Sumbawa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 language (Indonesian: Bahasa Semawa) which is similar to the Sasak language from Lombok; the second group in the east speaks Nggahi Mbojo (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.
[edit] 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 eruption killed as many as 71,000. 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." [1]
[edit] Surfing
Sumbawa is well known for its surfing and many surfers from around the world travel here to surf the waves of places like Scar Reef, Super Sucks and Lakey Peak. Many famous surfers like Kelly Slater have surfed here. The Irish pro girls "Team Pipe" also graced Lakey Peak with their surf skills in August 2005.
