TRADITIONAL ARCHITCTURE OF SUMBA Fig. 15 It is interesting to see that there is a common threat that binds the region of Nusa Tenggara together, a region which consists of a chain of islands to the East of Java. Despite the fact that various different influences have come to divide the region, a certain cultural unity can still be felt(Fig.l3). In its manifestation the region's architecture displays many different themes, but its unity is underlined by concepts held in common such as similar "divine models", orientation, hierarchy of space, etc. In sumbanese architecture we can see a simplicity in the expression of hierarchy of spaces. The ancestral home consists of three levels, the highest being for worship, the middle for dwelling, the lowest for safeguarding livestock. Thus buildings whose sole purpose is as a place of worship consist only of the higher level and for those houses which do not contain a place of worship (e.g. temporary dwellings) no higher level is built (Fig. 14). In other houses the forms-of the divine model undergo various modifications. The village central court can be oval. square, or rectangular. The similarities of such patterns are still clearly to be seen from island to island, or from area to area. This is true despite the fact that the manifestation of building terms vary from island to island. 64 April-June, 1984