Raja Ampat, or the ''Four Kings'', is an
archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.
Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...
located off the northwest tip of
Bird's Head Peninsula
The Bird's Head Peninsula ( Indonesian: ''Kepala Burung'', nl, Vogelkop) or Doberai Peninsula (''Semenanjung Doberai''), is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea, comprising the Indonesian provinces o ...
on the island of
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea).
It is a simplified version of ...
, in
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 ...
's
Southwest Papua province. It comprises over 1,500 small islands, cays, and shoals surrounding the four main islands of
Misool
Misool, formerly spelled Mysol (Dutch: Misoöl) or Misol, is one of the four major islands in the Raja Ampat Islands in Southwest Papua, Indonesia. Its area is 2,034 km2. The highest point is 561 m and the main towns are Waigama, located ...
,
Salawati
Salawati is one of the four major islands in the Raja Ampat Islands in Southwest Papua (formerly West Papua), Indonesia. Its area is 1,623 km2. Salawati is separated from New Guinea to the southeast by the Sele Strait (a.k.a. Galowa Str ...
,
Batanta
Batanta is one of the four major islands in the Raja Ampat Islands in Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. Its area is 453 km² and its highest point is 1184 m. The Pitt Strait separates it from Salawati, while the Dampier Strait separat ...
, and
Waigeo
Waigeo is an island in Southwest Papua province of eastern Indonesia. The island is also known as Amberi, or Waigiu. It is the largest of the four main islands in the Raja Ampat Islands archipelago, between Halmahera and about to the north-w ...
, and the smaller island of
Kofiau.
The Raja Ampat
archipelago
An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.
Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...
straddles the
Equator
The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...
and forms part of
Coral Triangle
The Coral Triangle (CT) is a roughly triangular area in the tropical waters around the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. This area contains at least 500 species of reef-building corals in e ...
which contains the richest marine
biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...
on earth.
Administratively, the archipelago is part of the province of
Southwest Papua
Southwest Papua ( id, Papua Barat Daya) is a province of Indonesia, and is a fraction of Western New Guinea. Despite being named southwest, it is a misnomer and this province is actually located in the northwest edge of Papua. The area that belo ...
. Most of the islands constitute the
Raja Ampat Regency
Raja Ampat Regency is a regency of Southwest Papua Province of Indonesia. The regency, which was formed based on the Law 26 of 2002, was inaugurated on 12 April 2003, and consists of a number of groups of islands situated off the north-west end of ...
, which was separated out from
Sorong Regency
Sorong Regency ( id, Kabupaten Sorong) is a regency of Southwest Papua province of Indonesia. It covers an area of 13,075.28 km2, and had a population of 70,619 at the 2010 Census, and 118,679 at the 2020 Census;Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, ...
in 2004. The regency encompasses around of land and sea, of which 8,034.44 km
2 constitutes the land area and has a population of 64,141 at the 2020 Census. This excludes the southern half of Salawati Island, which is not part of this regency but instead constitutes the Salawati Selatan and Salawati Tengah Districts of
Sorong Regency
Sorong Regency ( id, Kabupaten Sorong) is a regency of Southwest Papua province of Indonesia. It covers an area of 13,075.28 km2, and had a population of 70,619 at the 2010 Census, and 118,679 at the 2020 Census;Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, ...
.
History
The name of Raja Ampat (''Raja'' means king, and ''empat'' means four) comes from local mythology that tells of a woman who finds seven eggs. Four of the seven hatch and become kings who occupy four of Raja Ampat's biggest islands whilst the other three become a ghost, a woman, and a stone.
The first recorded sighting and landing by Europeans of the Ampat Islands was by the Portuguese navigator
Jorge de Menezes
Jorge de Menezes (c. 1498 – 1537) was a Portuguese explorer, who in 1526–27 landed on the islands of Biak ( Cenderawasih Bay), whilst he awaited the passing of the monsoon season, and on the northern coasts of the Bird's Head Peninsula, call ...
and his crew in 1526, en route from
Biak
Biak is an island located in Cenderawasih Bay near the northern coast of Papua, an Indonesian province, and is just northwest of New Guinea. Biak is the largest island in its small archipelago, and has many atolls, reefs, and corals.
The large ...
, the
Bird's Head Peninsula
The Bird's Head Peninsula ( Indonesian: ''Kepala Burung'', nl, Vogelkop) or Doberai Peninsula (''Semenanjung Doberai''), is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea, comprising the Indonesian provinces o ...
, and
Waigeo
Waigeo is an island in Southwest Papua province of eastern Indonesia. The island is also known as Amberi, or Waigiu. It is the largest of the four main islands in the Raja Ampat Islands archipelago, between Halmahera and about to the north-w ...
