Indonesia's Forgotten Islands
Indonesia's "Forgotten Islands" - also known as the Southeast Moluccas (Maluku Tenggara), are not a single destination, but rather a 1,000 km long chain of archipelagos stretching from Timor to West Papua on the island of New Guinea. Undeveloped, distant from population centers and far off any beaten path, these "Forgotten Islands" have been largely isolated from the rest of Indonesia and the world.
The terrain of these islands varies from forested mountainous peaks in the Inner Banda Arc of islands (Wetar, Roma, Damar, Nila), with peaks as high as 868 m (on Damer) to essentially flat islands of the easternmost Aru and Kei island groups, dominated by savannah, mangroves and broadleaf forests.
The Inner Arc islands are volcanic, while the island groups in the Outer Banda Arc (Leti, Luang, Sermata, Babar and Tanimbar islands) are mostly up thrust coralline limestone, often characterized by terracing resulting from periodic uplift and changes in sea level.
Together, the islands of Maluku Tenggara make up the eastern end of the bio-geographic province of Wallacea, a transitional region between continental Southeast Asia and Australia-New Guinea, with flora and fauna of the easternmost islands the most similar to New Guinea.
Culturally, most of the Austronesian peoples of the islands of Maluku Tenggara appear to be closely related, sharing similar languages, myths, and traditional beliefs. They are known for their powerful woodcarvings and sculptures depicting ancestral figures, distinctive hand woven ikat fabrics, and plaited bamboo and palm baskets.
Woman weaving, P. Buaya, Alor
Kei Besar Island
The exception to this may be the people of the Kei Islands, some of whom say they are descendants of old Balinese royalty who arrived in the 14th Century, a time when the Hindu Majapahit Empire was expanding from its original base on Java and establishing vassal states throughout Eastern Indonesia, including on the islands of Timor, Buru, Ceram and in the Kei Islands.
Boat Symbolism
The cultures of many islands of Maluku Tenggara are characterized by "boat symbolism" used as a means of spatial and social organization. Traditional houses are structured like a boat, with different living areas identified as "right pilot's cabin" or "left helmsman's cabin. The top leader of a village, often the eldest brother in the oldest descent line, was characterized as the "right helmsman" and represents the village to the outside world and in ritual.
Nautical terms are even used for parts of the body, with the same words used for "nose" and "bow","toes" and "stern", while the shoulder blades are referred using the word for a boat paddles. On some islands, this boat symbolism is replicated at the level of the larger community.
Stephen Oppenheimer has explained that practices like these, as well as myths the creation of these islands by the destructive acts of a huge sailfish, hewing off Leti from East Timor, drowning a nearby continent to punish an evil elder brother, and blasting Romang and other Barat Daya islets out of what had once been a much bigger island.
Stephen Oppenheimer has noted that these local myths share elements with the "Kulabob and Manup" myth cycles from northern New Guinea and Melanesia, and suggested that they date back to the flooding of what had once been larger and connected islands at the end of the last Ice Age roughly 8,000 tears ago.
Combined with the prevalence of boat symbolism, such stories may also represent a kind of folk memory of migrations that must have taken place throughout the region as rising sea levels drowned settlements and fields, inundating thousands of km2 of land and creating isolated islands from what had once been mountains and higher elevation areas of much larger landmasses.
(The collapse of the Laurentide ice sheet over eastern Canada discharged as much as 150,000 km3 of water into the Atlantic Ocean, enough to raise sea levels around the world instantaneously by 20-40 cm and causing a further rise in sea levels of as much as 25 meters over a relatively short period of time.)
Bandanese is spoken on by people on parts of Kei Besar, supporting the contention that their ancestors were refugees fled from the Banda Islands at the time of the massacre of Bandanese by the Dutch forces under Governor-General Jan Pieterszoon Coen in 1609. (Bandanese is no longer spoken in the Banda Islands.)
