The lontar palm has been the economic backbone of the islands of Rote and Sawu. These islands have depended on these trees for their food and livelihood for centuries. Similarly the coastal plain of Timor around Kupang Bay and Semau Island are part of this lontar economy.
The lontar palm [Borassus sundaicus] has been called the “tree of life” by these people. The lontar has hundreds of uses. The wood of the trunk is used for tools and housing. The leaves are used for thatch, buckets, baskets and fertiliser, hats and musical instruments.
Most importantly the lontar palm produces a sugary sap that is food for people and animals. In fact this is a traditional staple - like rice or corn in other parts of Indonesia. The syrup is made into a beer, or processed further to become gin. Some can actually be lit it’s alcohol content is so high!
The population of Rote and Sawu have used the sweet sap of the lontar as their staple food for centuries. Lontar sap, called tuak in Indonesian is 10 - 15% sucrose. It is therefore a good source of carbohydrate. The tuak is drunk directly from the tree or is boiled down to become a thick treacle for storage. This syrup is mixed with water. Many glasses are consumed during the day as food. Lontar syrup is used instead of mother’s milk if necessary.
The lontar grows to about 30m high and about 90cm thick. Both male and female trees produce tuak. A good tree produces about 600 litres per season. The trees are tapped both morning and evenings. When boiled down this produces about 70kg of hard sugar. If properly looked after a tree can produce tuak for 40 years. The lontar reliably produce in times of drought or famine.
The tuak tappers carefully clear away dead fronds as they approach a mature tree for the first time. The many sharp and protective thorns on the fronds are removed, too. Once reaching the top the long rachillae are sliced at the end then squeezed to produce the sap which flows into buckets.
With the lontar economy both Sawu and Rote developed quite differently to other areas in NTT. The main part of the day free left the working men time to hunt, fish, grow livestock and obtain an education. In Timor and Sumba the people used swidden agriculture. This lifestyle required much harder work, less free time, and relative isolation.
The differences in economy and lifestyle gave Rote and Sawu an advantage in the colonial period. Being small islands Rote and Sawu quickly realised that it would be pointless and disastrous to resist the Dutch. They submitted to Dutch rule - and with it came missionaries and education. When the Dutch began encouraging migration to Kupang these educated people became public servants, policemen and soldiers. During the struggle for Independence 1945 -1949 these people were leaders, such as El Tari who fought in Java as well as NTT.
Questions / Activities
1. How did the people from Rote and Sawu obtain positions of influence on the island of Timor? 2. List as many uses for the lontar palm as you can find. 3. Why is the lontar palm called the tree of life? 4. What is the content of tuak? How come this can be used as a staple food? 5. On a map of NTT locate the areas that are involved in lontar tapping. 6. Make ginger beer (our version of tuak) at home or in the class room. Follow the recipe below to make the initial plant:
Mum Sidey’s Ginger Beer Recipe
Plant - juice 1/2 lemon
1 table spoon sugar
1 teaspoon real ginger
1 litre water
Stand 4 days then pour off most of the water.
Feed - everyday for 7 days with 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of ginger,
Beer - Put 1 kg packet plus 1/2 cup sugar into a bucket. Dissolve the sugar with hot water and almost fill with water. Add juice of 6 lemons. Put plant into a thin old tea towel and soak it in the bucket for almost 2 hours. Squeeze out the plant into the beer (ie strain it). Seal the beer in containers for approximately 1 week.
Plant - throw out half the plant. Place the rest in a jar with one cup of beer. Feed as before.
7. Collect banana leaves or palm fronds and try to make containers or mats. See if Indonesian people in your community can assist with this task. 8. Go to your local botanical gardens and find a lontar palm or other sugar palms such as the Nipa. Ask the gardeners there for some lontar seeds and grow them as a long term school project. 9. On the net find sites that promote the use of palm sugar from the lontar palm. [Try these key words: palm sugar, borassus palm, palmyra palm sugar]. What did you find? How could you order some of the products which you found?
