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Lombok Islands,
Undiscovered New Paradise
in East of
Indonesia
Lombok (1990 pop.
2,403,025) is an island in West Nusa Tenggara province,
Indonesia. It is part of the chain of the Lesser Sunda Islands,
with the Lombok Strait separating it from Bali to the west and
the Alas Strait between it and Sumbawa to the east. It is
roughly circular, with a "tail" to the southwest, about 70 km
across and a total area of about 4,725 kmē (1,825 sq mi). The
administrative capital and largest city on the island is Mataram.
The Lombok Strait marks the passage of the biogeographical
division between the fauna of the Indomalayan ecozone and the
distinctly different fauna of Australasia that is known as the
Wallace Line, for Alfred Russel Wallace, who first remarked upon
the distinction between these two major biomes.
The island's topography is dominated by the centrally-located
stratovolcano Mount Rinjani, which rises to 3,726 m (12,224 ft),
making it the third-largest in Indonesia. The most recent
eruption of Rinjani was in June-July, 1994. The volcano, and its
sacred crater lake, are protected by a National Park established
in 1997. The southern part of the island is a fertile plain
where corn, rice, coffee, tobacco, and cotton are grown.
The island's inhabitants are 85% Sasak (a people, closely
related to the Balinese, but mostly practising Islam), 10-15%
Balinese, with the small remainder being Chinese, Arab,
Javanese, and Sumbawanese.
The Dutch first visited Lombok in 1674 and settled the eastern
part of the island, leaving the western half to be ruled by a
Hindu dynasty from Bali. The Sasaks chafed under Balinese rule,
and a revolt in 1891 ended in 1894 with the annexation of the
entire island to the Netherlands East Indies.
Lombok has much in common with nearby Bali, but less well-known
and less-visited by foreigners. It has been working to increase
its visibility to tourists in recent years, promoting itself as
an "unspoiled Bali". The most-developed center of tourism is
Senggigi, spread in a 10-kilometer strip along the coastal road
north of Mataram, while backpackers congregate in the Gili
Islands off the west coast. However, in early 2000 thousands
fled from religious and ethnic violence that swept over the
island, and tensions remain. Some travel websites warn that
tourists sometimes provoke anger in this economically depressed
region.
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