- Name: Katauda Kawindu (Yard Monument)
- Archive Type: Ritual
- People: Marapu people, Sumba.
- Material: Stone
- Available File(s): Photos
- Keywords: Indigenous religion, sacred ritual, materiality, Sumba, Indonesia.
- Link: –
Every yard of the Marapu people’s house has a sign in the form of a statue called katauda kawindu (yard monument). Katauda usually serves as a place to perform hamayang (Marapu rituals). Katauda takes various shapes and forms; some families install simple stones, while others install stones with carved faces or wooden structures decorated with multiple carvings (Kapita, 1976). Katauda is a sacred statue for the Marapu people. If this statue is damaged for some reason, the Marapu people usually perform a ritual of hamayanag to replace it with a new one and ask for forgiveness from the ancestors. During the harvest season, the Marapu people will also perform hamayang in front of the kawindu ritual to express gratitude to the ancestors in Paraing-Marapu (the village of Marapu).
Photo(s)
Source(s)
- O. H. Kapita, Masyarakat Sumba dan Adat Istiadatnya(Jakarta: BPK Gunung Mulia, 1976).
- D. K. Wielenga, Oemboe Dongga: Het Kampong-Hoofd Op Soemba (Kampen: Uitgave Van J. H. Kok Te Kampen, 1928).
- Krisharyanto Umbu Deta, “Oral-Based Christian-Marapu Interreligious Engagement: Manawara as a Shared Virtue for Common Liberation,” Dialog 44, no. 2 (2021): 178-189.
Curated by Jear Nenohai (November 25, 2024); Edited by Abel K. Aruan (January 30, 2025).