Once known as the Mollucas, the famed Spice Islands, were once fought over by Indian, Arab, Chinese and later European traders.
The Province of Maluku is blessed with fabulous sea gardens, idyllic, tropical beaches and spectacular landscapes rich with an enormous variety of endemic plant and animal species. The forest-coated mountains of the islands are home to brilliantly colored king fishers, the red-crested Mollucan cockatoo, and many multi-coloured lorikeets and parrots. There are over 1,000 islands in the province most of which are uninhabited, 90% of Maluku is water which flows over one of the world’s most active volcanic belt. Maluku is also remarkable in that it lies across the most visible zone of transition between Asian and Australian fauna and flora, and also because of its Malay-based cultures of western Indonesia and Melanesia.
Forts scattered all over the islands stand as reminders of Maluku’s history, when in the 16th and 17th centuries Europeans established their influence and power in the region. They also left their mark on many other aspects of life in the islands including music, dance and religion, making the local culture a fascinating blend of east and west.
The main gateway into Maluku is through the provincial capital of Ambon, which is served by regular flights to most parts of the archipelago. Air and sea transportation connect the islands themselves together very well with 79 seaports and 25 airports. Good roads on many of the islands provide easy access to the more remote places of interest.
Further to the east is a torrid land rising from the sea with snow caps covering 5,000 meter-high mountain peaks, towering over glacier lakes and some of the most impenetrable jungles in the world. The land is Papua which is Indonesia’s largest and most eastern province. It is a land of exceptional natural splendor, with beautiful scenic beaches, immense stretches of marshlands, cool grassy meadows and powerful rivers cutting gorges and tunnels through dark, dense primeval forests.
The people of the island can be divided into more than 250 sub-groups, which are closely related to the islands along the southern rim of the Pacific and include among others, the Marind-anim, Yah’ray, Asmat, Mandobo, Dani and Afyat. Those in the central highlands still preserve their customs and traditions and, because communications have always been difficult here, different tribes have lived for centuries in isolation of each other for the most part, resulting in an incredibly diverse mixture of cultures and languages. The Provincial capital of Jayapura is built on hills which slope down to the sea and is accessible by boat and plane. It was here in fact, that General MacArthur assembled his fleet for the invasion of the Philippines during the Second World War, remains of which can still be found.
