The Mentawai Islands Regency are a chain of about seventy islands and islets approximately off the western coast of

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

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 ...

. They cover 6,033.76 km² and had a population of 76,173 at the 2010 Census and 87,623 at the 2020 Census.

Siberut Siberut is the largest and northernmost of the Mentawai Islands, located 150 kilometres west of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. It covers an area of 3,838.25 km2 including smaller offshore islands, and had a population of 35,091 at the 2010 Cens ...

at is the largest of the islands. The other major islands are

Sipura Sipora (Indonesian: ''Sipora'' or sometimes spelled ''Sipura'') located off Sumatra in the West Sumatra Province of Indonesia, is the second-smallest and most developed of the four Mentawai Islands at only 651.55 km2. It had a population of ...

(or ''Sipora''),

North Pagai North Pagai (Indonesian: ''Pagai Utara'') is the smallest of the four principal Mentawai Islands off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. It is south of Sipora and north of South Pagai (or Pagai Selatan) Island. The population figure given f ...

(''Pagai Utara''), and

South Pagai South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

(''Pagai Selatan''). The islands lie off the Sumatran coast, across the

Mentawai Strait Mentawai Strait separates the island of Sumatra from the small archipelago of the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia. Its waters belong to the Indian Ocean and both banks are part of the province of West Sumatra. The strait is about 450 km long an ...

. The indigenous inhabitants of the islands are known as the

Mentawai people Mentawai (also known as Mentawei and Mentawi) people are the native people of the Mentawai Islands (principally Siberut, Sipura, North Pagai and South Pagai) about 100 miles from West Sumatra province, Indonesia. They live a semi-nomadic hunter- ...

. The Mentawai Islands have become a noted destination for

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

, with over 40 boats offering surf charters to international guests.

Administrative districts

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Een echtpaar van de Mentawai-eilanden TMnr 10005483

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Een echtpaar van de Pagai-eilanden TMnr 10005489

The Mentawai Islands have been administered as a regency within the

West Sumatra West Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Barat) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is located on the west coast of the island of Sumatra and includes the Mentawai Islands off that coast. The province has an area of , with a population of 5, ...

(''Sumatera Barat'') province since 1999. The regency seat is

Tua Pejat Tuapeijat (also spelled ''Tuapejat'' or ''Tua Pejat'') is a town within North Sipora District (''Kecamatan Sipora Utara'') in the Mentawai Islands Regency of West Sumatra province of Indonesia and it is the administrative seat (capital) of Mentawa ...

, on the island of

Sipora Sipora (Indonesian: ''Sipora'' or sometimes spelled ''Sipura'') located off Sumatra in the West Sumatra Province of Indonesia, is the second-smallest and most developed of the four Mentawai Islands at only 651.55 km2. It had a population o ...

Padang Padang () is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of West Sumatra. With a Census population of 1,015,000 as of 2022, it is the 16th most populous city in Indonesia and the most populous city on the west coast of Sumatra. Th ...

, the capital of the province, lies on the Sumatran mainland opposite Siberut. The regency is divided into ten

districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

(''kecamatan''), tabulated below from south to north with their areas and their populations at the 2010 Census and the 2020 Census. The table also includes the locations of the district administrative centres, the number of villages (rural ''desa'' and urban ''kelurahan'') in each district, and its post code. Note: (a) Sikakap District covers the northern part of South Pagai Island and the southern part of North Pagai Island, plus some intervening small islands.

Villages

Administrative villages (''desa'') listed for each district:

Tourism

Surfing

The first photos of the surf breaks in the Mentawais area were leaked after a surf trip in 1992 aboard the

MV Indies Trader The MV Indies Trader is a surf exploration vessel, which took part in Quiksilver's Crossing from 1999-2005, and is known as the most iconic vessel in modern surfing. The Rader Richard ‘Rick’ James designed the ''Rader'' (now ''Indies Trade ...

, with professional surfers

Ross Clarke-Jones Ross Clarke-Jones (6 June 1966) is an Australian big wave surfer. He originally came from Terrigal in the Central Coast, of New South Wales, Australia where he enjoyed surfing Terrigal Haven, a point break that produces rare waves lasting for ...

, Tom Carroll, and Martin Potter. Ever since then, the Mentawai Islands have been well on the radar of surf travellers around the world. At the West of Sumatra, the Mentawai Islands have the most consistent surf breaks in Indonesia making it one of the preferred choices for serious surfers. The tropical waters surrounding the islands offer year-round waves up to 15 ft (4.5 m).

