Sawu
| Sawu | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Waters | Sawu Lake | |
| Archipelago | Sawu Islands , Lesser Sunda Islands | |
| Geographical location | 10 ° 29 ′ S , 121 ° 54 ′ E | |
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| surface | 379.9 km² | |
| Highest elevation | 366 m | |
| Residents | 30,000 | |
Sawu (other names: Sawu, Sabu, Sawoe, Havu, Hawu, Hawoe or Raihawu ) is an island in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara . It belongs to the district ( Kabupaten ) Sabu Raijua and is the main island of the Sawu Islands .
Sawu is located in the south of the Sawu Sea at the transition to the Indian Ocean . To the west lies Sumba , in the north Flores and East Timor and Roti . To the southwest lie the smaller neighboring islands of Raijua and Raidana , which also belong to the Sawu Islands .
geography
Sawu is 379.9 km² and 366 m high. Most of the island is covered with grasslands and palm trees, and is surrounded by sandy beaches and coral reefs. The climate is dry for much of the year as hot winds blow over from Australia . 82 to 94% of the rain falls between November and March at the time of the western monsoon , from August to October almost no rain falls. Sawu has an annual rainfall of 1019 mm.
The Sawu barn owl is an endemic species of bird on Sawu. A subspecies of the Timor water pythoin ( Liasis mackloti savuensis ) is also found on the island.
Volcanism
The Sawu Islands lie along a tectonic subduction zone , where the Indo-Australian plate pushes northwards under the Eurasian plate . The islands lie on a sea ridge that was created by volcanic activity as a result of the plate movements. But the volcanoes are no longer active. Due to the subduction, Sawu still rises one millimeter a year and in 1977 there was a large earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale 280 km southwest of Raijua . A tsunami then flooded the plains near Seba up to the airport. A total of 180 people died on the neighboring islands of Sumba and Sumbawa .
population
About 30,000 people live on Sawu. There are close historical links with Hinduism in Java and the residents see themselves as descendants of Indian immigrants . A traditional animistic religion called Djingi Tiu is practiced . Dutch missionaries brought Protestantism to the Zawu Islands, which can still be found here. The native language is Sawunese .
history
The first contacts with the Dutch East India Company took place in 1648. In 1674 the crew of a Dutch schooner was massacred in the east of Sawu. Thereupon the Dutch allied themselves with the Raja of Seba and sent troops in retaliation against the empire of Dimu in the following year . The fortress of Hurati with its three defensive walls, near the village of B'olou , could not be taken. The Dutch contented themselves with a compensation payment to Dimus in the form of slaves, gold and Mutissala necklaces.
In 1770, James Cook visited Sawu and stayed three days before continuing to Batavia . Although the stay was short, Cook and the botanist Joseph Banks on board wrote a detailed account of the island and its people. Most of the information they received from the representative of the Dutch East India Company, the German Johan Christopher Lange , who at that time had been stationed on Sawu for 10 years.
traffic
Ferries connect Sawu with Waingapu in Sumba and with the provincial capital Kupang in West Timor . There is also a flight connection with Kupang.
literature
- Fox, James (1971)
A working bibliography on the islands of Roti, Savu, and Sumba in east
- Fox, James J. (1972)
"The Sawunese", in F. Lebar (ed.) Ethnic Groups of Insular Southeast Asia, 1: 77-80. New Haven, Connecticut: Human Relations Area Files Press.
- Fox, James J. (1977)
Harvest of the Palm: Ecological Change in Eastern Indonesia. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: Harvard University Press.
- Fox, James J. (1979)
"The Ceremonial System of Sawu" in A. Becker and A. Yengoyan (eds.) The Imagination of Reality: Essays on Southeast Asian Coherence Systems. Norwood, New Jersey: ABLEX Publishing Corporation.
- Fox, James J. (1980)
The Flow of Life Essays on Eastern Indonesia Harvard Studies in Cultural Anthropology
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ UNEP Islands (English)
- ↑ Vorkink, MW & Harris, RA (2004) TECTONIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE INCIPIENT BANDA ARC-CONTINENT COLLISION: GEOLOGIC AND KINEMATIC EVOLUTION OF SAVU ISLAND, INDONESIA. 2004 Denver Annual Meeting
- ↑ Pararas-Carayannis, G. (1977) Indonesian Earthquake and Tsunami of August 19, 1977. Abstracted article in Tsunami Newsletter, Vol. X, No. 3. (Sept 1977). International Tsunami Information Center Report
- ↑ Doan Lontar: Muti Salak, Untaian Mutiara Nusa Tenggara Timur , June 30, 2013 , accessed November 26, 2016.