Sade traditional village in Rembitan, Central Lombok, is positively the best place to get the vibe of Sasaknese, the indigenous community of Lombok island, West Nusa Tenggara. In fact, 700 Sasaknese residing in the village, all of them are strongly working together to keep the culture and tradition alive.

Sade Village contains 150 houses built in the traditional Sasak style called Bale Tani with wooden frames, woven-bamboo walls, soil floor and dried grass roof. The uniqueness of this traditional house lies on the floor that uses wet cow or buffalo dung to mop – aim to keep the warmth and repel flies and mosquitos. However, after it dried, it didn’t smell dung at all. This often surprises many tourists.

Another distinct feature of Sade Village is the bonnet-shaped rice barn (granary) known as “lumbungan”. The Sasak people store their paddies in the “lumbungan”, which is usually shared between 5 – 6 families.

All Sasaknese women are taught to weave from a young age. They said that a girl cannot marry if she doesn’t know how to weave. Their traditional woven cloth, Tenun Ikat, is made through intensive process. The whole process of dyeing and weaving can take months to finish a high-quality product.

Visitors can buy the clothes at the homes that are converted into storefronts for Sasak fabrics like ikat (a colorful rainbow cloth using traditional patterns) and songket (cloth with gold and silver threads woven throughout). The ladies also sell products made from their clothing, including bags, hats, bands and table runners.

As visitors come, a group of young Sasaknese stand on the main entrance to welcome them, smiling and offering services to tour the village. Visitors can also enjoy some cultural performances in the village. Those cultural performances are:

In the past, Tarian Gendang Beleq (Big Drum) was performed on important occasions. Particularly, to accompany soldiers to and from the battlefield. Today, the Sasak performs Gendang Belek during traditional ceremonies such as “Merariq” (marriage ceremony), “Sunatan” (circumcision ceremony) and “Ngurisang” (aqiqah).

The Petuk dance is performed during circumcision of boys around 7 – 12 years of age. In Lombok, the circumcision ceremony is celebrated as lavishly as a marriage ceremony. Peresean dance is a ritual fake fight between two warriors with sticks and shields. It symbolizes the manhood of the Sasak men. Amaq Tempengus dance where a man heavily draped in a funny dress danced to the music and recited dialogues in Sasak language.

Sasak Sade Village is one of the living museums of Lombok’s indigenous art, culture & traditions. Here, its people live their ways of life in the customs that they have grown up with.

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Pictures from : https://matta-tour.com/site/2017/09/28/visiting-the-sasaks-traditional-village-in-lombok/