Nyale Ritual – Wainyapu, West Sumba

Nyale are sea worms. Once a year they appear on the shores of West Sumba and play an important role in the traditional animistic Marapu believe of the Sumbanese. Early morning after the first sightings of the worms the villagers collect the Nyale. The abundance of worms forecasts the abundance of the coming rice harvest as well as other good or bad omen that may come to the village. The worms also signal the arrival of ancestral spirits to give consent to the Pasola, a war game ritual where two sides on horseback fight each other in a spear throwing battle.