A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post
Lamalera village in Lambata island, East Nusa Tenggara, is reportedly the only place in the country that is home to traditional whalers, known locally as Lamafa.
Using wooden sailing boats on the Sawu sea, a lamafa jumps from the boat and stabs the whale with a bamboo harpoon that has a sharp steel tip. The whaler spears the mammal several times.
The whaling tradition was established hundreds of years ago even before Catholic missionaries entered the province in the 1500s.
To mark the beginning of the whaling season, which runs from May through August, the villagers hold traditional rituals to commemorate their ancestors and bless their lamafa.
Religion came and changed the rituals into two mass prayers: an evening requiem for the ancestors and lamafa who have died during whaling in the Sawu sea, and a morning mass to bless the whalers.
A rule in the village says that lamafa are forbidden from killing blue whales since they are considered friendly to humans.
"There was a legend that a blue whale once helped our ancestors from drowning in the sea," said Abel O Beding, a tribal village leader.
According to a recent survey carried out by the World Wide Fund for Nature (Indonesia), among 27 species of whale in the world, 11 are found in the Sawu sea, including blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) and sperm whales (Physeter macrochepalus).
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