Before leaving Lewoleba, the small capital of Lembata Island where Sipri had lived for years on the eastern tip of Indonesia’s archipelago, he lit candles at his wife’s grave to keep her spirit company while he was away. Then, using a broken umbrella as a cane, the octogenarian limped to a dusty bus station. There, faux-hawked teenagers didn’t look up from their smartphones, but when Sipri boarded the rattletrap bus headed to his home village of Lamalera, the cramped passengers reshuffled to give him the best seat. They knew that every April, the shaman made a trip to perform the Calling of the Whales, a ritual that implores the spirits of the Lamalerans’ ancestors to send sperm whales so all