The Manggarai Region on the Flores, Island Indonesia. Historical and Cultural Circumstances

Abstract

Manggarai, as a region with its own cultural system, appears, likely thousands other regions in the archipelago, not just as a separate field of scientific research, but as a set of value systems that over time formed (and is still forming) the character of individuals to be able to live in a such diverse country, Indonesia. This “being Manggarai/Manggaraian”, which expresses the whole (person, character, customs, beliefs), can be considered as one of the factors of the development of the region (at the micro scale) and the country (at the macro scale) and as a strategy in the dealing with crises in both levels (micro and macro) as well. This article describes the background and cultural characteristics of a region which, in such a diverse and rapidly developing country, continues to keep the cultural remains of its ancestors in a reasonable way.