Sumbawa Island
Sumbawa is an Indonesian island, located in the
middle of the Lesser Sunda Islands chain, with Lombok to the west, Flores to the
east, and Sumba further to the southeast. It is in the province of West Nusa
Tenggara.
Sumbawa is 15.448 km² (three times the size of Lombok) with a population of
around one and a half million. It marks the boundary between the islands to the
west, which were influenced by religion and culture spreading from India, and
the region to the east that was not so influenced.
History
Four principalities in western Sumbawa were dependencies of
the Majapahit Empire of eastern Java. Because of Sumbawa's natural resources it
was regularly invaded by outside forces - Japanese, Dutch, Makassarese. The
Dutch first arrived in 1605, but did not effectively rule Sumbawa until the
early 20th century. The Balinese kingdom of Gelgel ruled western Sumbawa for a
short period as well.
Demographics
Islam was introduced via the Makassarese of
Sulawesi.
Sumbawa has historically had two major linguistic groups who spoke
languages that were unintelligible to each other. One group centered in the
western side of the island speaks Sumbawanese (Indonesian: Bahasa Semawa) which
is similar to the Sasak language from Lombok; the second group in the east
speaks Bima (Bahasa Bima). The kingdoms located in Sumbawa Besar and Bima were
the two focal points of Sumbawa. This division of the island into two parts
remains today; Sumbawa Besar and Bima are the two largest towns on the island,
and are the centers of distinct cultural groups that share the island.
Volcanoes
Sumbawa lies within the Pacific Ring of Fire. It is a volcanic island,
including Mount Tambora (8°14’41”S, 117°59’35”E) which exploded in 1815, the
most destructive volcanic eruption in modern history, larger even than Krakatoa,
between Java and Sumatra. The Tambora eruption killed 117,000 people outright,
and many more indirectly. It also apparently destroyed a small kingdom of people
of Southeast Asian descent, known to archaeologists as the Tamboran kingdom. It
launched 100 cubic kilometers of ash into the upper atmosphere (seven times that
released by Krakatoa), which caused 1816 to be the "year without a summer."
Bali Packages
Komodo Packages
Flores Packages
Kalimantan Packages
Orangutan Packages
Sulawesi Packages
Others Company Site
