ID Tell us what you need
  1. Home
  2. Stories
  3. the pinisi
the pinisi

The pinisi: Indonesia's wooden ships built without blueprints

These giant wooden ships are built on a beach in Sulawesi without a single drawing.

Watch it in Bahasa Indonesia →

Share this story WhatsApp X Facebook LinkedIn

The real story

Pinisi are built mainly in Tana Beru and nearby villages in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi. The craft traces back to the Konjo-speaking shipwrights of Ara, while Bugis and Makassar sailors took the ships across the archipelago as cargo vessels. A master builder carries the whole design in his head. The hull planks go up first and the ribs are fitted afterwards, the reverse of most Western shipbuilding.

Each stage, from laying the keel to the launch, comes with prayers and ceremony, and the launch needs a crowd to push the hull into the sea. The name refers to the rig: two masts with seven or eight sails. In December 2017 UNESCO inscribed 'Pinisi, art of boatbuilding in South Sulawesi' as Intangible Cultural Heritage. Today many pinisi are built as tourist and dive yachts, using the same hands-and-memory method.

What the narrator says

Tap a line to jump to it.

The facts we checked

  • Pinisi are traditional wooden sailing ships of South Sulawesi, built by Bugis, Konjo and Makassar shipwrights
  • Master builders in Tana Beru, Bulukumba, build them without written plans; the knowledge passes down through families
  • The art of pinisi boatbuilding was inscribed by UNESCO in 2017

Sources

We checked every number and date on screen before the video was made.

Made by teodolist studio

Want a series like this?

Need videos like this for your brand or school?

We made all 240 of these, in English and Indonesian, from one script each. We make story series for brands, schools and channels.

Tell us what you need How storybook videos work Videos for schools

More stories like this

1:00 the letter Kartini: the letters that brought light after darkness 1:07 the stone Borobudur: buried by ash, found in 1814, rebuilt stone by stone 0:57 the violin The violin that first played Indonesia's anthem in 1928 1:02 the typewriter The borrowed typewriter that typed Indonesia's independence 1:05 the volcano Krakatau 1883: the loudest sound in recorded history 1:05 the shuttlecock The shuttlecock from Indonesia's first Olympic gold (Barcelona 1992)

← All stories Next story: Penicillin: the mouldy dish that changed medicine →