Saturday 3 March 2012
With an area of more than 5,000 km ², the largest island of Nias was among the surrounding islands. Length of 130 km and 45 km wide, located 125 km from the west coast of Sumatra. The island was first isolated as an unstable form of the ground surface so that the road would only be short-lived because the ground always sank to the bottom of the holder.
The island is inhabited by people who own and different cultures makes it a unique tourist attraction because of outside influences still persist for a long time. In the original language, Nias people called themselves "Ono Niha" (Ono means children / descendants; Niha human means) and the island of Nias as "Tano Niha" (meaning land Tano).
Nias is an ancient land. No one knows exactly how long people live here. According
to legend, lives in Nias from Gomo River where the start of the
descendants of six gods and the beginning of human civilization. Therefore, Nias community niha ono call themselves or their 'community'. Of Central Nias then people move to the North and South to develop language, customs and art respectively.Traditionally Nias village was led by the village chief who led the council sesespuh. Nias community adheres to the highest caste hierarchy system is noble, followed by ordinary people and below are the slaves. Nias tribe recognize the caste system (12 degrees Caste). Where the highest levels of caste is "balugu". To achieve this level one must be able to do a big party, inviting thousands and thousands of animals slaughtered pigs for days.The
people of Nias have a strong character and strong hold crusaders
culture, which is why Nias to date is able to survive the entry of
foreign cultures. Nias warrior culture has been going on for centuries when the local villagers who are united and declare war on each other. Inter-village
warfare took place with cruel and ferocious manner, provoked by a sense
of revenge, the issue of slavery, or because of a human head.As well as the culture warriors, the people of Nias is also farmed by growing sweet potatoes, corn and taro. Pigs showed a person's status as the more one has, the higher the pig standing in the village.Historical records of Chinese, Portuguese and Arabic have been exploring Nias. Nias is known as the origin of slavery which then Aceh, Portuguese, and Dutch may have bought slaves from here. In fact, until the 19th century Nias outside world because the only known slave trade.Nias Dutch took over in 1825. Despite
a century and the problems associated with the outside world, the
traditional culture of Nias remained miraculously intact. Nias island residents spread over 650 villages, many of these villages are inaccessible by land.
Gunung Sitoli is the capital city of Nias where facilities are available here for tourists who want to explore the island.
