Lembata

From Freepedia

Pulau Lembata (the island of Lembata), formerly known as Pulau Lomblen, is a volcanic island located east of Adonara, Solor and Flores. It's part of the Nusa Tenggara Timur province in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia. The length of the island is about 80 km from the Southwest to the Northeast and the width is about 30 km from the West to the East.

Geography

The capital city Lewoleba is found on the Western part of the island alongside a huge bay facing the Ilê Ape volcano in the North. Ships frequently connect the coastal towns and surrounding islands, but the only bigger harbours exist at Lewoleba and Waiwerang in the North of the island. From Lewoleba there are daily connections to Larantuka/Flores, and Waiwerang is the port for transport to Alor island in the East.

People

The people of Lembata are like many other inhabitants of the Eastern Indonesian islands famous for their handmade ikat weavings. The national language Bahasa Indonesia (the Indonesian language) is known by many people of all ages, but like on other islands the national language coexists with many local languages, from which Lamaholot (another lingua franca inside the Solor archipelago) might be the most widespread. Lamaholot which is the first language on Eastern Flores and Western Solor, is itself dived into maybe ten or more sublanguages (and many more dialects) and is spoken by approximately 150.000 or more people in the region.

At the South coast of Lembata there is the village of Lamalera (pop. approximately 2.500) which is known for its whale-hunting activities (for further information see Aboriginal whaling, although Southeast-Asian communities have not yet been mentioned there). Lamalera and Lamakera (on the neighbouring island of Solor) are the last two remaining Indonesian whaling communities.

External Links

• Sea Hunters of Lamalera by Fred Bruemmer, Natural History, 10/2001