:: Mentawai Islands - West Sumatra Travel Guides ::
The Mentawai Islands are a
chain of about seventy islands and islets off the
western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. Siberut (4,030
km²) is the largest of the is
lands.
The other major islands are Sipura, North Pagai (Pagai
Utara) and South Pagai (Pagai Selatan). The islands lie
approximately 150 km off the Sumatran coast, across the
Mentawai Strait. The indigenous inhabitants of the
islands are known as the Mentawai people. The Mentawai
Islands have become a noted destination for surfing.
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 a
n
origin that was distinct from the nearby coast of
Sumatra.
The Portuguese were aware of the islands early in the
17th century: a map dated 1606 shows Siberut as "Mintaon".
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. The regency is
divided in four subdistricts (kecamatan): Pagai Utara
Selatan, Sipora, Siberut Selatan, and Siberut Utara.
Ecology
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. 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). Some areas of
the Mentawai Islands rain forest ecoregion are
protected, such as the Siberut National Park.
Geology
That the Mentawai Islands lie on an active and powerful
earthquake zone lining the south side of Sumatra island,
capable of producing tsunami was brought ho
me
at the time of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
The Mentawai have one of the earth’s most fascinating
and best-preserved indigenous cultures. Tragically, it
is perilously close to being extinguished by the
unchecked tidal wave of Indonesia’s modernization. Our
photographs and essays will draw you into the daily
lives of these shamans and hunters. See the price they
are paying for their government-initiated relocation
into poorly planned and built villages, their prospects
for the future and how Native Planet aids them in
cultural preservation and self-empowerment.
The Mentawai Islands Rain Forests [IM0127] have had a
long geographic isolation that has resulted in numerous
endemic mammal species, including
four
primates. There are seventeen endemic mammal species (39
percent), which on a per-unit area ranks it with
Madagascar in endemic mammal species, notably primates.
Of the four endemic primate species, these forests have
the world's only exclusively monogamous leaf-monkey, the
Mentawai leaf-monkey.
The Mentawai Islands Rain Forests [IM0127] have had a
long geographic isolation that has resulted in numerous
endemic mammal species, including four primates. There
are seventeen endemic mammal species (39 percent), which
on a per-unit area ranks it with Madagascar in endemic
mammal species, notably primates. Of the four endemic
primate species, these forests have the world's only
exclusively monogamous leaf-monkey, the Mentawai
leaf-monkey.
Location and General
Description
This ecoregion
covers the moist forests
of Mentawai Islands and Enganno Island, off the west
coast of central Sumatra, Indonesia. Approximately 70
million years ago, the Indian subcontinent collided with
the Asian landmass, forming the Himalayas. An associated
thrust formed Sumatra's Barisan Mountains, and as the
Barisan Range buckled upward, it formed a deep water
channel to the west of Sumatra. During this time the
islands of Simeulue and Enggano were formed. The
Mentawai Islands separated from the Sumatran mainland
via the Batu Islands more than half a million years ago.
The rainfall on these islands is approximately 4,500
mm/year (Whitten et al. 2000). Based on the Köppen
climate zone system, this ecoregion falls in the
tropical wet climate zone (National Geographic Society
1999).
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