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Lombok
Lenek is well known as a source of traditional Sasak music and dance, including Tari Pakon, a medicinal trance dance. A man, called Pak Rahil, established a social organization there and he has reinvigorated the performing arts in Lenek. Visitors are invited for a rustic tough healthy stay (the food is health-oriented), and a doses of his world philosophy underneath beautiful views of Mount Rinjani. His organization does a lot of good and he is a true original, but be warned: he may ask for a healthy contribution.
Other villages in East Lombok are strongly Islamic. Some, such as Lendang Nangka, known for its blacksmith industry. Labuhan Haji with its beautiful beach, and Labuhan Lombok a friendly harbor with ferries running to Sumbawa, are well worth visiting even though transportation and lodging are difficult.
Another village, Tetebatu, is a cool mountain retreat with beautiful rice terraces and neighboring black monkeys at the foot of Rinjani. Wisma Sudjono is the sole lodging here, but it is clean and has good food, though a bit expensive. Kotaraja, just south of Tetebatu, still produces some of the best handicrafts in Lombok.
Bonjeruk in Central Lombok is the village of many dalang, or puppeteers, of the shadow play Wayang Sasak, and many of the puppets are made here.
The neighboring villages of Sembalun Bumbung is located in a high, cold valley beside Rinjani, Sembalun and Lawang. There are many hajis (those who-have gone to Mecca) in both villages, but Sembalun Bumbung has retained the older traditions, such as Tandang Mendet, a men’s martial dance, and a unique version of Wayang Wong theater based on the Amir Hamzah stories of world Islamification, while Sembalun Lawang has become an orthodox village banning most of its traditional arts.
Sembalun Bumbung has an old grave, which houses the remains of a Majapahit ancestor, and this is the site of the phenomenal Alip festival ideally held once every three years. The only home stay is in Sembalun Lawang, though you can stay with the village headman of Sembalun Bumbung.
Climbing Mount Rinjani is usually done via Sembalun, and it should only be undertaken during the dry season due to slippery paths during the rainy season. Rinjani is worth a climb. There is lake within its crater, a growing cone, and a number of hot springs. The best route is from the north, by Bayan to Senaro and Batu Kok. Travelers should carry most of their provisions, since these villages have few. A guide is strongly recommended.
Close behind Senggigi is Kuta Beach, an expansive beautiful white sand beach in southern Lombok about 43 km from Cakranegara. The big hotels here are very expensive, the home stays fairly dirty, and the villagers not particularly friendly. There is a lot of petty theft in Kuta and single women are often accosted.
The biggest event in Lombok the Ban Nyale (‘catch sea worm’) ritual is held in Kuta and other southern beaches in early February. This event, which is primarily a secular gathering day, attracts over 100,000 young people to flirt and show themselves off, watch the sea worms spawn, sing improvised pantun poetry, and watch a dramatized dance drama based on the Sasak Puri Nyale myth in which a princess, unable to choose between suitors, throws herself off a cliff into the ocean where she transforms into sea worms. Sea worms are associated with fertility and today farmers still catch them, create a substance from them. Then place if in irrigation channels to help secure fertility.
On the road to Kuta is Sukarare, a village specializing in traditional Sasak weaving and clothing, and Mount Pengsong, the hill the Balinese aimed for the mythic account of their initial arrival to west Lombok. They built an unusual temple on the hill with a wonderful view of Lombok and Bali, and monkeys all around. The festival there includes a sacred procession with a water buffalo up to the temple on top of the hill, where it is ritually sacrificed.
Gerung, near Lembar, is the village of the famous tradition of Cepung, a men’s social dance where they read and sing from the Lontar Monyeh PY (Monkey Manuscript), drink tuak (palm wine), dance and vocally imitate the sound of gamelan instruments.
Visitors to Lombok should not expect the overwhelming cultural experience of Bali, but they can realize a great sense of adventure. Lombok consists of many colorful and distinctive cultures. The ‘dark time’ when religious leaders banned all traditional arts and cultural activities not considered Islam seems over.
Today, artists and young people are finding a new identity and rediscovering cultural influences Javanese, Balinese, Malaysian and Islamic molded together into a colorful whole.
The locals are very interested in visitors and, for the most part, polite and friendly. If respect is shown towards their religious practices and modes of dress and behavior, they are quick to respond positively. Certain areas, like Kuta, are a bit risky and it is better that women travel in company. But, that should not deter the traveler who wants to enjoy the truly unique adventure that is Lombok.