Ecology

The islands have been separated from Sumatra since the mid-Pleistocene period, which has allowed at least twenty

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

species to develop amongst its flora and fauna. This includes six endemic

primates Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

: the

Kloss's gibbon Kloss's gibbon (''Hylobates klossii''), also known as the Mentawai gibbon, the bilou or dwarf siamang, is an endangered primate in the gibbon family, Hylobatidae. It is identifiable in that it is all black, resembling the siamang with its blac ...

(''Hylobates klossii''), Mentawai macaque (''Macaca pagensis''),

Siberut macaque The Siberut macaque (''Macaca siberu'') is a vulnerable species of macaque, which is endemic to Siberut Island in Indonesia. It was formerly considered conspecific with the Pagai Island macaque (''M. pagensis'') which is overall paler in color, ...

(''Macaca siberu''),

Mentawai langur The Mentawai langur (''Presbytis potenziani'') is a species of primate in the family Cercopithecidae. It is endemic to the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests. The Siberut langur (''P. siber ...

(''Presbytis potenziani''),

Siberut langur The Siberut langur (''Presbytis siberu'') is a species of monkey in the family Cercopithecidae. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the Mentawai langur, ''Presbytis potenziani'' (as ''Presbytis potenziani siberu'') but genetic analysis re ...

(''Presbytis siberu''), and

pig-tailed langur The pig-tailed langur (''Simias concolor''), monotypic in genus ''Simias'', is a large Old World monkey, endemic to several small islands off the coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. Its face is black, its fur is black-brown and it has a relatively sho ...

(''Simias concolor''). They are highly endangered due to logging, unsustainable hunting, and conversion of

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

to palm oil plantations. Some areas of the Mentawai Islands rainforest

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

are protected, such as the

Siberut National Park Siberut National Park comprises 1,905 km2 (47%) of the island of Siberut in the Mentawai Islands of West Sumatra, Indonesia. The whole island including the national park is part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves.UNESCOBiosphere Reser ...

Red junglefowl The red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus'') is a tropical bird in the family Phasianidae. It ranges across much of Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia. It was formerly known as the Bankiva or Bankiva Fowl. It is the species that gave rise to the ...

, the

Asian palm civet The Asian palm civet (''Paradoxurus hermaphroditus''), also called common palm civet, toddy cat and musang, is a viverrid native to South and Southeast Asia. Since 2008, it is IUCN Red Listed as Least Concern as it accommodates to a broad range ...

and

crab-eating macaque The crab-eating macaque (''Macaca fascicularis''), also known as the long-tailed macaque and referred to as the cynomolgus monkey in laboratories, is a cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. A species of macaque, the crab-eating macaqu ...

are also native.

Seismic activity

The Mentawai Islands lie above the

Sunda megathrust The Sunda megathrust is a fault (geology), fault that extends approximately 5,500 km (3300 mi) from Burma, Myanmar (Burma) in the north, running along the southwestern side of Sumatra, to the south of Java and Bali before terminating ne ...

, a seismically active zone responsible for many great

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

s. This megathrust runs along the southwestern side of

island, forming the interface between the

Eurasian Plate The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent and ...

and

Indo-Australian Plate The Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the continent of Australia and the surrounding ocean and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and the adjacent waters. It was formed by the fusion of the Indian an ...

. Earthquake and

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

activity has been high since the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

. In 1833, the region was hit with an

, possibly similar in size to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake; another large earthquake struck in

1797 Events January–March * January 3 – The Treaty of Tripoli, a peace treaty between the United States and Ottoman Tripolitania, is signed at Algiers (''see also'' 1796). * January 7 – The parliament of the Cisalpine Re ...

. On October 25, 2010, an earthquake in southern Sumatra led to a deadly tsunami that devastated villages in

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

and

. On March 3, 2016, an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude occurred off the Indian Ocean, a few hundred kilometres from Mentawai islands, as a result of strike-slip faulting within the oceanic lithosphere of the Indo-Australia plate.

Notes

External links

*
Anthropology of the Mentawai Islands

Native Planet: The Mentawai
{{authority control Archipelagoes of Indonesia Islands of Sumatra Surfing locations in Indonesia Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Volcanic arc islands