The Meaning of the Word "Flores" in Flores Girl

First and foremost, the word "flores" means flower in Portuguese. I have had a lot of readers ask me where did the Flores in FLores Girl originate from? Well originally Flores referred to the Flores in Flores Island, one of the lesser Sunda Island in the island nation of Indonesia. Flores is also noted for its abundance of flowers hence the Portuguese name for flower or Flores.

The History of Flores

How did Flores become a Catholic island in the middle of a vast Muslim nation of Indoensia?  Well, Flores has a very interesting history as do many of Indonesian island, Flores however has a few twists and turns in the history books, some of them have only been revealed in the last few years. Flores is made up of five main cultural and linguistic groups who have migrated to Flores thought history including the Manggarai, Ngada, Lio, Sikka and Lamahlot. These people where the first to come to Flores and have endured wave after wave of new human settlement which has taken its toll on Flores and have inflicted difficult cultural strains on the indigenous people. Later to come were the Veddoids (Indian Hindu traders), Melanesian and finally the Portuguese explorers. These people were later followed by the Bugis, Makareese, Javanese and Sumbawanese of Indonesia to Flores.

The main religion in Flores is Catholicism, which was first introduced by the Portuguese and developed and maintained by the Dutch and German immigrants. It was these three European countries that were responsible for the modernization of the people, living conditions and the society of Flores. Catholicism remains the primary religions of Flores and which is distinctive as compared to the rest of Muslin Indonesia.

However, it is the Flores prehistory that is rewriting the science books.  There have been some extremely interesting proto-human lineages that died out around 18000 years ago on Flores. To this day there are interesting disproportionately sized animals including the Flores Giant Rat and the famous Flores Giant Komodo Dragons. Flores is a tiny island These were the inversed effect of small island dwarfism where by animals shrink through evolution due to a small amount of food, these have also include tiny elephants in the past and even more surprisingly a tiny breed of early man exclusive only to Flores called Homo Floresiensis who were a only a meter tall. Where these people came from remains uncertain but the findings in 2004 on Flores by the National Archeological Research Center and University of New England uncovered fossilized remains that have changed the face of science and upturned many theories about modern man's descendants. Other findings include female fossils that date back to 3,500 years in Liang Toge and in Warloka, ancient Chinese affects have been uncovered. Legend has it that these dwarf people were last seen around 400 years ago on Flores.

There are also many Flores cultural ceremonies and traditions that have stood the test of time throughout these unstable times such as the Whip fighting or 'Caci', a ritual for warriors and a dance popular in West Manggarai. These Indonesian ceremonies have also been the product of the Sulawesi tribes, and Sumbawanese from Bima have influenced Flores in a way that has remained very strong to this day and their influence extends to the surrounding islands about Flores.

Portuguese interests lay with maintaining the sandalwood trade from Flores and built fortresses in Solor and Ende in order to secure this. It was also the Portuguese who introduced Catholicism in the early 1500s to Flores. the Dutch took over Flores in the 17th century and forced the Portuguese out in 1850 taking complete control of Flores. The Dutch gradually renewed education and missionary work on Flores. Since this time West Manggarai achieved independent regency with Labuan Bajo as its capital city in 2003 and have initiated numerous ambitious development plans for Flores.  With the rececent fossil find ourism is booming on Flores Island.

Here's how the Flores in Flores Girl came to be:

In the novel one of our protagonists Richard Staller is a physical anthropologist with a drinking problem and a career going rapidly in reverse. He recalled a strange conversation with a pretty girl regarding her past visit to Flores. She a strange quirky girl who shared with him a unique encounter on one of the islands near Flores. He realized her encounter near Flores maybe his ticket to a big discovery but he can't recall her name.

The biggest story in paleobiology of the last century was breaking and Richard was now a spectator on the sidelines watching the Flores story unravel. He knew he wouldn’t be allowed official access to these fossils so he had to find another way. On the surface, this should have been a professional and personal disaster for him; however, Richard knew that he had an ace up his sleeve. A few years ago, Richard had met a strange girl who had just visited Flores Island. Cute but very intense; she told him a curious story about a personal encounter she had experienced on one of the local Indonesian islands near Flores. If she knew where the band of Hobbit survivors could be found, and Richard knew that was a damn big “if”, he would be right back in the game. Her recent quote to the blogger indicated that she was perhaps considering a revisit to her Flores island. Everything was possibly coming together for him or so he was hoping. Hell, he had nothing else to go on but why didn’t she go back to that island sooner he wondered?

Richard had to get to Indonesia and his only ticket out was to remember the name of that strange Flores girl.