Abung Erotic

The Abung are the inland Lampung of southern Sumatra. They call themselves Abung Siwo Mego, the Abung of the nine clans, and that name says most of what matters about them. They are a confederation of patrilineal descent groups, or buay, that trace themselves to shared ancestors. Those clan lines still organize ceremony, rank and marriage. Their villages sit in the river lowlands of what are now the North, Central and East Lampung regencies, and the district map around Kotabumi is full of places that carry the Abung name.

Among the Lampung, the main cultural divide runs between two customary traditions. Saibatin communities on the coast keep a hereditary aristocracy. The Abung belong to the Pepadun side, named for the carved wooden seat where a man is installed when he takes a noble title. Under Pepadun custom, rank is not simply inherited. A family can move up by staging a begawi, an expensive public ceremony with buffalo slaughter and feasting, carried out with the approval of the assembled customary leaders. At the end the host takes an honorific title. Wealth and standing count as much as birth in this system, and it still sets the pecking order in many villages. Holding it all together is piil pesenggiri, the Lampung code of honor. It values a good name, open hospitality and showing up for communal work.

The Abung speak Lampung in its Nyo dialect. The dialect takes its name from its word for what, nyo, which sets it apart from the Api dialect spoken elsewhere in the province. Lampung is an Austronesian language with its own script, derived from Indian writing systems, though Indonesian now dominates school and business. Islam came into the region through trade and political ties with the Banten sultanate across the Sunda Strait. Nearly all Abung are Muslim, and their faith sits easily alongside customary law at weddings and title ceremonies.

The biggest change of the last century came from outside. Under Dutch rule, and much faster after Indonesian independence, Lampung became the main destination for settlers moved out of crowded Java. The Lampung-speaking peoples are now a minority in their own province. Custom is still easiest to see at weddings. Brides wear gold-threaded tapis skirts and the pointed gold siger crown. Some families also keep up sebambangan, a ritual elopement in which the young woman leaves behind a letter and a small sum of money before the two families begin negotiating.