Book Description
Pasola is set on Sumba Island in eastern Nusa Tenggara and addresses the impact of patriarchism as well as the tradition to uphold the honor of one’s family name.
Maria Matildis Banda, known for her writing regarding Nusa Tenggara culture and landscape, certainly fills that bill in PasolaPasola. Banda’s writing takes her readers on a wild ride between the 1934 and 1979 annual traditional sea worm harvest, Bau Nyale, and Pasola, the equestrian competition that follows the harvest celebration.
Led by human greed and lust, next-door-neighbors Ndalo and Waleka abuse their powers as village- and religious elders when treating their respective families in an autocratic, male-oriented manner. Immediate victims of their behavior are their first wives and Wula, Waleka’s only daughter.
Crazed by lust, Waleka accepts a large dowry for Wula from Ndalo when the girl is only seven years old. Waleka panics when suddenly Wula graduates from college and is a beautiful, young woman while Ndalo, calling in his note, makes arrangements for Wula to become his ninth wife. The girl’s integrity, her family’s love for each other, and Ndalo’s treacherous behavior save her from having to become the ninth wife of an uneducated man, who is older than her father.
Pasola provides the reader with an intimate look into Sumbanese culture and tradition as well as the manner in which it influences the islanders’ lives.
Product Detail
- Price: $22.75
- Paperback: 348 pages
- Publisher: P.T.Nusa Indah
- Language: Indonesian
- ISBN: 978-623-99785-8-7
- Product dimensions: 8.25 x 5.75 x 0.75 inches
- Shipping weight: 1 lb.