, to
Halmahera
Halmahera, formerly known as Jilolo, Gilolo, or Jailolo, is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia, and Sofifi, the capital of the province, is located on the west coast of the island.
Hal ...
(
Ternate
Ternate is a city in the Indonesian province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands. It was the ''de facto'' provincial capital of North Maluku before Sofifi on the nearby coast of Halmahera became the capital in 2010. It is off the ...
).
Islam first arrived in the Raja Ampat Islands in the 15th century due to political and economic contacts with the
Bacan Sultanate
The Sultanate of Bacan (كسلطانن باچن) was a state in Maluku Islands, present-day Indonesia that arose with the expansion of the spice trade in late medieval times. It mainly consisted of the Bacan Islands (Bacan, Kasiruta, Mandioli, etc ...
.
[Wanggai, Toni V. M. (2008)]
Rekonstruki sejarah umat Islam di tanna Papua
econstruction of the History of lslam in Papua Syariff Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta (in Indonesian). Retrieved 2022-03-13. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the
Maluku-based
Sultante of Tidore had close economic and political ties with the islands especially with
Gurabesi Gurabesi was a legendary Papuan leader from Biak in West New Guinea, present-day Indonesia, who had a large role in tying part of the Papuans to the Islamic Sultanate of Tidore. He is commonly believed to have flourished in the 15th or early 16th ...
.
During this period, Islam became firmly established and local chiefs had begun adopting Islam.
[Slama, Martin (2015),]
Papua as an Islamic Frontier: Preaching in 'the Jungle' and the Multiplicity of Spatio-Temporal Hierarchisations", ''From 'Stone-Age' to 'Real-Time': Exploring Papuan Temporalities, Mobilities and Religiosities''
ANU Press, pp. 243–270,
As a consequence of these ties, Raja Ampat was considered a part of the Sultanate of Tidore. After the Dutch invaded Maluku, it was claimed by the Netherlands.
The English explorer
William Dampier
William Dampier (baptised 5 September 1651; died March 1715) was an English explorer, pirate, privateer, navigator, and naturalist who became the first Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia, and the first person to circumnav ...
gave his name to
Dampier Strait, which separates
Batanta
Batanta is one of the four major islands in the Raja Ampat Islands in Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. Its area is 453 km² and its highest point is 1184 m. The Pitt Strait separates it from Salawati, while the Dampier Strait separat ...
island from Waigeo island. To the east, there is a strait that separates Batanta from
Salawati
Salawati is one of the four major islands in the Raja Ampat Islands in Southwest Papua (formerly West Papua), Indonesia. Its area is 1,623 km2. Salawati is separated from New Guinea to the southeast by the Sele Strait (a.k.a. Galowa Str ...
. In 1759 Captain William Wilson sailing in the
East Indiaman
East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...
''Pitt'' navigated these waters and named a strait the 'Pitt strait', after his vessel; this was probably the channel between Batanta and Salawati.
Climate
![Weather-raja-ampat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Weather-raja-ampat.png)
The islands have a tropical climate, with temperatures ranging from .
Water temperature in North Raja Ampat ranges from , while in the South in Misool, it ranges from (Water temperature chart in Misog ol).
Ecology
Terrestrial
The islands are part of the
Vogelkop-Aru lowland rain forests ecoregion. The rain forests that covers the islands is the natural habitat of many species of birds, mammals, reptiles and insects. Two species of
bird-of-paradise
The birds-of-paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes. The majority of species are found in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia. The family has 44 species in 17 genera. The members of this ...
, the
red bird-of-paradise
The red bird-of-paradise (''Paradisaea rubra''), also called the cendrawasih merah, is a bird-of-paradise in the genus ''Paradisaea'', family Paradisaeidae.
Description
Large, up to 33 cm long, brown and yellow with a dark brown iris, grey ...
(''Paradisaea rubra'') and
Wilson's bird-of-paradise
Wilson's bird-of-paradise (''Cicinnurus respublica'') is a species of passerine bird of the family Paradisaeidae.
The first footage of the Wilson's bird-of-paradise ever to be filmed was recorded in 1996 by David Attenborough for the BBC documen ...
(''Diphyllodes respublica''), are endemic to the islands of Waigeo, Gam, and Batanta.
The recently discovered palm tree ''
Wallaceodoxa raja-ampat'' is endemic to the Raja Ampat Islands.
