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- Maluku
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The
fabulous so-called Spice Islands were avidly
sought by Europeans for many years before their
actual "discovery" by Portuguese
mariners. Columbus and Magellan dreamed of
finding their wealth. In fact, one of the main
incentives for Europe’a Age of Discovery was
their zealous search for spices, easily worth
their weight in gold. Three of the most prized
spices, clove, nutmeg
and mace grew on only a few tiny islands of
Moluccas chain. The English word Moluccas is
derived from Maluku, the Arabic term for
"land of kings".
This originally applied only to the five clove
islands, but today Maluku refers to an entire province dotted with a thousand islands spread over a huge area, almost 1.5 million sq km. Most of the people here, live from fishing and subsistence gardens of vegetables, bananas, yams, cassava and sweet potatoes. Although cloves, nutmeg and mace retain a measure of importance, the cash economy is based on copra and dried coconut meat. The seas yield important harvest of tuna, shrimps, trepang ( a sea cucumber), mother of pearl shells and pearls.
Ambon, with
nearly a quarter million inhabitants is the
metroplitan focus of Maluku and an important
transportation hub. The city’s architecture
is functional but nondescript, as it was heavily
bombed in 1944.
Gotong
Royong Market in the harbor area is
slowly being replaced by sanitized setting of a
newly-built Merdeka market. Shopping along Jalan
Patty of the market, look for framed montages
from shaped pieces of mother of pearl, ikat cloth
from Taimbar and miniature ships cleverly made
from wire and cloves. At the end of Jalan Patty,
there are the Al Fatah Mosque.
Seram, the largest and among the least-known islands in Maluku, hovers over Ambon, Saparua and lots of sea. Many of Ambon’s tradition are said to have originated from Seram, including the division into two sets of customs, the patasiwa and the patalima, as well as the pela alliances between two villages often located far apart. Seram is also replete with magic, for the Amboneses anyway, with many ancedotes of men who can fly, kill at a distance and change their shape at will. While the western part of the island has lost its mystery, thanks to thriving lumber industry, the remote eastern mountains is where the magic is now concentrated.
Masohi the capital of the central Maluku district, is on Seram’s southcentral coast. The plains around the town have received a population boost, with migrant from overcrowded Saparua and some of the isolated islands to the south, as well as resettled mountain dwellers from Seram itself. One group of mountain people, the Naulu with their familiar red headbands liver fairly close to Masohi.
Pulau Banda , south of
Seram and Ambon were founded by the Portuguese in
1512, but it was the Dutch who arrived a century
later to set up a spice monopoly. Banda Neira is
the capital of Pulau Banda. Fort
Belgica dated from 1611, has been
reconstruct dominates Banda Neira is not reserve
for history buffs. Closer to the sea, Fort Nassau
of 1529, is a massive huge towers and cannon
pointing menacingly out to the sea is crumbling
in neglect.
Gunung
Api, active volcano island directly
opposite Banda Neira last erupted in the late 1980s but fortunately
almost all the lava and ash fell on the side away fromthe town. The
view from the summit is spectacular. To climb, go with a guide and get start early to beat the heat of the day.
Tual is the capital of the distrcit if Maluku Tenggara and the transportation hub for an extensive network of roads and sea lanes. A half an hour drive away is Dullah village, where Belaway Museum boast a splendid ceremonial conoe, complete with carved decorations. From Tual, canoes depart daily to the mysterious island of Kei Besar. Occasionally boats fromTual also head for Dobo, the largest town of the Aru archipelago. This spread of some 25 islands, all mangrove swamp and low-lying palm forest, is the home of unusual butterflies and flocks of birds-of-paradise.
Ternate
on the north Seram is a center of power and
communication. It is the second most important
town in Maluku after Ambon. Two-third of the
island’s people live in Ternate town, the
business and market center of the whole region. A
visit to the market will give an idea of some of
the area’s products. Fort Oranje, built
by the Dutch and currently being used by the
Indonesian police and military is open to the
public.
There are
many ancient cannons in this large complex. A 45
km long paced road encircles Ternate, never
wandering very far from the coastline is the
volcanic slopes of the 1,720 meter of Gunung
Gamalama. On the south of Ternate City,
the unfinished Benteng Kayu Merah was built on
1510 by the Portuguese.
Pulau
Tidore, a bit larger than Ternate .
Frequent boats leave Bastion to Rum, where there
is a Sunday market. Tidore is dominated by
Kiematubu volcano. A paved road goes around most
of the island, but beyond the main toen of Soa
Siu, the surface degenerates considerably. The
best views of Ternate are from Tidore’s
north coast.
Pulau Morotai was the
site of a major battle during World War II. The
landing strips built by the Allied forces in
Morotai could handle today’s jumbo jet, but
serve only small Twin Otters. Although much of
the relics from the war were carted off to the
maws if the Krakatau steel mill, in Java, there
are steill remnants of war machinery.
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