White sandal (Santalum album) is the iconic flora of the province of East Nusa Tenggara. The first government funded university in the province, Nusa Cendana University, bears the name of this tree plant in Bahasa Indonesia, cendana. It is an endemic plant of the province and other nearby islands, but for so long has been wrongly believed as native to the Indian sub-continent and hence named indian sandal. A recent study revealed that white sandal was transported to Indian sub-continent as an important part of major prehistoric translocations of economic plants from Southeast Asia. Another study established East Nusa Tenggara and other nearby islands as the center of origin of this plant.