INDONESIA — Wae Rebo Village, a village located in Manggarai Regency, offers beauty and beauty and is a village that has very thick customs. Indeed, the journey to the village which is also dubbed the village on the cloud is quite long. The distance to the village at an altitude of 1,200 meters above sea level (masl) from Labuan Bajo is around 8 hours. From Labuan Bajo by car it takes about 4 hours, then followed by an ojek which goes to the foot of the mountain for about 15 minutes. Then it is continued by walking for about 9 kilometers (km) or about 3 hours to finally reach the village which has also won an award from UNESCO for maintaining its local wisdom.

Arriving at Wae Rebo, the long journey will really pay off with the natural beauty, beauty and traditional houses that are still there and preserved to this day.

In addition, a warm welcome will be immediately given by the community and also the traditional wisdom of Wae Rebo. They welcome the tourists very friendly and in accordance with the traditions they have lived up to now.

One of the things that is unique about Wae Rebo is because it continues to maintain the shape of its traditional house which maintains the form of a traditional Manggarai house called Mbaru Niang.

Mbaru means house and niang means tall and round, so Mbaru Niang means a house that is in the shape of a cone tapering upwards and that house is what makes this place unique.

The shape of the house is a symbol of protection and unity among the residents of Wae Rebo. The circular floor of the building is a symbol of harmony and justice between residents and families.

The seven Mbaru Niangs are a reflection of the ancestral belief in respecting the seven directions of the mountain peaks around Kampung Wae Rebo.

Mbaru Niang consists of five floors, each of which has its own function. As for the 1st floor, it functions as an activity room in which there is a gathering room, a furnace room or a kitchen, and a dining room and bedrooms for 6 to 8 families.

On the 2nd floor, it functions as a storage room for food and goods, the 3rd floor functions as a storage room for field and garden plant seeds. Then on the 4th floor functions as a storage room for food reserves.

Meanwhile, the 5th floor functions as a storage room for offerings for the ancestors in the form of woven bamboo or langkat.

Mbaru Niang building construction is built on a foundation of forest tree logs. The roof covering or called Wehang is made of alang-alang and palm fibers that are installed alternately.

Bamboo book is a support for covering a wall or roof. Bongkok or main pillar as the pivot point of the building and Ngando is the very top of the hunchback pole.

Kampung Wae Rebo really still maintains what its ancestors left behind and is a village with its natural and cultural beauty as well as a unique and authentic village in Manggarai Regency.

For those of you who want to visit Wae Rebo Village, don’t be afraid of lodging problems. Because there is a traditional house that is specifically provided for tourists who want to stay overnight.

The Head of Wae Rebo Tourism Institute Souvenir, Marcelinus Ovan, said, to stay overnight, tourists can pay a price of IDR 320 thousand per night and dinner and breakfast are provided.

Tourists are really invited to experience how to become a community of Wae Rebo Village because they sleep in a traditional house and eat food that is cooked by the residents of Wae Rebo Village.

Not only can you see first hand what the house looks like, how people do activities, in Wae Rebo Village you can also buy a variety of handicrafts from the community, one of which is typical woven cloth and coffee.(Ibn)

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