Ama Tukang Art Shop in East Sumba Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province

Sumba Island is the part of Indonesia and it has become tourists’ recommended vacation destination regardless of their purposes. Well, visiting beautiful beaches is one thing, but witnessing the creation of beautiful Sumba woven fabrics is considered better. The locals have the pride in their Ikat Fabric, after all. For tourists, in this case, the best place to visit is none other than Ama Tukang Art Shop. The location is in East Sumba Regency, actually. To be exact, it resides in Prailiu Village and belongs to Kambera Sub-District.

The Nuance
In terms of nuance, Ama Tukang Art Shop looks like a regular production house featuring several structures and employees. For the information, one building is used to display ready-made Ikat Fabric. Near to the parking area, some employees are working outside so tourists are able to witness the process directly. Also, the workshop is surrounded by lush trees and numerous plants so the atmosphere is quite comfortable there. The best thing is that tourists can enter the location freely! Not to mention both the owner and employees are quite friendly.

Exploring Ama Tukang Art Shop
It is, without a doubt, the main attraction in Ama Tukang Art Shop, is the Ikat Fabric itself. Once tourists arrive at the location, they can enter one of the buildings directly and watch the ready-made woven fabrics. These beauties come in various colors and designs, which are quite astonishing. The good thing is that tourists are allowed to buy some, as long as they have enough money to purchase such beautiful fabric. Have no worries. They can get a more affordable price by bargaining. As an alternative, a help of a local guide would be useful when it comes to bargaining.

The next thing to do in the art shop is none other than watching the creation of the fabric. As long as tourists don’t disturb the employees, they are allowed to witness the procedure. Usually, these people do the job outside when the weather is nice. Thus, everyone can watch it comfortably as well. Still, it is recommended to get the consent of either the owner before approaching the employees.

In aesthetic terms, Ikat Fabric of Sumba is indeed valuable. Not only it is colorful, but it also has different designs including animals (buffalo, horsemen, village scenery, Marapu traditions, and much more). The price of the fabric depends on the difficulty of the strip and variety of color, actually. In fact, a single product may take about 2-3 months to be done! It can even take 5 months for a bigger and more complicated design.

Nearby Attractions

• Waingapu City Park
• Raja Prailiu Village
• Manubara Bridge
• WGP Pahlawan Monument

How to Get There
From Kupang City, tourists should get an airplane at El Tari International Airport and head to Umbu Mehang Kunda Airport in Waingapu City. This flight may take about 30 minutes, so it is going to be comfortable and fast. Once arriving at Waingapu City, tourists can simply take any local transportation service and get to the art shop immediately. Have no worries. It takes only 9 minutes as the distance is 4 km.

Where to Stay

• Tanto Hotel
• Kaliuda Hotel
• Sacca Residence
• Padadita Beach Hotel
• Oro Beach Houses