Komodo Carvings: A Cultural Heritage with a Fifty-Year Story
The Komodo carvings sold across Komodo National Park and in the souvenir shops of Labuan Bajo all began in one village, with one carver, back in 1973. Here in Pak Saeh's workshop, right where you're standing now, you're becoming part of that tradition, and the bonus is you get to take a piece home.
Almost every wooden Komodo carving you'll see around Labuan Bajo and Komodo National Park began in a single village on Komodo Island, with one man who, since 1973, carved the first Komodo statue. Fifty years on, the craft is still alive in Kampung Komodo, now led by Pak Saeh, even as the number of active carvers thins with every generation. This is the story of how it all began, why each piece is shaped by hand from local wood, and how we're the only operator that brings travellers in to join and try the carving process themselves.
The story
1973 · The first Komodo carving. A researcher named Ofenberg asked Pak Haji Nuhung, a man from Kampung Komodo, to carve a Komodo dragon that truly resembled the real thing. The piece was taken to America, and Haji Nuhung became the pioneer of a craft that had never existed before.
Early 1980s · An official Komodo park souvenir. Komodo National Park was officially established in 1980. Through the early 1980s, by the community's own account, Haji Nuhung's carvings came to be displayed and kept at the Loh Liang ranger post, and the wooden Komodo became a keepsake visitors carried home.
1987 · Word spreads. As visitor numbers rose in the late 1980s, the carvings became known to domestic and international travellers alike as the signature handicraft of Komodo.
1990s · From a handful of carvers to a community. Through the 1990s more young villagers took up carving, and it became an alternative livelihood for the people of Komodo village beyond fishing. Training by carvers from Bali in 1996–97 helped shape the loose group of artisans into an organised collective, today the Kelompok Pengrajin Nuhung Gunung Ara Komodo.
Today · A living heritage at risk. Pak Saeh leads the workshop today, carrying on directly from Haji Nuhung's line. But active carvers grow fewer each year, so we've committed to keeping this culture alive, teaching Komodo carving in other media too, such as resin set with shell, and running the very programme you're taking part in right now. Because every Komodo carving stands for fifty years of one community's bond with the dragons, the land, and the people who come to see them.
Fifty years of skill can't be faked in thirty minutes — and we don't pretend otherwise.
How it is made
Your part: This is the stage that becomes yours. Guided by the carver, you can try sanding the piece smooth and bringing out the detail of the Komodo's skin and scales. When it feels right, you can take it home. The carver shapes it; you finish it. This is fifty years of skill, not something easily imitated in thirty minutes.
The people behind it
Pak Saeh leads the carving workshop in Kampung Komodo, Kecamatan Komodo, Manggarai Barat. He carries on the line of Pak Haji Nuhung, who carved the first accurate Komodo dragon in 1973. It is Pak Saeh who makes sure every piece is up to standard before a guest adds the finishing touches.
The carving you finish carries fifty years of story.
Found on one Komodo trip, and nowhere else
No other Komodo tour includes this. On indahnesia's 3D2N Komodo sailing aboard the phinisi Leticia, a visit to Pak Saeh's workshop is built into the itinerary, the hands-on finishing included, not sold as an extra. It's the clearest proof of what we mean by curated rather than cheapest: an experience you can't price-compare, because no one else offers it.
Book the experience · from $306