Lamaholot

The Lamaholot, also called the Solorese, are an Austronesian people of eastern Flores and the neighbouring islands of Solor, Adonara and Lomblen. Coastal villages such as Lamakera and Lamalera built their livelihood on whale hunting.

From the 1500s their shores were contested by the Makassar Sultanate, Portugal and the Netherlands. Shortly before 1600 Portuguese traders settled at Larantuka; after the Dutch took Solor in 1613 Larantuka became the Portuguese commercial centre of eastern Indonesia, fed by the sandalwood trade of Timor.

Refugees from Malacca in 1641 and Makassar in 1660 swelled the town and gave rise to the mixed Catholic Larantuqueiros, or Topasses, whose da Costa and de Hornay families long dominated the rajas of Larantuka and Adonara. Inland Lamaholot kept the cult of Lera Wulan Tanah Ekan, the combined power of sun, moon and earth, alongside Catholicism and Islam.