Manggarai people: who farms the spider web rice fields

By Spider Web Rice Field Editorial Desk

The Manggarai people are the ethnic group of western Flores whose customary land system produced the spider web rice fields. Encyclopedia.com calls them the island's largest group, counting 575,000 people in 2000. Wikipedia describes more than 90% as Catholic. Coffee, maize and rice are the main crops, and older beliefs and ceremonies continue alongside the church.

Who are the Manggarai people?

They live in the western third of Flores, and Encyclopedia.com calls them the island's largest ethnic group. Figures for them are old or measure something else, so the table gives each with its year. Do not treat the regency total as a count of the Manggarai: the regency is one of three that were once a single unit, and Mongabay refers to all three in writing about west Flores rice.

Encyclopedia.com dates the start of Dutch rule to 1907. For a visitor at Cancar, the relevant point is simpler: the people working the plots below the ridge are the holders of this tradition, living in it now, and the fields are not a heritage display.

What language do they speak?

Manggarai, which divides into dialects, though the count depends on who is counting. Encyclopedia.com describes Western, Central and Eastern dialects and says the speech is not understood by peoples further east. Wikipedia gives about 43 sub-dialects of Tombo Manggarai in 5 groups. The two descriptions cannot both be the full picture, and neither is specific to one village.

What can be said of Cancar is that the vocabulary of the fields is Manggarai, and residents there use it when explaining their land, as the Cancar resident who spoke of the moso formula did with Mongabay. Our note on the meaning of lodok covers several of those terms. A saying recorded by Kompas (2017) shows how the language folds land into community: gendang one lingko peang, where there is a customary house, there is land outside it.

What is their religion?

Catholicism, for the large majority, if Wikipedia's figure holds. Encyclopedia.com says Catholic work began in earnest in 1917, ten years after Dutch rule started, and older practice did not vanish. Liputan6 describes Teing Hang, feeding the ancestors, held at year end, New Year and important occasions. A peer-reviewed study describes Penti as an annual Manggarai ceremony and argues that ritual locations reflect the Manggarai cosmological view of nature. Read our guide to the Penti ceremony for how it runs.

How does the supreme being figure in tradition?

Encyclopedia.com says Manggarai folktales centre on Mori Karaeng, the supreme being; the ISVS study spells the name Mori Kraeng. Below that level, the ritual calendar addresses ancestors and guardian spirits at particular places. Wikipedia lists Barong Lodok, inviting the guardian spirit to the lingko centre, and Barong Wae at springs, both within Penti. Water and land are therefore part of the same ritual attention, which is unsurprising in a farming society and helps explain why a field centre can be treated as sacred.

How do they make a living?

Farming, above all. Encyclopedia.com calls the region among Indonesia's largest coffee areas, with maize and rice as the main crops, and says the valleys around Ruteng are Flores' largest wet-rice area. Around the fields, GeoKepo notes coffee, clove and cocoa on the slopes. ASITA NTT, a travel-agent association, lists ikat textiles and Arabica coffee among local products. Water buffalo carry weight beyond farm work: Encyclopedia.com describes them as status symbols slaughtered at customary ceremonies.

Wet rice itself has a disputed origin story. A Cancar resident told Mongabay that farming developed under the local raja of 1931 to 1945, who sent people to learn rice and coffee growing in Singaraja, Bali. Encyclopedia.com credits the Dutch, who brought Balinese prisoners in 1918 to lay out wet-rice fields and afterwards sent Manggarai to study in Bima. Both agree only that the skills arrived from outside fairly recently.

According to Komodo Trekker, an operator, visitors add some income: local families maintain the area and often sell coffee at the top, and entrance contributions support them. The wider setting is similar north of town, where the regency office describes Liang Bua facing coffee gardens, rice fields and the Wae Racang river, and Duniart, a photo site, finds traditional and colonial influence in Ruteng's market, cathedral and coffee. Against that, a study of Meler says rice there is mainly for household use, so most of what you see from the ridge is food for the people who grew it.

How did Manggarai custom produce the spider web pattern?

Through the customary allocation of land. The regency tourism office describes lingko as land divided among residents of the customary area and links the shape to the value of togetherness. The Jakarta Post names the tu'a teno as the elder managing allocation, at the mbaru gendang, and the ISVS study treats drum house and lingko as joined elements of Manggarai identity, an idea explored further on our page about how lingko rice fields work. That study also calls the system unique to Manggarai, which is the authors' claim. It also reports that lingko land has been split into smaller individual plots, so custom is under pressure as well as alive.

Where might a visitor meet Manggarai culture?

Mostly at occasions held for the community. The regency office says the caci dance, fought with whip and shield, is usually held at harvest thanksgiving and other large ceremonies, and Encyclopedia.com says whip and shield are of water buffalo hide, that the shield may be bamboo, and that it now also entertains tourists. No public calendar for ceremonies around Cancar was found. If you are present at one, the regency's 2026 guide asks you to request permission and respect custom before photographing.

What do visitors ask about the Manggarai?

Is Manggarai spoken in Cancar?

Probably, though none of these sources surveys the village. Cancar lies inside Manggarai Regency, and residents quoted in the press explain the fields in Manggarai terms such as moso.

Can people in Cancar speak English?

No source documents English use there, so plan as though it may be limited. A driver or guide from Ruteng can help with conversation, and ASITA NTT recommends a local guide to explain the land system.

Are Manggarai traditions still alive around Cancar?

Sources describe them in the present tense: Penti as an annual ceremony, and residents explaining land shares by the moso formula. An ISVS study also reports lingko land being split into smaller individual plots, so change is under way too.

Are spider web fields a Manggarai tradition?

Yes, in the sense that the circular division comes from Manggarai customary land allocation. Wet rice in those circles is more recent, and the sources disagree about how recent.

Can visitors attend Manggarai ceremonies in Cancar?

Treat attendance as a question for residents and not a right, as schedules go unpublished. The regency's 2026 guide asks visitors to request permission before photographing ceremonies.

Which sources support this page?

• Encyclopedia.com: Manggarai
• Mongabay (2017): spider web fields of Manggarai
• Wikipedia: Manggarai Regency
• Wikipedia: Manggarai people
• Kompas (2017): promoting the Lingko Lodok fields
• Liputan6: two Manggarai rituals
• Peer-reviewed study of the Penti ceremony (IPB)
• GeoKepo: Sawah Lingko Cara
• ASITA NTT: Lingko spider web rice fields
• Komodo Trekker: spider web rice field
• Manggarai Regency tourism office: Liang Bua
• Duniart: Ruteng, Flores
• Study of farming in Meler village (JER)
• Manggarai Regency tourism office: Lingko Meler
• Jakarta Post (2013), via Yahoo News
• ISVS e-journal study of lingko and mbaru gendang
• Manggarai Regency tourism office: Caci dance
• Manggarai Regency tourism office: 2026 pocket guide

How do I reach the desk?

To ask about visiting the area with care for local custom, use WhatsApp 6281139414563 or bd@juaraholding.com. The desk cannot promise access to any ceremony or village.