East Flores Residents Discover Ancient Artefacts While Fishing on Konga Beach

A video of a resident discovering several ancient antique items, suspected to be from the kingdom era, on Konga Beach in Titehena Subdistrict, East Flores, on Monday night (4/5/2026), has gone viral on social media. The village head of Konga, Aloysius Sinyo Kung, stated that the finder of the statue and ancient antique items is named Bernardus Budi, a resident of Dulipali Village. At the time, he was fishing and looking for prawns on Konga Beach, and he found the valuable items there. “Budi went to the beach and found them while prawn fishing. He stored them in the garden; there is a kingdom statue, a cross, a small box like a diamond or gemstone, a staff with a bird’s head, and so on,” said Aloysius when confirmed by detikBali on Wednesday (6/5/2026). Aloysius said the ancient items are suspected to originate from the Singosari Kingdom because some attributes, such as the staff with a bird’s head and keris, resemble those from the kingdom era. The circulating video shows one cross adorned with new gem-like crystals in two colours, several keris, a staff with a dragon head, a conical crown, a jug, arm bracelets, up to bamboo bird traps, and several other antique items whose exact names are unknown. Aloysius once asked the resident who found the antiques to secure them in the Konga Village area temporarily so they could be investigated. However, Bernardus had already taken the heirloom items home and stored them in the garden. According to Aloysius, the Konga area was a transit point for the Portuguese and Japanese nations. This is evidenced by residents previously finding 16 grenades and 393 bullets from World War II remnants. The Head of the Tourism and Culture Office of East Flores Regency, Hery Lamawuran, said his side will go to the discovery location and record the valuable items found. “Our plan today, Wednesday (6/5/2026), is to check there, see, and at least do recording,” he concluded.