Marine
![Raja Ampat Santa Claus Pygmy Seahorse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Raja_Ampat_Santa_Claus_Pygmy_Seahorse.jpg)
Raja Ampat is considered the global center of tropical marine bio-diversity and is referred to as The Crown Jewel of the Bird's Head Seascape, which also includes
Cenderawasih Bay
Cenderawasih Bay ( id, Teluk Cenderawasih, "Bird of Paradise Bay"), also known as Sarera Bay ( id, Teluk Sarera) and formerly Geelvink Bay ( nl, Geelvinkbaai), is a large bay in northern Province of Papua, Central Papua and West Papua, New Guin ...
and Triton Bay. The region contains more than 600 species of
hard coral
Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a mo ...
s, equaling about 75 percent of known species globally, and more than 1,700 species of
reef fish
Coral reef fish are fish which live amongst or in close relation to coral reefs. Coral reefs form complex ecosystems with tremendous biodiversity. Among the myriad inhabitants, the fish stand out as colourful and interesting to watch. Hundreds ...
– including on both shallow and mesophotic reefs. Compared to similar-sized ecosystems elsewhere in the world, this makes Raja Ampat's biodiversity the richest in the world. Endangered and rare marine mammals such as
Dugong
The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest m ...
s, whales (such as
blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...
or/and
pygmy blue,
bryde's, less known
omura's,
sperm
Sperm is the male reproductive cell, or gamete, in anisogamous forms of sexual reproduction (forms in which there is a larger, female reproductive cell and a smaller, male one). Animals produce motile sperm with a tail known as a flagellum, whi ...
), dolphins, and
orca
The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white ...
s occur there.
In the northeast region of Waigeo island, local villagers have been involved in turtle conservation initiatives by protecting nests or relocating eggs of leatherback, olive ridley and hawksbill turtles. Their works are supported by local government, and NGOs.
Raja Ampat Marine Recreation Park was designated in 2009. It is composed of four marine areas – the waters around northern Salawati, Batanta, and southwestern Waigeo, Mayalibit Bay in central Waigeo, the waters southeast of Misool, and waters around the Sembilan Islands north of Misool and west of Salawati.
![Raja Ampat 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Raja_Ampat_1.jpg)
The oceanic natural resources around Raja Ampat give it significant potential as a tourist area. Many sources place Raja Ampat as one of their top ten most popular places for diving whilst it retains the number one ranking for underwater biodiversity.
According to
Conservation International, marine surveys suggest that the marine life diversity in the Raja Ampat area is the highest recorded on Earth. Diversity is considerably greater than any other area sampled in the
Coral Triangle
The Coral Triangle (CT) is a roughly triangular area in the tropical waters around the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. This area contains at least 500 species of reef-building corals in e ...
composed of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and
East Timor
East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...
. The Coral Triangle is the heart of the world's coral reef biodiversity, making Raja Ampat quite possibly the richest coral reef ecosystems in the world.
The area's massive coral colonies along with relatively high sea surface temperatures, also suggest that its reefs may be relatively resistant to threats like coral bleaching and coral disease, which now jeopardize the survival of other coral ecosystems around the world. The Raja Ampat islands are remote and relatively undisturbed by humans.
The
crown-of-thorns starfish
The crown-of-thorns starfish (frequently abbreviated to COTS), ''Acanthaster planci'', is a large starfish that preys upon hard, or stony, coral polyps (Scleractinia). The crown-of-thorns starfish receives its name from venomous thorn-like spine ...
eats Raja Ampat's corals, and the destruction this causes among reefs has posed a threat to tourism. The crown-of-thorns starfish, which "can grow as big around as a trash-can lid", has proliferated due to increasing nitrogen in the water from human waste, which in turn causes a spike in
phytoplankton
Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'.
Ph ...
on which the starfish feed.
In 2019, local divers had begun the task of reducing starfish populations by injecting the starfish with a 10%
vinegar
Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to eth ...
solution; the dead starfish can then be eaten by local fish.
The high marine diversity in Raja Ampat is strongly influenced by its position between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, as coral and fish larvae are more easily shared between the two oceans. Raja Ampat's coral diversity, resilience, and role as a source for larval dispersal make it a global priority for marine protection.
1,508 fish species, 537 coral species (a remarkable 96% of all
scleractinia
Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a ...
recorded from Indonesia are likely to occur in these islands and 75% of all species that exist in the world), and 699 mollusk species, the variety of marine life is staggering. Some areas boast enormous schools of fish and regular sightings of sharks, such as
wobbegong
The wobbegong is the common name given to the 12 species of carpet sharks in the family Orectolobidae. They are found in shallow temperate and tropical waters of the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean, chiefly around Australia and I ...
s.
Raja Ampat Islands have at least three ponds containing harmless jellyfish, all in the Misool area.