To the east of Bali, across a deep strait, lies the island of Lombok, which administratively is a province and officially named Nusa Tenggara Barat, or West Nusa Tenggara, which historically and culturally are closely and intimately intertwined with Bali.
Soproud are the people of Lombok of their island, that they say that ‘you can find Bali in Lombok, but you cannot find Lombok in Bali’.
In many important ways, Lombok is quite different from Bali. Its climate is drier, and her land more rugged. And with 1.6 million inhabitants, a majority of who are Muslim Sasaks; Lombok is only about half as densely populated.
To reach Lombok you can go by air or by sea. There are several daily flights from Bali to Lombok (which is only 20 minute flying distance). A new daily flight is also available from Surabaya to Lombok. There are two, sometimes three ferries shuttling between Padang Bai in Bali and Lembar in Lombok throughout the day.
Only about 10 percent of Lombok’s inhabitants are Hindu Balinese and almost all of whom live in towns and villages in the tiny western central plain of the island.
The vast majority of Lombok’s inhabitants are Sasaks and they divide themselves into two more or less distinct groups: the Waktu-Telu who lived on the slopes of the mountains and whose customs are still basically pagan with some Muslim influence, and the Waktu-Lima who inhabits the lowlands and the coasts and are today fervent Muslims.
The patchwork layout of west Lombok’s Hindu and Sasak communities, between whom there is some smoldering antagonism, has given rise to an interesting spectrum of customs and juxta position of architectural modes. On the one hand, there are formal walled Balinese villages (including Mataram and Cakranegara) with their kulkul drum towers, central meeting pavilions and banjar system of community organization. And on the other hand, there are white washed Muslim Sasak kampungs with their open compounds.
In the mountain tribal villages of the Waktu-Telu, such as Pujung and Sengkol in southern central Lombok, one finds still another type of village traditional hyperbolic shaped thatched huts supported by roughly hewn wooden beams, with wide strips of bamboo and tree branches interwoven to form walls and partitions.
The three main towns in West Lombok of Ampenan, Mataram and Cakranegara are linked and collectively create a large urban sprawl. Mataram, center of this configuration, is the administrative hub of the political and cultural of Lombok. Provincial government offices are located here, as well as major businesses, banks, mosques, bookstores, the main post office, and Mataram University. Changing money is not a problem at most banks, including those in Cakranegara. Larger hotels also have money-changing services.
The National Museum in Mataram houses historical and cultural artifacts of Lombok and Sumbawa and occasionally hosts special exhibits that are informative and well worth seeing. The Chinese-owned Garden House Restaurant, a highly recommended restaurant, lies along Jalan Pejanggik in Mataram. The Indonesian and Chinese dishes are delicious, though somewhat moved expensive than in other restaurants.
Just west of Mataram is Ampenan. With its numerous shops, cheap hotels, dusty roads, plentiful horse-drawn dokar and cidomo carts, Islamic book stores, and its ‘Arab quarter’, Ampenan is easily the most colorful town of Lombok. The Arab traders, who are a substantial and highly respected minority, were drawn to Ampenan when it was the only harbor for incoming and outgoing ships.
Now the major shipping comes in at Lembar, and Ampenan is used only for fishing and shipping cattle. Many Arabs and other businessmen have instead established numerous art shops, which specialize in antiques. The beach at Ampenan is the frequently used for showing movies, for performances of the social dance Gandrung, or for the shadow play Wayang Sasak. Sometimes all three of these go on simultaneously, while young people flirt or create mischief on the beach. Hotel Zahir and Losmen Pabean are among the acceptable lodgings. The provincial Tourist Office is near Mataram on Jalan Langko, a strongly recommended stop for all first-time visitors to Lombok.
Third of the linked urban centers, Cakranegara, on the East Side of Mataram, is the main market center and the home to many Chinese and Balines. The market offers everything from food, clothing, handicrafts, and even audiotapes.
Much of the weaving and the basket industry are located in Cakranegara. The baskets, in particular, are sold to middlemen, taken to Bali, and then sold to tourists at many times the Lombok price.
