Sumba has a genuine reputation in Indonesia for the excesses of its funerals, the wealth of its ikat fabrics and the thrill of the pasola , an annual ritual war fought on horseback. One of the main reasons to visit Sumba is to experience first-hand the extraordinary agrarian animist cultures in the villages. These villages comprise huge clan houses set on fortified hills, centred around megalithic graves and topped by a totem made from a petrified tree. The most important part of life for the Sumbanese is death, when the mortal soul makes the journey into the spirit world. Sumbanese funerals can be extremely impressive spectacles, particularly if the deceased is a person with prestige, inspiring several days' worth of slaughter and feasting, the corpse wrapped in hundreds of exquisite ikat cloths.

The difficulty for Western visitors to Sumba is that traditions and taboos in Sumbanese village life are still very powerful and sit ill at ease with the demands of modern tourism. A visitor to a Sumbanese village must first take the time to share cirih pinang ( betel nut ) with both the kepala desa (village headman) and his hosts. Betelnut is a sign of peace and of unity; Sumbanese ritual culture sets great store by returning blood to the earth, and the bright-red gobs of saliva produced by chewing cirih represent this. Many villages that are on the regular trail for group tours have supplanted the tradition of sharing betel with a simple request for money, but if you come with gifts you will be far more welcome.

The east of the island is rocky, parched and fairly mountainous; the west is contrastingly fertile and green, with rolling hills and a long rainy season. Waingapu is well-known for producing the finest ikat in the whole of Indonesia. A little further out at Rende and Melolo are stone tombs with bizarre carvings, and other villages right out on the east coast offer the chance to see quality weaving and traditional structures near some deserted beaches. On the south coast, Tarimbang is an up-and-coming surfers' Mecca with a few waterfalls inland. The main town in the west is Waikabubak , where characteristic houses with thatched roofs soar to an apex over 15m above the ground.

Acess to Sumba is either by ferry from Ende in Flores to Waingapu or by air to either Waingapu or Tambolaka. If you're planning on flying out of Sumba, do it from Waingapu rather than Tambolaka, which has an appalling record for cancellations.