Wologai, 800 Years Old Traditional Village in Flores
Wologai, a traditional village located in Ende, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. The 800 years old village Wologai is one of traditional villages you can find in Flores. This is a must visit if you pass the trans Flores road.
Labuan Bajo to Ende
Last winter I had an amazing trip to East Nusa Tenggara, Flores, Indonesia. The trip was mainly to Labuan Bajo, for diving and to see the biggest lizard on earth, Komodo Dragon. Luckily, Get Lost had extra days to explore.
Our main destination to visit in Ende is to visit Kelimutu Crater Lake. By chance, we found an 800 years old traditional village during our journey to Moni Village. This village is close to Trans Flores road.
Wologai is one of several destinations that we visited on the way to Kelimutu Crater Lake. Winding road, rice padi field aside the main road from Ende to Kelimutu and the Bamboo Bridge on Wolowona River are some of those destinations. In Ende, we visited the Exile House of Soekarno, the first president of Republic of Indonesia.
Wologai Traditional Village
Lio Tribe lives in Wologai Traditional Village. The village is about 800 years old. At the entrance, a large banyan tree with giant roots will welcome you. Then, several steps will take you to the village.
The village is not large. It lays in a valley near the foot of Mount Lepubangu. From the village, you can see the scenic view of the mountains covered in clouds. Mountains, rooftops of traditional houses in forest colors, what a view.
There was a fire burning down half of the buildings in this village in 2012. Though, some buildings still stand strong. The construction of the new house was then carried out. Building new houses is not done just so, they built the house after a ritual called the Naka Wisu Ritual.
The traditional house in Wologai resembles a circle. You can find an altar used in certain traditional processions in the middle of the village. Indeed, tourists must not step or stand on the stone altar. So, keep this in mind when taking photos.
We saw several wooden sculptures made in this village too. There were several kind of them. We bought this woman sculpture at 100k IDR (around 7.16 USD) per sculpture. It was the price in 2017.
