace the typical volcanic terrain in Indonesia with many areas in the North and East of the island resembling dry savannahs, whilst central highlands are covered in native Alang Alang grass and the mountains in the South extend down into lush tropical vegetation.

Due to the isolated location of the island, the language, religion and traditional lifestyle of the Sumbanese culture has been preserved. Traditional dress is still observed with the men wearing a short sarong (Hinggi) around their hips and a band or turban of woven Ikat with motifs and women wear long sarongs and headbands with different motifs.