Several important Balinese temples are also located in Cakranegara, foremost of which are Pura Meru and Pura Mayura. Pura Meru, the largest temple with its giant meru for the Hindu trinity (Siva, Vishnu, Brahma), is the ‘navel temple’ for over 33 wards of Balinese descendants, and its annual Pujawali festival, held over five days during the September or October full moon, is the biggest Balinese event in Lombok.
Pura Mayura, built in 1744, was the court temple of past kingdoms. Although the temple proper is fenced off, the Mayura water gardens are spectacular and retain the splendor of meditative court life. Balinese performing arts that are difficult to find in Bali are often presented at the home of I Wayan Kartawirya at Karang Songkang in Cakranegara Timur.
Other notable Balinese temples include Pura Narmada, Pura Suranadi, and Pura Lingsar. The structure and pool at Narmada, 10 km east of Cakranegara, were reportedly built in 1805 as a replica of Mount Rinjani and Segara Anak, the lake within its caldera, so that an elderly king would not have to undertake the annual required trek to Segara Anak to throw in crafted gold pieces as offerings to request rainfall.
Segara Anak is still the site for the annual pilgrimage and occurs during the full moon of either October or November. The other pools at Narmada are available for swimming, and local kids swim for hours and hours. The gardens at Narmada are splendid and are now the site of weekly performances of Gandrung, Kendang Belek and other traditional dances.
Pura Suranadi, actually a complex of three temples located a few kilometers north of Narmada, is the oldest of the Balinese holy places in Lombok and founded by the legendary figure Pedanda Wawu Rauh to obtain the proper holy water for cremations. As expensive lodging, Suranadi Hotel, is located right beside the temple, and has a fair restaurant and a large spring-fed, cool pool for swimming. Both Pura Suranadi and Pura Lingsar have sacred spring-fed pools, within the temple grounds, home of large fresh water eels called ikan tuna. Visitors are welcome to feed the eels with hardboiled eggs, which can be purchased at nearby stands.
Pura Lingsar, comprising two temples, is the mother temple of Lombok, not only for the Balinese, but also for the Waktu Telu. This is the temple where even local Chinese, Buddhist, Christians, and occasionally Waktu Lima come to pray for prosperity, rainwater, fertility, health and general success. The temple is associated with irrigation and rice, and the annual festival there features a ritualized war, the Perang Topat, which acts as an offering and activates the power of the Topat-cooked rice squares fastened with banana leaves as charms of ty.
While the main courtyards of both temples symbolically unite the deities of Bali and Lombok, the second courtyards, called kemaliq, contain sacred pools and unique altars of rocks reminiscent of ancient megalithic worship.
The festival, held during the November or December full moon, brings together sacred Balinese performing arts, such as Gamelan Gong Kuna orchestras and the Canang Sari dance, along with sacred Sasak arts, such as the Gamelan Tambur ensemble and Batek ans dance. This is the only event, which ties together the Balinese, and Sasak and it is the second biggest event in Lombok.
Other traditional Sasak rites include the Alip and Gwe festivals.
Rare today, these celebrations occasionally occur in villages such as Bayan in the north, Lenek in the east, and Sembalun Bumbung next to Mount Rinjani. These villages are known for their retained Waktu Telu traditions and customs.
Senggigi, about 10 km north of Ampenan, is fast becoming established as the main tourist area in Lombok. With its beautiful unpopulated beaches, picturesque views of Mount Agung in Bali, good coral for diving, and millions invested for tourism, infrastructure Senggigi is an attractive place to stay. The massive Senggigi Beach Hotel Sheraton and Senggigi Palace Hotel have great locations and wonderfull pools. The Sasak Beach Cottages is slightly less pretentious. Lodgings of all standards are popping up every other month.
Batulayar near Senggigi has an important ancestor grave, called Makam, where nominal Muslims come to picnic and pray for health and success. There are many Makam all over Lombok, as the graves of all important religious leaders become shrines. The Makamat Batulayar is near Pura Batu Belong (literally ‘rock hole’), a Balinese temple on a cliff facing Bali.
Bayan, a source of early Islam, maintains old dance and poetic traditions as well as Kemidi Rudat; a theater based on the 1,001 Nights’ fables. Getting to Bayan is via the northern road, which also passes Tanjung, another interesting village in which live Sasak Muslims, Balinese Hindus, and Sasak Buddhists known as Boda. Next to Tanjung is Pamenang, which has a beautiful beach and boats to go to the three best diving and snorkeling islands in Lombok: Gili Air, Gili Meno, and Gili Trawangan.
