Big Boat from Little Village

 If you see the grandeur of traditional sailboat pinisi which has hundreds of tonnes of carrying capacity and the ability to cruise up to the African continent, we might not expect if the ship were made by residents in a small village in the district Bontobahari, Bulukumba regency, South Sulawesi Province. How to build it was very original and unique, starting from preparing the skin and create a skeleton ship.

Place pinisi shipbuilding in Bira peninsula, namely in the village of Ara, Lemo-Lemo, and Bira. Residents in the village had been handed down over the traditional shipbuilding. Thousands of wooden vessels that often rely on the Sunda Kelapa port in Jakarta, Surabaya Kalimas or on the harbor people in Indonesia, even made ​​with manufacturing techniques that require a touch pinisi people from the Peninsula Bira.

That said, the science of making the ship has been revealed to the residents of three villages in the peninsula Bira from Bugis-Makassar nobility, Sawerigading. Syahdan, the ship used by the central figures of mythology Sawerigading South Sulawesi sea rolled up in pieces. Then the hull was stranded in the village of Ara. The bow and stern stranded at Lemo-Lemo village. Keel, rudder, and sails were stranded in the village of Bira. Of the fraction that flowed science to make the ship pinisi

So stupid-stupid people Bira if it is above the ship definitely smart. People Bira got heritage display and steering wheel so that a great sailor. Clever-clever people making the stomach, it will not work better than those artificial gastric Ara. We Lemo-Lemo people make the bow and stern, though now we also become sailors, "said a shipyard owner, Haji Abdullah (49) which mythology retelling it in galangannya in Lemo Land Coast, west coast of Peninsular Bira, about 23 km southeast of the capital Bulukumba.

Mythology is a way of life people lead Ara, Lemo-Lemo, and Bira. A Lemo-Lemo like Yusman (17) had left school, and now learning to be a courtier or pinisi maker. He followed his uncle's apprentice, Baso (35), the chief retainer of the shipyard Abdullah. "I left school since 4th grade," said Yusman kandole putting pieces of wood in the court yard, between the spread of dust and wood chips behind the stern pinisi claim Abdullah.

Began to attack the wood splitting, shaping it into stakes 3 cm in diameter. Yusman stakes will assemble wooden planks forming the hull along the 37.5-meter pinisi. Yusman worked in silence, following the rhythm of the sound waves that shouted to the electric buzz of crabs, sanding machine, dentam chisel hammers collided. Baso smile looked Yusman. "Now he may only make a peg, set up cables and carpentry tools, as well as store it. But there will be time for Yusman to come work on the ship, "Baso said.

Perseverance Yusman make peg by peg that will continue the tradition of the peninsula Bira as pinisi boat maker. In their hands, wooden boat with mast following two seven-screen text that is not just history, though legend has a long record pinisi.