Large bronze kettle drums, known as Dongson Drums, imported from Bronze Age Vietnam and China, as long as 2,500 years ago, have been found on many islands, including three on Leti, one on Tanimbar, and three on Kei, as well as Alor. They are palimpsests of era when these islands were first drawn into trade and cultural relations with the larger world. The first historical mention of these islands consists of records of the Han Dynasty in China (206 BC to AD 220), which mention spices imported from the Moluccan Islands, the first incarnation of the spice trade.
Dongson bronze drum, Kalabahi, Alor
Carving of boat with ancestral crew, possibly from Tanimbar Islands
Diving
What the archeologists and anthropologists don't know is that the Forgotten Islands also offer some of the best diving in Indonesian waters. Attractions include gin-clear waters, patch reefs and coral bommies, spectacular wall dives on impossible drop-offs.
On our inaugural trips to the Forgotten Islands in 2010, our excited visitors enjoyed seeing rare Weedy, Bumphead parrotfish, Jacks (Big-eye trevallies), Giant trevallies, Spanish mackerel, schooling barracuda, hammerhead sharks, a 3 meter salt water crocodile, and a whale shark!
In 2012 we will offer two expeditions to the Forgotten Itineraries, one trip starting in Maumere, Flores and ending in Saumlaki, in the Tanimbar Islands, and another trip returning along the same or a similar route. Detailed itineraries in this area will vary according to weather and diving conditions and other factors. But a typical journey through this region might include:
- P. Lembata, a traditional whaling island, which usually offers spectacular critters dives
- Solor/Alor archipelagos. Stops in these islands can include P. Pantar, P. Buaya, P. Alor, Kalabahi)
- P. Komba, location of the Batu Tara volcano.
- P. Wetar. The people of this island live in harmony with salt water crocodiles!
- Barat Daya Islands (P. Romang, P. Nyata, P. Kital, P. Laut, P. Telang)
- Leti island group (P. Leti, P. Lakor, P. Moa)
- Sermata Group (P. Sermata, P. Luang) P. Sermata is known for the many surviving myths that are still part of Forgotten Islands traditional culture.
- Babar Islands (P. Dai, etc.) These islands are known for the survival of boat symbolism.
- Tanimbar Islands
Salt water crocodile, P. Wetar
Weedy Scorpionfish (Rhinopias frondosa), P. Lembata
Climate information
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North West Monsoon: South East Trade Winds: Calm Cruising Season: Dry season: Rainy Season: Air temperature: Water temperature: Other relevant info: |
Late December - April (North West rain storms Dec - March) May – October (strong steady winds from South East) November – first half of December (in recent years) June through November December through May 27 - 32°C 27 - 32°C Switch from South East to North West has provided a "window" for calm cruising in November and early December in recent years, where several years ago this calm season started earlier, in October. Switch from North West to South East in April-May has been very quick with unreliable short calm season. Not recommended for cruising. Wind and sea conditions may still vary unpredictably, forcing itinerary changes. Dive conditions vary with the tides, throughout the day. Therefore it is important to dive according to the tide tables in order to hit each site at the optimal time. This is where your Seven Seas crew and dive guides excel! |
Published information about the Forgotten Islands
There isn't much useful information available. The de Jonge/van Dijk book was produced in conjunction with an exhibition of Forgotten Islands art and culture at the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden, Netherlands. It is probably the best sourcebook on these islands in English, but this book is out of print and may be difficult to obtain (There is a copy on the Seven Seas!).
Nico de Jonge and Toos van Dijk, Forgotten Islands of Indonesia: The Art & Culture of the Southeast Moluccas, Singapore: Periplus Editions (1995)
Stephen Oppenheimer, Eden in the East: The Drowned Continent of Southeast Asia, London: Phoenix Books (1988)
Detail of carved man representing the head of an ancestral line,
possibly from Leti or Lakor
Luli, or "founding ancestral mother" statue,
probably from Leti or Lakor
