The Lamahalot or Solorese people are an indigenous tribe located on Flores Island,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, and some smaller islands around it (

Solor Solor is a volcanic island located off the eastern tip of Flores island in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, in the Solor Archipelago. The island supports a small population that has been whaling for hundreds of years. They speak the lang ...

Adonara Adonara is an island in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, located east of the larger island of Flores in the Solor Archipelago. To the east lies Lembata, formerly known as Lomblen. Adonara is the highest of the islands of the archipelago, re ...

, and

Lomblen Lembata is an island in the Lesser Sunda Islands, also known as Lomblen island; it is the largest island of the Solor Archipelago, in the Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia. It forms a separate regency of the province of Nusa Tenggara Timur. The leng ...

). Lamaholot people speak the Lamaholot language with different dialects, the number of speakers counts between 150,000 and 200,000. Lamaholot people's famous traditional dance is a war dance known as ''Hedung''.

History

Since the 16th century the territory of the Lamaholot was the object of the claims of the Sultanate of Makassar, Portugal and the Netherlands. Until the middle of the 19th century Lamaholot were under the Portuguese colonial administration, then under the Netherlands in 1859–1942, and until the middle of the 20th century they were formally submitted to the Rajas of Larantuka and

Language

The Lamaholot language belongs to the

Malayo-Polynesian languages The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeast ...

of the Austronesian languages family. The language is divided into many dialects, or possibly distinct languages as Adonara language, the most common are the Western Lamaholot (Muang and Pukaunu), Lamaholot (Taka, Levotaka, Mandiri Island), and Western Solor. Language is a means ''lingua franca'' for wide communication between the numerous ethnic groups living in the area around Larantuka and

. On the island of

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Including the Komodo Islands off its west coast (but excluding the Solor Archipelago to the east of Flores), the land area is 15,530.58 km2, and th ...

, the Lamaholot people speak Bahasa Nagi (

Larantuka Malay Larantuka Malay is a contact variety of Malay spoken in and around the city of Larantuka on the island of Flores in Indonesia, and in two enclaves: the village of Wure on the island of Adonara (across a narrow strait from Larantuka) and four vil ...

) and Mandarut language, a dialect of the

Malay language Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , Rejang script, Rencong: ) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spo ...

Religion

Most Lamaholot people are

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Some of them are

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

s or devotees of a traditional monotheistic religion who believe in a god whom they call ''Lera Wulan Tanah Ekan'' (The combined power of the Sun, Moon, and Earth), death cults and shamanism. The Lamaholot people also preserve rich verbal and musical folklore.

Family

Traditional social organization is strictly based on patrilineal birth. They also maintained a characteristic of descent line that divides into "origin groups" or phratries. Marriages occur across on the

matrilateral The term matrilateral describes kin (relatives) "on the mother's side". Social anthropologists have underlined that even where a social group demonstrates a strong emphasis on one or other line of inheritance (matrilineal or patrilineal), relativ ...

side, with a marital settlement of

patrilocal residence In social anthropology, patrilocal residence or patrilocality, also known as virilocal residence or virilocality, are terms referring to the social system in which a married couple resides with or near the husband's parents. The concept of locat ...

. The family unit is small.

Economy

The main occupation is manual tropical farming. Dominant agricultural crops are such as corn, dried rice, millet, yam, cassava, sweet potato, legumes, pumpkin, various fruits and vegetables. Fishing is developed on the coast. Livestock plays an auxiliary role. The main dietary food includes boiled corn and rice with vegetable and fish seasonings. Residents of a number of coastal villages specialize in intermediary trade in textiles, clothing and agricultural implements. In the Lamalera village on

island and

Lamakera Lamakera in 1904. Lamakera is a village in Indonesia, on the east tip of Solor Island. It was known for being the place where the most manta rays are killed. It was featured in the 2015 documentary film, ''Racing Extinction''. The villagers also h ...

village on

island, whaling is developed.

Lifestyle

Traditional cumulus settlements (in the mountains) are surrounded by a dense hedge of corals, houses are skeleton-pillared, rectangular, with a high steep roof. Before the beginning of the 20th century, there were long houses. Modern settlements are coastal farms, the dwelling is designed for a small family. They also adopt Malay-style clothing.

References

Ethnic groups in Indonesia {{ethno-stub