Women from Bena were mainly engaged with weaving multicoloured fabrics (ikats), one of the main sources of income, while men were occupied with fieldwork. The most interesting thing was the, mysterious, stony megalithic structures mentioned before, probably the tombs of ancestors of contemporary inhabitants of the village. These structures served as the base of interesting theories concerning the origin of the Ngada people. They believed that they had came from Java and had settled down here about 3 centuries ago. The megaliths, however, were very similar to tombs that could be found in other remote parts of Indonesia, on the islands of Nias, Sumatra, Sumba and Tanimbar or in Malaysia and Laos. A common link seemed to be the Dongson Culture, thriving in southern China and Vietnam 2700 years ago, which later came to Indonesia bringing, among other things the practice of raising monumental stone megaliths. |