These three islands are equal in good for under water exploration, and equipment can be obtained there, though it is better to bring your own. There are many home stays, the best of which seem to be on Gili Trawangan, the furthest island from Pemenang and most difficult to reach.
Soproud are the people of Lombok of their island, that they say that ‘you can find Bali in Lombok, but you cannot find Lombok in Bali’.
In many important ways, Lombok is quite different from Bali. Its climate is drier, and her land more rugged. And with 1.6 million inhabitants, a majority of who are Muslim Sasaks; Lombok is only about half as densely populated.
To reach Lombok you can go by air or by sea. There are several daily flights from Bali to Lombok (which is only 20 minute flying distance). A new daily flight is also available from Surabaya to Lombok. There are two, sometimes three ferries shuttling between Padang Bai in Bali and Lembar in Lombok throughout the day.
Only about 10 percent of Lombok’s inhabitants are Hindu Balinese and almost all of whom live in towns and villages in the tiny western central plain of the island.
The vast majority of Lombok’s inhabitants are Sasaks and they divide themselves into two more or less distinct groups: the Waktu-Telu who lived on the slopes of the mountains and whose customs are still basically pagan with some Muslim influence, and the Waktu-Lima who inhabits the lowlands and the coasts and are today fervent Muslims.
The patchwork layout of west Lombok’s Hindu and Sasak communities, between whom there is some smoldering antagonism, has given rise to an interesting spectrum of customs and juxta position of architectural modes. On the one hand, there are formal walled Balinese villages (including Mataram and Cakranegara) with their kulkul drum towers, central meeting pavilions and banjar system of community organization. And on the other hand, there are white washed Muslim Sasak kampungs with their open compounds.
In the mountain tribal villages of the Waktu-Telu, such as Pujung and Sengkol in southern central Lombok, one finds still another type of village traditional hyperbolic shaped thatched huts supported by roughly hewn wooden beams, with wide strips of bamboo and tree branches interwoven to form walls and partitions.
The three main towns in West Lombok of Ampenan, Mataram and Cakranegara are linked and collectively create a large urban sprawl. Mataram, center of this configuration, is the administrative hub of the political and cultural of Lombok. Provincial government offices are located here, as well as major businesses, banks, mosques, bookstores, the main post office, and Mataram University. Changing money is not a problem at most banks, including those in Cakranegara. Larger hotels also have money-changing services.
The National Museum in Mataram houses historical and cultural artifacts of Lombok and Sumbawa and occasionally hosts special exhibits that are informative and well worth seeing. The Chinese-owned Garden House Restaurant, a highly recommended restaurant, lies along Jalan Pejanggik in Mataram. The Indonesian and Chinese dishes are delicious, though somewhat moved expensive than in other restaurants.
Just west of Mataram is Ampenan. With its numerous shops, cheap hotels, dusty roads, plentiful horse-drawn dokar and cidomo carts, Islamic book stores, and its ‘Arab quarter’, Ampenan is easily the most colorful town of Lombok. The Arab traders, who are a substantial and highly respected minority, were drawn to Ampenan when it was the only harbor for incoming and outgoing ships.
Now the major shipping comes in at Lembar, and Ampenan is used only for fishing and shipping cattle. Many Arabs and other businessmen have instead established numerous art shops, which specialize in antiques. The beach at Ampenan is the frequently used for showing movies, for performances of the social dance Gandrung, or for the shadow play Wayang Sasak. Sometimes all three of these go on simultaneously, while young people flirt or create mischief on the beach. Hotel Zahir and Losmen Pabean are among the acceptable lodgings. The provincial Tourist Office is near Mataram on Jalan Langko, a strongly recommended stop for all first-time visitors to Lombok.
Third of the linked urban centers, Cakranegara, on the East Side of Mataram, is the main market center and the home to many Chinese and Balines. The market offers everything from food, clothing, handicrafts, and even audiotapes.
Much of the weaving and the basket industry are located in Cakranegara. The baskets, in particular, are sold to middlemen, taken to Bali, and then sold to tourists at many times the Lombok price.
Several important Balinese temples are also located in Cakranegara, foremost of which are Pura Meru and Pura Mayura. Pura Meru, the largest temple with its giant meru for the Hindu trinity (Siva, Vishnu, Brahma), is the ‘navel temple’ for over 33 wards of Balinese descendants, and its annual Pujawali festival, held over five days during the September or October full moon, is the biggest Balinese event in Lombok.
