Qualla: One Stove, Three Stones

One Stove, Three Stones: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tipank, CC BY-SA 4.0. The philosophy fits on a kitchen shelf. In the language of the Mbaham Matta Wuh people, a cauldron balanced on three stones is how you cook a meal. The cauldron is life itself. The three stones are you, me, and they -- or, as the local saying puts it, "Ko, on, kno mi mbi du Qpona": you, me, and they are related. From this image of a cooking fire, the people of Fakfak built a framework for living together that has outlasted sultanates, colonial occupations, a world war, and the political tensions that still divide West Papua. In 2016, the Indonesian government recognized "Satu Tungku Tiga Batu" -- One Stove, Three Stones -- as intangible cultural heritage at the national level. It may be the only philosophy of religious tolerance in the world that began with someone figuring out the most stable way to balance a pot.

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Image: Tipank | CC BY-SA 4.0

One Stove, Three Stones: A Port Between Worlds

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert Tanggahma, CC BY-SA 4.0. Fakfak sits on the Onin Peninsula of West Papua, wedged between limestone karst hills that force its streets into switchbacks and dead ends. Once known as Kapaur -- a name still used by biologists describing the region's specimens -- the town was historically one of the few Papua...

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Image: Robert Tanggahma | CC BY-SA 4.0

One Stove, Three Stones: Three Days in April

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aldi bimantara22, CC BY-SA 4.0. On April 1, 1942, the Japanese 1st Detachment landed at Fakfak. The small Royal Netherlands East Indies Army garrison surrendered without a fight. A garrison of 67 men from the 24th Special Base Unit moved in and converted the port into a seaplane base, one node in Japan's chain ...

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Image: Aldi bimantara22 | CC BY-SA 4.0

One Stove, Three Stones: The Monument in the Center of Town

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit IMG-Nm, CC BY-SA 4.0. Walk through Fakfak today and you will find a monument at the town's center commemorating the Satu Tungku Tiga Batu philosophy. It is not decorative; it is declarative. The three stones represent Islam, Protestant Christianity, and Catholic Christianity -- the three faiths that c...

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Image: IMG-Nm | CC BY-SA 4.0

One Stove, Three Stones: Limestone and Rock Paintings

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Adirhapsody, CC BY-SA 4.0. The karst landscape that makes Fakfak's streets so tortuous also makes it beautiful. Limestone hills rise abruptly from the coastal plain, riddled with caves and draped in tropical vegetation. Half an hour from town, white sand beaches stretch for a kilometer and a half along the...

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Image: Adirhapsody | CC BY-SA 4.0

One Stove, Three Stones: Between Flags

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aldi bimantara22, CC BY-SA 4.0. Fakfak occupies an uneasy political space. Historically bound to the Sultanate of Ternate yet geographically rooted in West Papua, the town and its people have long been caught between competing identities. Some residents align with the Indonesian state; others sympathize with th...

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Image: Aldi bimantara22 | CC BY-SA 4.0