Mentawai Islands - Citizendia

Coordinates: 2°11′S, 99°39′E
Kepulauan Mentawai (Mentawai Islands) West Sumatra, Indonesia

Capital	Tua Pejat
Area	6011. West Sumatra ( Indonesian: Sumatera Barat, abbreviated to Sumbar) is a province of Indonesia. The Republic of Indonesia ( (Republik Indonesia is a Country in Southeast Asia. A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be specified in three coordinates using mainly a spherical coordinate system. Area is a Quantity expressing the two- Dimensional size of a defined part of a Surface, typically a region bounded by a closed Curve. 35 km²
Population (2000)	38,300
Time zone	WIB (UTC+7)

The Mentawai Islands are a chain of about seventy islands and islets off the western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. Square Kilometre ( US spelling square kilometer) symbol km2, is a decimal multiple of the SI unit of In Indonesia, the keeping of standard time is divided into three Time zones Indonesian Western Standard Time ( Indonesian: Waktu Indonesia UTC+7 is a Time zone used in Laos Thailand Cambodia Vietnam Sumatra (also spelled Sumatera) is the sixth largest island in the world (approximately 470000 km² and is the largest island entirely in Indonesia (two The Republic of Indonesia ( (Republik Indonesia is a Country in Southeast Asia. Siberut (4,030 km²) is the largest of the islands. Siberut is the largest and northernmost of the Mentawai Islands, lying 150 Kilometres west of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The other major islands are Sipura, North Pagai (Pagai Utara) and South Pagai (Pagai Selatan). Sipura, or Sipora located off Sumatra in Indonesia, is the smallest and most developed of the four Mentawai Islands at only 845 km² North Pagai (Indonesian Pagai Utara) is one of the Mentawai Islands off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. South Pagai (Indonesian Pagai Selatan) is one of the Mentawai Islands off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. The islands lie approximately 150 km off the Sumatran coast, across the Mentawai Strait. Mentawai Strait separates Sumatra and Mentawai Islands, Indonesia. The indigenous inhabitants of the islands are known as the Mentawai people. Mentawai (also known as Mentawei and Mentawi) are the native people of the Mentawai Islands, province West Sumatra, Indonesia. The Mentawai Islands have become a noted destination for surfing. Surfing is a surface water sport in which the participant is carried along the face of a breaking wave, most commonly using a Surfboard, although wave-riders

1 History
2 Administration
3 Ecology
4 Geology
5 See also
6 Notes
7 External links

History

Following the Pleistocene glaciation, the Mentawai Islands were separated once more from the Sumatran mainland by rising sea levels. The Mentawai people are estimated to have arrived on the islands somewhere between 2000 and 500 BCE, migrating from the north through Siberut and then moving south to Sipora and the Pagai islands. Their Austronesian language, their customs and habits of life indicated as early as Crisp's report an origin that was distinct from the nearby coast of Sumatra.

A Mentawai village in 1895. Mentawai (also known as Mentawei and Mentawi) are the native people of the Mentawai Islands, province West Sumatra, Indonesia.

The Portuguese were aware of the islands early in the 17th century: a map dated 1606 shows Siberut as "Mintaon". Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. In August 1792 John Crisp, an employee of the British East India Company, visited the Pagai ("Poggy") islands at his own expense to study the Mentawai people. The Honourable East India Company ( HEIC) referred to most commonly as the East India Company, also historically and colloquially as John Company, or His account was published in 1799,^[1] providing the first details of the Mentawai people in western literature. The Mentawai Islands officially became part of the Dutch East Indies on 10 July 1864, not having been subject to the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824. See http//enwikipediaorg/wiki/WikipediaFootnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the tags and the template below History The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 designed to solve many of the issues that had arisen due to the British occupation of Dutch properties during the Napoleonic Wars, as In 1901 the German Royal Missionary Society established a presence on the south coast of North Pagai island at the invitation of the Dutch colonial authorities. North Pagai (Indonesian Pagai Utara) is one of the Mentawai Islands off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. The first missionary was murdered, and it wasn't until 1915 that the first person was converted, with the program then being extended to other islands.