The submarine world around the islands was the subject of the documentary film ''
Edies Paradies 3'' (by Otto C. Honegger), which has been broadcast by the Swiss television network
Schweizer Fernsehen
Schweizer Fernsehen (SF; "Swiss Television") is the German-language division of SRG SSR, in charge of production and distribution of television programmes in Switzerland for German-speaking Switzerland. It has its head office in Zürich. .
In March 2017 the cruise ship ''Caledonian Sky'' owned by British tour operator
Noble Caledonia got caught in a low tide and ran aground in the reef. An evaluation team estimated that of the reef was destroyed, which will likely result in a compensation claim of $1.28 million – $1.92 million. A team of environmentalists and academics estimated much more substantial damage, with potential losses to Indonesia estimated at $18.6 million and a recovery time for the reef spanning decades.
Population
The main occupation for people around this area is fishing since the area is dominated by the sea. They live in a small colony of tribes that spreads around the area. Although traditional culture still strongly exists, they are very welcoming to visitors. Raja Ampat people are more similar to the surrounding Moluccan people than
Papuan people
The indigenous peoples of West Papua in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, commonly called Papuans, are Melanesians. There is genetic evidence for two major historical lineages in New Guinea and neighboring islands: a first wave from the Malay Arc ...
although they still speak Papuan language. The Muslim proportion is much higher compared with other Papuan areas. Although it has to be noted that West Papua province as a whole have larger Muslim population because of the extensive history with the
Sultanate of Tidore
The Sultanate of Tidore ( Indonesian: كسلطانن تيدوري, ''Kesultanan Tidore'', sometimes ''Kerajaan Tidore'') was a sultanate in Southeast Asia, centered on Tidore in the Maluku Islands (presently in North Maluku Province). It was also k ...
.
Administration
Most of the islands make up the
Raja Ampat Regency
Raja Ampat Regency is a regency of Southwest Papua Province of Indonesia. The regency, which was formed based on the Law 26 of 2002, was inaugurated on 12 April 2003, and consists of a number of groups of islands situated off the north-west end of ...
, a
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 ...
() forming part of
Southwest Papua
Southwest Papua ( id, Papua Barat Daya) is a province of Indonesia, and is a fraction of Western New Guinea. Despite being named southwest, it is a misnomer and this province is actually located in the northwest edge of Papua. The area that belo ...
. It came into existence in 2004, prior to which the archipelago was part of
Sorong Regency
Sorong Regency ( id, Kabupaten Sorong) is a regency of Southwest Papua province of Indonesia. It covers an area of 13,075.28 km2, and had a population of 70,619 at the 2010 Census, and 118,679 at the 2020 Census;Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, ...
. The southern part of the island of
Salawati
Salawati is one of the four major islands in the Raja Ampat Islands in Southwest Papua (formerly West Papua), Indonesia. Its area is 1,623 km2. Salawati is separated from New Guinea to the southeast by the Sele Strait (a.k.a. Galowa Str ...
is not part of the Raja Ampat Regency. Instead, it constitutes the Salawati Selatan and Salawati Tengah Districts of Sorong Regency.
Raja Ampat Regency is subdivided into the following districts (
kecamatan
The term ''district'', in the context of Indonesia, refers to the third-level administrative subdivision, below regency or city. The local term ' is used in the majority of Indonesian areas, except in Papua, West Papua, and the Special Region o ...
):
Note: (a) the Ayau Islands (including Ayau District) lie some distance to the north of Waigeo. (b) Not to be confused with Salawati Tengah District of Sorong Regency, Salawati Tengah District of Rajah Ampat Regency actually forms the southeast portion of Salawati Island.
Taking account of the 2,741 people of Salawati Selatan and Salawati Tengah Districts which are administratively in
Sorong Regency
Sorong Regency ( id, Kabupaten Sorong) is a regency of Southwest Papua province of Indonesia. It covers an area of 13,075.28 km2, and had a population of 70,619 at the 2010 Census, and 118,679 at the 2020 Census;Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, ...
,
the total population of the archipelago adds up to 68,146 in mid 2021.
There are proposals to divide the current Raja Ampat Regency into three, with Waigeo and its surrounding small islands forming a new North Raja Ampat Regency (''Kabupaten Raja Ampat Utara''), and with Misool and Kofiau and their surrounding small islands forming a new South Raja Ampat Regency (''Kabupaten Raja Ampat Selatan''), leaving the residue of the existing Regency to cover the northern part of Salawati Island (the rest of Salawati Island still lies within Sorong Regency) and Batanta Island (which forms Selat Sagawin District).
See also
*
Raja Ampat languages
References
External links
*
Bird's Head SeascapeRaja Ampat dive sites, map, videos and pictures
{{authority control
Coral reefs
Islands of Western New Guinea
Landforms of Southwest Papua
Archipelagoes of Indonesia