Lingga Islands

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Port of Jago on the northern coast of Singkep, close to the island of Lingga.

The Lingga Islands (Indonesian: Kepulauan Lingga) are a group of islands in Indonesia, located south of Singapore, along both sides of the equator, off the eastern coast of Riau province on Sumatra island.

By size and population the most important islands in the archipelago are Lingga and Singkep. In the north is a number of smaller islands, the largest among them are Sebangka and Bakung. The population are mainly Malay, Bugis and Chinese (predominantly Hakka, Teochew and Hokkien).

A slow ferry connects Lingga daily to Tanjung Pinang on Bintan to the north. The ferry from Singkep to the port of Muntok on Bangka ceased operating regularly with the demise of the tin mining industry. However, a high-speed ferry continues to connect Tanjung Pinang to Singkep, from where local boats may be chartered to Lingga. These days the main industry is fishing. There are a number of fine beaches with some coral around the Archipelago but there is very little tourism on account of the poor transport links with the outside world.

Many islands that are part of the Lingga archipelago, including the island of Lingga itself towards the right, with its 1163-metre fog-obscured peak.

Lingga derives its name from the profile of Mount Diak; Lingam is the Sanskrit word for phallus. This mountain has three sharp teeth as peak, one of them seems to have broken off at its base, and it was immortalized by Malay poets as the symbol of durability. In its shadow are the graves of five of the last six Rajahs of the Malacca Sultanate. (The last sultan who lived here, Abdul Rahman, was forced to step down by the Dutch in 1911, and died in Singapore in 1930.) Nearby are the remains of the fort of Benteng Bukit Cening, overlooking the sea. The canons are still lined up, as if they were awaiting another enemy attack.