Bamboo Knowledge, Ritual Regulation, and Biocultural Resilience: Technical Practices and Symbolic Meanings among the Ngadha of Flores, Indonesia

Background Bamboo has long been recognized as a “thousand-use plant” that bridges subsistence, symbolism, and sustainability across societies. Yet little is known about how customary regulation sustains bamboo ecologies under modernization in eastern Indonesia. Methods We conducted multi-sited ethnographic research (2018–2021) in four Ngadha villages (Flores, Indonesia), combining participant observation, semi-structured interviews (n = 35), and focus group discussions. The study documented technical practices, proverbs ( pata dela ), and customary rituals ( ri’i , ritualized harvesting prohibition; waja , ritual clump restoration). Results We recorded 54 uses of bamboo across eight domains: construction, household utensils, agriculture, hunting, games, music, ritual, and protective fencing. Dendrocalamus asper emerged as the cultural keystone species, sustaining both subsistence and symbolic functions. Domestic uses have declined due to plastics, concrete, and corrugated iron, but bamboo endures in ritual, musical, and symbolic domains, demonstrating biocultural resilience. Comparative analysis with Asia, Africa, and the Pacific highlights the distinctiveness of Ngadha’s ritualized conservation as a formalized ecological governance system. Conclusions The Ngadha case contributes theoretically to debates on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), enskilment, and the material culture of continuity, while practically informing policy experiments such as the Hutan Bambu Lestari (HBL, Sustainable Bamboo Forest program), an initiative led by Yayasan Bambu Lestari (YBL, Bamboo Foundation). TEK in this context is not static but adaptive, offering a culturally grounded model for global biocultural conservation.