Cancar Spider Rice Fields

The lingko fields at Cancar are not decorative: Manggarai land is traditionally allocated in a system where a plot is divided from a central post, the lodok, outward in wedges like the spokes of a wheel, with each household's share widening as it goes so that everyone gets a segment of the same soil quality from the centre outwards, and the size of the wedge reflects standing in the community. The boundaries are marked and maintained, and the result seen from the hillside above is a set of enormous spiders' webs across the valley floor. The allocation is made by the tu'a teno, the customary land officer. Several lingko are visible from the viewpoint above Cancar, reached by a short climb, with a fee and a local guide who explains the system.

What you actually see

• Spider-web field divisions - wedges radiating from a central post across the valley.
• A land tenure system - the lodok allocation made visible in the boundaries.
• A hill viewpoint - the short climb from which the pattern reads.
• Working farmland - these are cultivated plots, not a display.

When to go

May to September; the pattern is clearest when the rice is growing. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The webs read properly only from the viewpoint and only when the crop stage helps - bare or fully grown fields flatten the pattern. There is a fee and a guide, and the climb is short but steep.

Nearby

Ruteng is east; Wae Rebo is south; Labuan Bajo is west.