New Village Temple in Witihama, Adonara, Indonesia

This article considers several instances of the reconstruction of village temples in the Lamaholot speaking region of eastern Indonesia from the late nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first, but it especially relates the building for the first time in over a century of the temple of Witihama, Adonara in 2000. The circumstances of its rebuilding are discussed in light of the current political fashion in Indonesia for the revival of tradition, but the article also surveys evidence for a long-term pattern in the region for allowing temples to deteriorate and lapse for extended periods before rebuilding.