Sasak Culture and Villages in Lombok and the Gili Islands

Part of the Lombok and the Gili Islands travel guide — see every topic in All Lombok and the Gili Islands Guides.

Lombok's population is around ninety per cent Sasak, an Austronesian people whose language and culture are distinct from Balinese, and predominantly Muslim — which makes the island culturally closer to Java and Sumbawa than to its famous neighbour. A minority practise Wetu Telu, a syncretic tradition blending Islam with older animist and Hindu-Buddhist elements. Several traditional villages maintain their original architecture and are open to visitors, and the island's weaving and pottery traditions are commercially alive rather than preserved.

The traditional villages

Sade and Ende, both near Rembitan on the road between Praya and Kuta, are the two most visited: clusters of bale houses with steep thatched roofs and bamboo walls, raised granaries called lumbung with their distinctive curved roofs, and packed-earth floors that are traditionally maintained with a mixture including buffalo dung, which is said to keep insects out. Guides from the village show you round for a donation. Both are genuinely inhabited and genuinely commercial — expect a sales pitch for weaving at the end, which is how the arrangement works.

Weaving and pottery

Sukarara, near Praya, is the weaving village: songket with supplementary gold and silver thread and ikat where the yarn is tie-dyed before weaving, done on backstrap looms, with a complex cloth taking weeks or months. Visitors can try the loom and buy directly. Banyumulek, Penujak and Masbagik are the pottery villages, producing distinctive burnished terracotta water jars and bowls that are exported. Buying from the village rather than a Senggigi shop is cheaper and puts the money with the maker.

Customs and events

Peresean is a Sasak stick-fighting contest in which two men fight with rattan sticks and buffalo-hide shields, historically as a rain ritual and now as a festival event and a tourist demonstration — it is real, it draws blood, and it is performed at festivals across the island. Bau Nyale, in February or March, is a mass overnight gathering on the south coast to catch sea worms that swarm once a year, tied to the legend of Princess Mandalika; it is one of the largest events on Lombok's calendar.

Visiting respectfully

Lombok is a conservative Muslim island and dress standards outside the beach areas and the Gilis are noticeably more modest than Bali's: shoulders and knees covered in villages and towns, and swimwear strictly for the beach. During Ramadan, refrain from eating, drinking and smoking in public during daylight, and be aware that many warungs close in the day. Ask before photographing people. In the traditional villages, a donation and buying a piece of cloth is the expected exchange for the visit.

Sasak Culture and Villages at a glance

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