'Pasola' festival: Where Sumba island horsemen once fought to the death

Two teams of tribesmen on horseback charge at each other hurling bamboo spears in pasola, a thousand-year-old ritual on the Indonesian island of Sumba aimed at producing a prosperous rice harvest.

Spectators, their mouths reddened from chewing betel nut, cheer them on from the sidelines of the show in Ratenggaro village, reaching for their machetes when a rider is struck at close range and the referee calls foul play.