The Gorom (formerly called Gorong) archipelago is a group of islands situated between the
Watubela archipelago
Watubela is an archipelago in the Maluku Islands, east of Ceram and north of Kai Islands, southeast of the Gorong archipelago, and southwest of the Bomberai Peninsula of Papua, Indonesia. It includes the islands of Watubela itself, Kesui (also ...
and
Ceram in the
Maluku Islands
The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ...
.
History
The ''
Nagarakretagama
The ''Nagarakretagama'' or ''Nagarakṛtāgama'', also known as ''Desawarnana'' or ''Deśavarṇana'', is an Old Javanese eulogy to Hayam Wuruk, a Javanese king of the Majapahit Empire. It was written on lontar as a '' kakawin'' by Mpu Pr ...
'', an
Old Javanese
Old Javanese or Kawi is the oldest attested phase of the Javanese language. It was spoken in the eastern part of what is now Central Java and the whole of East Java, Indonesia. As a literary language, Kawi was used across Java and on the island ...
eulogy to king
Hayam Wuruk
Hayam Wuruk (Sanskrit: हयम् वुरुक्, Kawi: ꦲꦪꦩ꧀ꦮꦸꦫꦸꦏ꧀) (1334–1389), also called Rajasanagara, Pa-ta-na-pa-na-wu, or Bhatara Prabhu after 1350, was a Javanese Hindu emperor from the Rajasa Dynasty and th ...
of
Majapahit written in 1365, mentions "Gurun" amongst the tributary countries of the kingdom.
The English naturalist
Alfred Russel Wallace described the islands, which he called Goram, in chapter 25 of his 1869 book ''
The Malay Archipelago
''The Malay Archipelago'' is a book by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace which chronicles his scientific exploration, during the eight-year period 1854 to 1862, of the southern portion of the Malay Archipelago including Malaysia, S ...
''.
Islands
The archipelago has main three islands, plus a further 20-plus small offshore islands.
[Government of Indonesia Seram Bagian Timur map]
*Gorom, the biggest island, with the villages of Miran (Miren) on the east coast, Ondor (Ondur) in the northwest and Hur on its southwestern coast.
*Panjang to the west of Gorong, with Wisalem village in its southern end.
*Manawoku in the south, with the villages of Arbau in the north, Amar and Derra, and Nama in the south.
The islands now form three separate districts (''kecamatan'') within
East Seram Regency
East Seram Regency ( id, Kabupaten Seram Bagian Timur) is a regency of Maluku, Indonesia. It is mainly located on the island of Seram, but also includes smaller islands to the southeast comprising the Gorom and Watubela archipelagoes. The regen ...
of Maluku. Pulau Gorom District includes the western half of Gorom Island and the whole of Manawoku Island, plus some smaller islands; Gorom Timur District includes just the eastern half of Gorom Island; and Pulau Panjang District covers Panjang Island.
References
Archipelagoes of Indonesia
{{Maluku-geo-stub
