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Tanimbarkei / Kei Islands / Maluku Islands
(Moluccas) / Indonesia
- The
remotest place on earth!
The pristine and mineral rich
saltwater of the Kei
Islands produces these
rare and unusual lustrous colors.
The tiny island of Tanimbarkei
is part of the Kei
Islands and inhabited
by less than 1000 very traditional people. Half of the population calls
themselves Hindus, but in fact are more or less practicing ancestor worship.
The Kai Islands (also Kei
Islands) of Indonesia are in the south-eastern part of the
Maluku Islands,
in Maluku Province.
Inhabitants called the islands Nuhu Evav (Evav
Islands) or Tanat Evav (Evav Land),
but known as Kei for people from neighborhood islands. "Kai" is
actually a Dutch colonial era spelling, still persisting in books based on
old resources. The islands are south of the Bird's Head Peninsula of New
Guinea, west of the Aru Islands, and northeast of
the Tanimbar Islands. The small group called
Tayandu
Islands (also Tahayad) is just west.
The Kei islands are made up of numerous islands.
Kei Besar is mountainous and densely
forested. Kei Kecil has the biggest population, and is flat. Actually it is a
lifted coral reef. The capital is the town of Tual. Kei is
famous for the beauty of its beaches and pristine waters.
The Kei islands are part of Wallacea,
the group of Indonesian islands that are separated by deep water from both
the Asian and Australian continental shelves, and were never linked to either
continent. As a result, the Kei
Islands have few native
mammals.
Local history holds that ancestors of contemporary Kei
islanders came from Bali, part of the
expanding Majapahit kingdom from the western
archipelago. The village of Letvuan on Kei Kecil or Nuhuroa
Island was the first
place that the Balinese royal family and the army arrived, where they stayed
with the local residents. As a result, Letvuan
became a seat of government, where the local law (Larvul
Ngabal) - Red Blood and Balinese Spear - is
developed by the initiative of the royal princess Dit
Sakmas. Evidence of these ties on Kei Kecil and
especially in Letvuan include an inheritance and a
harbor named Bal Sorbay (Bali Surabaya) that is the
place where the royals arrived. It is recognized by kai
islanders that some of their ancestors also came from another places such as Sumbawa Island
(Sumbau), Buton (Vutun) in Sulawesi, Seram (Seran) and Gorom (Ngoran) islands in Central Moluccas, and Sultanates of Jailolo (Dalo) and Ternate (Ternat) as well.
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