Pura Mayura, built in 1744, was the court temple of past kingdoms. Although the temple proper is fenced off, the Mayura water gardens are spectacular and retain the splendor of meditative court life. Balinese performing arts that are difficult to find in Bali are often presented at the home of I Wayan Kartawirya at Karang Songkang in Cakranegara Timur.
Other notable Balinese temples include Pura Narmada, Pura Suranadi, and Pura Lingsar. The structure and pool at Narmada, 10 km east of Cakranegara, were reportedly built in 1805 as a replica of Mount Rinjani and Segara Anak, the lake within its caldera, so that an elderly king would not have to undertake the annual required trek to Segara Anak to throw in crafted gold pieces as offerings to request rainfall.
Segara Anak is still the site for the annual pilgrimage and occurs during the full moon of either October or November. The other pools at Narmada are available for swimming, and local kids swim for hours and hours. The gardens at Narmada are splendid and are now the site of weekly performances of Gandrung, Kendang Belek and other traditional dances.
Pura Suranadi, actually a complex of three temples located a few kilometers north of Narmada, is the oldest of the Balinese holy places in Lombok and founded by the legendary figure Pedanda Wawu Rauh to obtain the proper holy water for cremations. As expensive lodging, Suranadi Hotel, is located right beside the temple, and has a fair restaurant and a large spring-fed, cool pool for swimming. Both Pura Suranadi and Pura Lingsar have sacred spring-fed pools, within the temple grounds, home of large fresh water eels called ikan tuna. Visitors are welcome to feed the eels with hardboiled eggs, which can be purchased at nearby stands.
Pura Lingsar, comprising two temples, is the mother temple of Lombok, not only for the Balinese, but also for the Waktu Telu. This is the temple where even local Chinese, Buddhist, Christians, and occasionally Waktu Lima come to pray for prosperity, rainwater, fertility, health and general success. The temple is associated with irrigation and rice, and the annual festival there features a ritualized war, the Perang Topat, which acts as an offering and activates the power of the Topat-cooked rice squares fastened with banana leaves as charms of ty.
While the main courtyards of both temples symbolically unite the deities of Bali and Lombok, the second courtyards, called kemaliq, contain sacred pools and unique altars of rocks reminiscent of ancient megalithic worship.
The festival, held during the November or December full moon, brings together sacred Balinese performing arts, such as Gamelan Gong Kuna orchestras and the Canang Sari dance, along with sacred Sasak arts, such as the Gamelan Tambur ensemble and Batek ans dance. This is the only event, which ties together the Balinese, and Sasak and it is the second biggest event in Lombok.
Other traditional Sasak rites include the Alip and Gwe festivals.
Rare today, these celebrations occasionally occur in villages such as Bayan in the north, Lenek in the east, and Sembalun Bumbung next to Mount Rinjani. These villages are known for their retained Waktu Telu traditions and customs.
Senggigi, about 10 km north of Ampenan, is fast becoming established as the main tourist area in Lombok. With its beautiful unpopulated beaches, picturesque views of Mount Agung in Bali, good coral for diving, and millions invested for tourism, infrastructure Senggigi is an attractive place to stay. The massive Senggigi Beach Hotel Sheraton and Senggigi Palace Hotel have great locations and wonderfull pools. The Sasak Beach Cottages is slightly less pretentious. Lodgings of all standards are popping up every other month.
Batulayar near Senggigi has an important ancestor grave, called Makam, where nominal Muslims come to picnic and pray for health and success. There are many Makam all over Lombok, as the graves of all important religious leaders become shrines. The Makamat Batulayar is near Pura Batu Belong (literally ‘rock hole’), a Balinese temple on a cliff facing Bali.
Bayan, a source of early Islam, maintains old dance and poetic traditions as well as Kemidi Rudat; a theater based on the 1,001 Nights’ fables. Getting to Bayan is via the northern road, which also passes Tanjung, another interesting village in which live Sasak Muslims, Balinese Hindus, and Sasak Buddhists known as Boda. Next to Tanjung is Pamenang, which has a beautiful beach and boats to go to the three best diving and snorkeling islands in Lombok: Gili Air, Gili Meno, and Gili Trawangan.
