Sumba

Sumba (Soemba-eiland; pulau Sumba), natively also spelt as Humba or Hubba (in Sumba languages) is an Indonesian island (part of the Lesser Sunda Archipelago group) located in the Eastern Indonesia and administratively part of the East Nusa Tenggara provincial territory. Sumba has an area of , and the population was 779,049 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as of mid-2021 was 788,190. To the northwest of Sumba is Sumbawa, to the northeast, across the Sumba Strait (Selat Sumba), is Flores, to the east, across the Savu Sea, is Timor, and to the south, across part of the Indian Ocean, is Australia. The name of this island is etymologically derived from the native Sumba word of humba or hubba (in certain dialects), which literally means “no interfere”, “original”, “native”, or “indigenous”; which initially an ethnonym referring to the native inhabitant of this island who identified themselves as tau Humba or tau Hubba (native people or 'original people'), the identification was made to differentiate themselves from foreigners (non-Sumba people) who gradually and continuously came to occupy the island. On the other hand, the Sumba's cultural territory (which including the Sumba Island and its surrounding sea region) are also natively known as tana wai humba or tana wae hubba (in Sumba languages) which literally means “our native land” or “the motherland of Sumba people”; these sentence appeared in ancient Sumba manuscripts that told the tale of Inya Nyale (a mermaid-like creature who used to live on land but then in ocean) who considered as sacred figure in Sumba mythology. The letter of 'h' in later time (around 12th century) substituted as 's' due to the mass migration of Javanese people who came from the island of Java, because the word humba sounds so similar to the Javanese word of ꦲꦸꦩ꧀ꦧꦃ (umbah, but written as humbah according to Javanese writing system), which bear the meaning "to wash" or "to cleanse".