Where is the location of the raja ampat archipelago?

Raja Ampat Islands as a series of four series of islands that are side by side and are located west of the Bird's Head (Vogelkoop) side of Papua Island. Administratively, this series is under Raja Ampat Regency, West Papua Province. This archipelago is currently the destination of several divers who are interested in the beauty of its underwater panorama. The four series of islands as members are named after the four largest islands, namely Waigeo Island, Misool Island, Salawati Island, and Batanta Island.

Origin and history

The origin of the name Raja Ampat according to the dogma of the residents on the spot comes from the woman who found seven eggs. Four grains, one of which hatched into 4 separate princes and each became the reigning king in Waigeo, Salawati, East Misool and West Misool. In that moment, the other three eggs become ghosts, a woman, and a stone.

Furthermore, from the history, there is a dogma that residents believe, if one of them is a child who hatched from an egg, his name is Pin Tike pregnant without a husband. The incident resulted in his brothers being embarrassed. Therefore, he was washed away by his brothers into the sea. Pin Tike was separated on Numfor Island and met Manar Maker, a dogma figure of the Biak -Numfor residents.

Furthermore, Pin Tike gave birth to a baby boy named Gurabesi or Kurabesi. As an adult, Kurabesi returned to Kali Raja and met his uncle Fun Giwar. Gurabesi and Giwar's son, whose name is Mereksopen, helped King Tidore fight against the King of Ternate.

As a reward to Kurabesi for the victory of challenging Ternate, he was married to the daughter of the Sultan of Tidore, Boki Taiba. Kurabesi and his wife subsequently stayed in Kali Raja, Raja Ampat until the end of his life.

Historically, the Raja Ampat area has long been occupied by nobles and applies the mechanism of the Moluccan tradition. In this mechanism, citizens of several human assemblages. Each hamlet was held with a king. Since the establishment of five Muslim sultanates in the Moluccas, Raja Ampat has become the claim side of the Tidore Sultanate. After the Sultanate of Tidore lost to the Dutch, the Raja Ampat Islands became the claim side of the Dutch East Indies.

Citizen

Residents of the Raja Ampat Islands are usually traditional fishermen who live in small villages located far away and different islands. They are friendly citizens who receive guests outside, what else if we bring souvenirs for them in the form of betel nut or candy. This stuff is like the 'indian peace pipe' in Raja Ampat. The chat with betel nut meal mentioned "Para-para Pinang" often takes turns the two of them both throw mobs, a term in place for some funny stories.

They are adherents of Islam and Christianity and often in a family or clan there are members who embrace one of the 2 religions. This makes the residents of Raja Ampat still get along well even though they have different beliefs.

Rich natural resources

Coral reefs on Piaynemo Island, Raja Ampat

Raja Ampat Islands as a location that really has the potential to be used as a tourist attraction, especially recreational diving. The waters of the Raja Ampat Islands according to various sources, as one of the 10 best waters for diving sites around the world. In fact, it may be considered the number one for the completeness of underwater flora and fauna today.

Dr. John Veron, an experiential coral expert from Australia, for example, in a website he said, the Raja Ampat Islands which are at the westernmost tip of Papua Island, about 50 miles northwest of Sorong, have the best coral territory in Indonesia. About 450 types of corals were detected during the two weeks of research in the region.

A team of experts from Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, and the National Oceanographic Agency (LON) of the Indonesian Knowledge Knowledge Agency (LIPI) conducted a rapid assessment in 2001 and 2002. As a result, they wrote that in these waters there are more than 540 types of hard corals (75% of all types in the world), more than 1,000 types of reef fish, 700 types of mollusks, and the highest record for gonodactyloid stomatopod crustaceans. This makes 75% of the world's coral species in Raja Ampat. Not one place with a similar area has a number of coral species around this.

There are many coral reef territories that are very good in condition with a percentage of live coral closures up to 90%, namely in the Dampier strait (the strait between Waigeo Island and Batanta Island), the Kofiau Islands, the Southeast Misool Islands and the Wayag Islands. The type of coral reef in Raja Ampat is usually a peripheral coral reef with a slightly sloping to steep contour. But found the atoll type and the burnt or taka type. In a number of places such as in the Saondarek area, when the tide is the lowest dry, it can be seen that stretches of coral reefs without diving and with their own adaptations, they can still live even in the open air and are exposed to direct sunlight.

Unique species that can be found when diving are several kinds of dwarf seahorses, wobbegongs, and Manta rays. There is also a raja ampat epidemic fish, namely Eviota raja, which is a kind of gobbie fish. At Manta point located in Arborek of Dampier Strait, you can dive accompanied by some tame Manta Rays like when you dive in the Derawan Islands, East Kalimantan. When diving on Cape Kri or the Chicken Reef, you can be surrounded by several thousand fish. Sometimes groups of tuna fish, giant trevallies and snappers. But what is gripping is that we are surrounded by a group of barracuda fish, even though it is actually relatively riskless (which is at risk when we encounter solitary barracudas or alone). Reef sharks are often seen, and if you are lucky you can also watch turtles quietly eating sponges or swimming around you. In a number of places such as Salawati, Batanta and Waigeo, dugongs or dugongs are seen.

Because of its large area of islands and narrow straits, therefore the majority of dive sites at certain times have strong currents. This allowed him to do a drift dive, diving with a strong current as well as the clearest water breaking through the fish group.

Prehistoric heritage and history

In the territory of the Misool series, prehistoric heritage in the form of handprints is found on the rock wall. Antiquely, these handprints exist absolutely close to sea level and are not in the cave. According to predictions, the age of these handprints is about 50,000 years and is the side of a series of guidelines for the distribution of humans from the western territory of the archipelago towards Papua and Melanesia.

Remaining World War II heritage shipwrecks can be found in a number of dive sites, such as on Wai Island.

Tourism

Raja Ampat can be reached by plane from Jakarta or Bali to Sorong via Makassar or Ambon and Manado. The flight takes approximately 6 hours.

From Sorong, to Raja Ampat there are two steps:

Take a tour by pinisi boat or

Stayed at Raja Ampat Dive Lodge resort.

Generally, travelers who arrive to Raja Ampat today are some divers. Non-divers are several white sandy beaches, karst island chains and epidemic flora and fauna such as red paradise, Wilson's paradise, maleo waigeo, various parrots and parrots, waigeo cuscus, and various types of orchids.

Terror on the islands

The richness of biological diversity in Raja Ampat has made him have a high level of terror as well. This can be witnessed from the destruction of coral reefs and jungles. Damage to coral reefs is usually due to fishing activities that are not environmentally friendly such as bombs, cyanide and bore roots (liquids from processed roots such as trees to poison fish).

Some preservation efforts

To maintain the underwater sustainability of the Raja Ampat Islands, several conservation efforts are really needed in this region. There are two international agencies that are concerned about the preservation of Raja Ampat's natural resources, namely CI (Conservation International) and TNC (The Nature Conservancy). The self-government has decided on the sea around South Waigeo, which includes several small islands such as Gam, Mansuar, the Yeben range and the Pele Stalk range, already designated as a Marine Wildlife Sanctuary. According to the Decree of the Minister of Forestry No. 81 / KptsII / 1993, the area of this area reaches 60,000 hectares.

In addition, several other marine territories have been proposed to become conservation territories. Each of them is the South Misool Island Marine Wildlife Sanctuary, the sea of Kofiau Island, the sea of Asia Island, the sea of Sayang Island and the sea of Ayau Island.

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