Monthly Photos　April 2014

Photos taken by ILCAA staff and associates are posted here once a month; most of them are taken during their field research in Asia and Africa.

(The copyright belongs to the photographers.)

The Tombstone of Puang Bonga

Sumbawa, one of the Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia, is said to have had a strong cultural or political connection to the authority of South Sulawesi, and this tombstone is one of the examples.

This tombstone stands at Labu Burung village in the northern coast of Sumbawa Island. Most of the inhabitants of this small fishing village are descendants of immigrants from South Sulawesi. According to the local people, Puang Bonga (Lord Bonga), who is buried under the tombstone, was washed up in Sumbawa after sailing from Makasssar, South Sulawesi. After he settled, some of his relatives followed him and they formed a colony of Sulawesi immigrants here.

Buginese letters are observed here, but what is written and the language is not clear.

28 FEB 2014
Labu Burung village, Sumbawa prefecture, West Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia
Photograph by Dedy Mulyadi／Caption by Asako SHIOHARA

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