Banda Islands Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

The Banda Islands (Kepulauan Banda in Bahasa Indonesia) are are group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about 140km south of Seram island and about 2000km east of Java, and are part of the Indonesian province of Maluku. The capital city is Bandanaira, located on the island of the same name. They rise out of 4-6 km deep ocean and have a total land area of approximately 180 km². They have a population of about 15,000. Until the mid 19th century the Banda Islands were the only source of the spices nutmeg and mace, produced from the nutmeg tree. The islands are also popular destinations for scuba diving and snorkeling.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to discover the islands in 1512. Controlling production of nutmeg and mace was a major motivation for the Dutch conquest of the islands in the 17th and 18th centuries. At the time nutmeg was enormously expensive in Europe, and was an ingredient in quack cures for Black Death etc. and a monopoly over supply would be quite lucrative. Fort Belgica, one of many forts built by the Dutch East India Company, is the largest European fort in Indonesia. The Dutch decimated and displaced the indigenous Bandanese, who were of Melanesian origin, and the islands were subsequently settled by migrants from elsewhere in indonesia.

Religious violence affected the islands slightly in the late 1990s, damaging the previously prosperous tourism industry.

There are seven inhabited islands and several uninhabited rocks. The inhabited islands are:

Main group:

• Banda Neira, or Naira, the island with the main settlement and a small airfield.
• Gunung Api, an active volcano with a peak of about 650m
• Lonthor or Banda Besar is the largest island, 12km long and 3km wide.

Some distance to the west:

• Pulau Ai or Pulau Ay
• Pulau Run, further west again.

To the east:

• Pulau Pisang, also known as Syahrir.

To the southeast:

• Pulau Hatta formerly Rosengain or Rozengain

Others, possibly small and/or uninhabited, are:

• Nailaka, a short distance northeast of Pulau Run
• Batu Kapal
• Manuk, an active volcano
• Pulau Keraka or Pulau Karaka (Crab Island)
• Manukang
• Hatta Reef

Bandanese Malay

Most of the present-day inhabitants of the Banda islands are descendants of migrants or exiled people from various parts of Indonesia. The indigenous Bandanese now live mostly in the Kai Islands (Kepulauan Kei) to the east of the Banda islands, where Banda is spoken in the villages of Banda Eli and Banda Elat on Kai Besar Island.

Most Bandanese speak a distinct Malay-based Creole which is distinct from Ambonese Malay. Bandanese Malay is famous of its unique accent.

Examples :

• you : pane
• fork : forok
• ants : mir
• spoon : lepe

External links

1. Rick van den Broek's site -- http://home.planet.nl/~vdbroeke/ -- including a Dutch talk from 18 June 1994 -- http://home.planet.nl/~vdbroeke/bandalez.htm
2. Banda Sea Islands moist deciduous forests -- http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/aa/aa0102_full.html
3. Municipalities and Districts, Central Maluku -- http://www.petra.ac.id/english/kti/maluku/cities/cent_mal/gen_info.htm
4. The author Giles Milton's book Nathaniel's nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History (Sceptre books, Hodder and Stoughton, London) gives a vivid account of the struggle for possession of the Banda Islands.
5. Further reading suggestions by the Spice Islands Archaeology Project -- http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Anthropology/SIAP/readings.html

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