Bondowoso Regency is a landlocked

regency A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

East Java East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean bord ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. It covers an area of 1,560.10 km², and had a population of 736,772 at the 2010 Census and 776,151 at the 2020 Census. The most common languages are Madurese and Javanese, although Madurese is the majority. The nearest large city is Surabaya, approximately five hours' drive away. The administrative centre of the regency is the provincial town of Bondowoso, after which the regency in named. Common in most provincial towns is a park in the city centre, called "Alun-Alun"; Bondowoso is no exception. In the backdrop of the park is a view of a mountain ("gunung"). Tourist spots include

Kawah Ijen Map of Ijen Crater, where sulfur is mined The Ijen volcano complex is a group of composite volcanoes located on the border between Banyuwangi Regency and Bondowoso Regency of East Java, Indonesia. It is known for its blue fire, acidic crate ...

, a crater lake. Kawah Ijen is managed jointly by two local governments, Bondowoso Regency and

Banyuwangi Regency Banyuwangi Regency is a regency ( id, kabupaten) of East Java province in Indonesia. This regency also known as ''the sun rise of Java'' because it is located at the easternmost end of Java Island. It serves as a port between Java and Bali. It i ...

. In addition to the crater, other tourist destinations in Bondowoso are Tancak Kembar in Pakem and Air Terjun Belawan Sempol. A hike or climb to the crater takes around 1.5 to 3 hours. Other spots are Gunung Merapi and waterfalls. Bondowoso town is known for its dessert, " tape" (pronounced "tah-peh"), to the extent that it is named "Tape city". Tape is

tapioca Tapioca (; ) is a starch extracted from the storage roots of the cassava plant (''Manihot esculenta,'' also known as manioc), a species native to the North Region, Brazil, North and Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast regions of Brazil, but wh ...

with a kind of flour added that acts as a preservative. Medium-sized slices of tape are wrapped in banana leaves and kept in a light container for five days to be fermented prior to being consumed. There is an Arabic community living in the area for some time, since before the Dutch occupation. They live in a place called "Kampung Arab" (Arabs Compound) on Imam Bonjol Street.

Administrative districts

The Regency is divided into twenty-three districts (''kecamatan''), tabulated below with their areas and their population totals from the 2010 Census and the 2020 Census. The former Sempol District, in the far southeast of the regency, which contains the crater lake of

, has been renamed Ijen District. The table also includes the location of the district headquarters and the number of administrative villages (rural ''desa'' and urban ''kelurahan'') in each district.

Megalithic artifacts

There are more than 1000 megalithic artifacts found in the villages around Bondowoso, such as menhirs (standing stones), sarcophagi, statues, dolmens (lying stones or tomb tables) and caves. A common megalith type found in Indonesia is the batu kenong with a shape resembling a local musical instrument. The Bondowoso Regency contains up to 400 batu kenong, the highest concentration in Indonesia. An easily accessible location with a wide variety of megaliths is the Pekauman Site at kilometer 8 on the Jember-Bondowoso road.

Climate

Bondowoso has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...

(Am) with moderate to little rainfall from May to October and heavy to very heavy rainfall from November to April.

References

{{coord, 7.9404, S, 113.9834, E, source:wikidata, display=title Regencies of East Java

Administrative districts

Megalithic artifacts

Climate

See also

References