The Conscience of the Buna’ Tribe

Judul	:	The Conscience of the Buna’ Tribe
Penulis	:	Bele Antonius
Penerbit	:	Departement of Tourism and Creative Economy East Nusa Tenggara Provice
Tahun Cetak	:	2011
Halaman	:	257
ISBN	:	978-602-9114-04-1
Harga	:	NFS
Status	:	Kosong

There is a group of people living in a remote area of Timor island in East Nusa Tenggara Province, Regency of Belu, and the group is seldom talked or discussed about in a scientific forum, because they are not well known. Writings about them are still very few. This ethnic group of people is called “Buna’ tribe” and those people speak Buna’ language. The number of people from this ethnic group is about sixty thousand people, thirty thousand people are living in the remote area of East Timor, while other thirty thousand are living in the region of Timor, Indonesia. The customary and language of this ethnic group is unique. Their language is very simple, as an example, every vowel letter is a syllable, an example of a sentences in Buna’ language is as follows: O I U A O E A, this sentence is grouped into seven words and every vowel letter is a word. The meaning of this sentences is ‘We who are alive eat rice and salt’. More than  a hundred years ago their ancestors have known the Catholic tradtion until now. So according to the statistic data, they are hundred percent Catholics. Even though they are Christians, they still practice the traditional rites of their ancestors’ religion called “Hot Esen religion” with their reasons thet because the rite of their original religion is an  inheritance from their ancestors, that is why they cannot leave it. There are much uniqueness in the life of the people of “Buna’ tribe.”