After Indonesian independence, Catholic Italian missionaries established a presence in the islands. Post-independence government policies relocated the indigenous population into villages, in contrast to their traditional dispersed house groups (uma), with the aim of promoting "development". Cultural tourism started to develop in the late 1980s, and when in the mid-1990s world-class waves were discovered by some Australian surfers, surfing tourism started to develop.

The island of Siberut was extensively logged from the 1970s after the government granted logging permits for most of the island. Siberut is the largest and northernmost of the Mentawai Islands, lying 150 Kilometres west of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. In 1993, the logging concessions were revoked and about half the island was declared a national park. In 2001 logging recommenced after a new logging permit was granted for an area of 500 km².

Administration

The Mentawai Islands have been administered as a regency within the West Sumatra (Sumatera Barat) province since 1999. West Sumatra ( Indonesian: Sumatera Barat, abbreviated to Sumbar) is a province of Indonesia. The regency seat is Tua Pejat, located on the island of Sipura. Padang, the capital of the province, lies on the Sumatran mainland opposite Siberut. Padang (means field) is the capital and largest city of West Sumatra, Indonesia. The regency is divided in four subdistricts (kecamatan):

Pagai Utara Selatan, Sipora, Siberut Selatan, and Siberut Utara.

Ecology

Dugout canoes on a river in Siberut. A dugout is a Boat which is basically a hollowed tree trunk Other names for this type of boat are logboat and monoxylon. Siberut is the largest and northernmost of the Mentawai Islands, lying 150 Kilometres west of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean.

The islands have been separated from Sumatra since the mid-Pleistocene period, which has allowed at least twenty endemic species to develop amongst its flora and fauna. The Pleistocene ('plaɪstəsin is the epoch from 18 million to 10000 years BP covering the world's recent period Endemism is the Ecological state of being unique to a place Endemic species are not naturally found elsewhere This includes four endemic primates: the Mentawai or Kloss Gibbon (Hylobates klossii), Mentawai Macaque (Macaca pagensis), Mentawai leaf-monkey (Presbytis potenziani), and snub-nosed monkey (Simias concolor). A primate is a member of the biological order Primates ( Latin: "prime first rank" the group that contains Lemurs the Aye-aye Kloss's Gibbon ( Hylobates klossii) also known as the Mentawai Gibbon or the Bilou, is a Primate in the Hylobatidae or Gibbon The Pagai Island Macaque ( Macaca pagensis) also known as the Pagai Macaque or Bokkoi, is an Old World monkey that is endemic The Pig-tailed Langur ( Simias concolor, monotypic in Genus Simias) is a large rather heavily built Old World monkey, which is Some areas of the Mentawai Islands rain forest ecoregion are protected, such as the Siberut National Park. An ecoregion ( ecological region) sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area smaller than a "realm" or " Siberut National Park comprises 1905 km² (47% of the island of Siberut in the Mentawai Islands of West Sumatra, Indonesia.

Geology

September 2007 Sumatra earthquakes

The Mentawai Islands lie on an active and powerful megathrust earthquake zone lining the south side of Sumatra island, dividing the Pacific Plate and Indian Ocean plates. The September 2007 Sumatra earthquakes were a series of Earthquakes that struck the Java Trench off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, three A megathrust earthquake occurs at Subduction zones (destructive plate boundaries where one Tectonic plate is forced under (subducts another An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth 's crust that creates Seismic waves Earthquakes are recorded with a Seismometer Sumatra (also spelled Sumatera) is the sixth largest island in the world (approximately 470000 km² and is the largest island entirely in Indonesia (two The Pacific Plate is an oceanic Tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean. Earthquake and tsunami activity has been high since the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. A tsunami ((tsuːˈnɑːmi is a series of waves created when The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea Earthquake that occurred at 005853 UTC on December 26 2004 with an Epicentre off the west coast of In 1833, the region was hit with an earthquake possibly similar in size to the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake^[2] and also another large one in 1797.

Notes

^ J. Mentawai (also known as Mentawei and Mentawi) are the native people of the Mentawai Islands, province West Sumatra, Indonesia. Crisp (1799) "An account of the inhabitants of the Poggy Islands lying off Sumatra". Asiatick Researches 6:77-91; noted at Mentawai.org.
^ Indonesia Great Earthquakes

External links

v • d • e

Administrative areas in West Sumatra

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