Texts & pictures: The human environment


	Lombok

Western coast discovery (1/2) | Western coast discovery (2/2) | The Gili islands | Beaches and nature | The human environment | Around Lombok with Willy by motorcycle

The human environment

Paddy fields planted with trees to make them more fertile, in the northern part of Lombok.

Men singing folk songs while preparing the plowing of the fields with buffaloes, northern Lombok.

Willy in the traditional village of Segenter, in the northern part of Lombok.

Burning of a pile of coconut remains along the road, in the north-west of Lombok.

Everywhere we went in Lombok, the land reminded us of how fertile and generous this land is, and of how man has so well adapted himself to use it. Most often bare-handed, sometimes with tools or domestic animals, he takes advantage of the fact that everything grows easily thanks to the sun and to the rains that fall when the clouds are stopped by the Rinjani. We were only passers by, and yet we could not help but enjoy this typically Indonesian harmony.
Gathered in small villages of several hundred souls, the Sasak people do not seem to have changed their way of life in spite of the modern world. A fence surrounds the houses, and another one surrounds the whole village so as to protect the animals as well. On top of it all, it's always cool enough inside the huts, thanks to the use of natural building material.
Nature is even sometimes so generous that man must act in what seemed to us a spectacular way, such as by burning coconuts next to the road instead of using them for cooking food in the huts. One can only hope that this prosperity will last for many years to come in Lombok!