07/05/2026
“According to legend, Princess Mandalika was a famous Indonesian princess who threw herself into the ocean centuries ago to avoid being forced into marriage. While many interpretations diverge on the specifics, the common story centres on her refusal to be married off by her father to a prince. This defiance was evidently met with trouble and anger. The princess, overcome with grief, walked into the breaking waves until the sea swallowed her, eventually transforming into a “Nyale”.
“In Sumba, however, their legend centers around a queen who was happily married to a fisherman. Her husband went out to sea, and after a long time with no return, the queen assumed he had died and thus found a new husband. When her first husband returned alive and angry about the new marriage, the two men fought.
This fight is now re-enacted every year with a performance called the Pasola. The Pasola is essentially a horseback battle that often turns so violent that many participants are left with serious injuries. Milan laughs when she shares this, “That’s just the way it is, people don’t care if they get injured, it’s our tradition.”
A beautiful feature by exploring the coinciding legends of Sumba and Lombok for the BAU NYALE festival. The two stories intertwined by the tale of a sea worm, known as Nyale, believed to be the reincarnation of a woman of power and beauty (A Queen and a Princess) whose spirit returns with the ocean each year.
Read all about it in Issue Seven, on pages 90-93
Available in print only, stocked in our favourite Bukit stores.
