Beehive House, Engganese Traditional House Origin

Euba Ekadodio
Beehive House of Engganese
Rumah Sialang Enggano

In enggano language house call as Euba. So beehive houses call as Euba Ekadodio. This the unique shape house in the world.

Beehive house from modigliani 1894

Engganese houses once had a beehive shape. Charles Miller (1778) was the first to notice the special shape of the houses and the first to call them as a beehive houses. Such as shape rarely occur in Indonesia. Modigliani compares the engganese houses with the houses on Nicobar island, west of Indonesia. This comparison, how ever, only hold good at a very superficial level, as Domenig oberved (1999 personal communication). Other houses resembling those of engganese are the aound houses of central Timor, allthough these are not bulit on pillars like engganese ones. Rectangular house also accured and are still found today on Enggano.

Beehive model from Volkenkunde Museum, Netherland.

Beehive house model (Volkenkunde Museum)

Object Name: house (model)
Dimensions: 108 x 50 x 51 cm
Dated: 1883
Geography: Enggano / Bengkulu Utara / Bengkulu / Sumatera / Indonesia
Culture: Enggano

Model of a beehive house. Such houses are very typical of Enggano. They are now no more. The latter would be demolished around 1903. Modigliani (1894: Tav.VIII) published one of the few known photos of a beehive house. Models of such Euba kakario are present in various museums. This model shows that the roof on a wooden bird figure was confirmed. In addition, the narrow doorway visible. The door is missing. This model home has no central pole. Beehive House on Enggano, only the man and the woman, and sometimes the youngest child of a family uses. It was too small and uncomfortable, no opening for fresh air, to an 'extended family' to be used. Several houses were once in a beehive circle and thus constituted a settlement. The house of the leader stood in the middle and was slightly bigger than the rest of the houses. Houses of important people would be supported by, in carved wood, picture of a defeated enemy to fertility and the welfare of the family was secure. House Models in Florence and in Jakarta have also seen this image. See also Modigliani

Beehive house model (Tropen Museum)