These three islands are equal in good for under water exploration, and equipment can be obtained there, though it is better to bring your own. There are many home stays, the best of which seem to be on Gili Trawangan, the furthest island from Pemenang and most difficult to reach.
- CENTRAL AND EAST LOMBOK
Lenek is well known as a source of traditional Sasak music and dance, including Tari Pakon, a medicinal trance dance. A man, called Pak Rahil, established a social organization there and he has reinvigorated the performing arts in Lenek. Visitors are invited for a rustic tough healthy stay (the food is health-oriented), and a doses of his world philosophy underneath beautiful views of Mount Rinjani. His organization does a lot of good and he is a true original, but be warned: he may ask for a healthy contribution.Other villages in East Lombok are strongly Islamic. Some, such as Lendang Nangka, known for its blacksmith industry. Labuhan Haji with its beautiful beach, and Labuhan Lombok a friendly harbor with ferries running to Sumbawa, are well worth visiting even though transportation and lodging are difficult.
Another village, Tetebatu, is a cool mountain retreat with beautiful rice terraces and neighboring black monkeys at the foot of Rinjani. Wisma Sudjono is the sole lodging here, but it is clean and has good food, though a bit expensive. Kotaraja, just south of Tetebatu, still produces some of the best handicrafts in Lombok.
Bonjeruk in Central Lombok is the village of many dalang, or puppeteers, of the shadow play Wayang Sasak, and many of the puppets are made here.
The neighboring villages of Sembalun Bumbung is located in a high, cold valley beside Rinjani, Sembalun and Lawang. There are many hajis (those who-have gone to Mecca) in both villages, but Sembalun Bumbung has retained the older traditions, such as Tandang Mendet, a men’s martial dance, and a unique version of Wayang Wong theater based on the Amir Hamzah stories of world Islamification, while Sembalun Lawang has become an orthodox village banning most of its traditional arts.
Sembalun Bumbung has an old grave, which houses the remains of a Majapahit ancestor, and this is the site of the phenomenal Alip festival ideally held once every three years. The only home stay is in Sembalun Lawang, though you can stay with the village headman of Sembalun Bumbung.
Climbing Mount Rinjani is usually done via Sembalun, and it should only be undertaken during the dry season due to slippery paths during the rainy season. Rinjani is worth a climb. There is lake within its crater, a growing cone, and a number of hot springs. The best route is from the north, by Bayan to Senaro and Batu Kok. Travelers should carry most of their provisions, since these villages have few. A guide is strongly recommended.
Close behind Senggigi is Kuta Beach, an expansive beautiful white sand beach in southern Lombok about 43 km from Cakranegara. The big hotels here are very expensive, the home stays fairly dirty, and the villagers not particularly friendly. There is a lot of petty theft in Kuta and single women are often accosted.
The biggest event in Lombok the Ban Nyale (‘catch sea worm’) ritual is held in Kuta and other southern beaches in early February. This event, which is primarily a secular gathering day, attracts over 100,000 young people to flirt and show themselves off, watch the sea worms spawn, sing improvised pantun poetry, and watch a dramatized dance drama based on the Sasak Puri Nyale myth in which a princess, unable to choose between suitors, throws herself off a cliff into the ocean where she transforms into sea worms. Sea worms are associated with fertility and today farmers still catch them, create a substance from them. Then place if in irrigation channels to help secure fertility.
On the road to Kuta is Sukarare, a village specializing in traditional Sasak weaving and clothing, and Mount Pengsong, the hill the Balinese aimed for the mythic account of their initial arrival to west Lombok. They built an unusual temple on the hill with a wonderful view of Lombok and Bali, and monkeys all around. The festival there includes a sacred procession with a water buffalo up to the temple on top of the hill, where it is ritually sacrificed.
Gerung, near Lembar, is the village of the famous tradition of Cepung, a men’s social dance where they read and sing from the Lontar Monyeh PY (Monkey Manuscript), drink tuak (palm wine), dance and vocally imitate the sound of gamelan instruments.
Visitors to Lombok should not expect the overwhelming cultural experience of Bali, but they can realize a great sense of adventure. Lombok consists of many colorful and distinctive cultures. The ‘dark time’ when religious leaders banned all traditional arts and cultural activities not considered Islam seems over.
Today, artists and young people are finding a new identity and rediscovering cultural influences Javanese, Balinese, Malaysian and Islamic molded together into a colorful whole.