Kayoa
Native name:
Pulau Urimatiti
Map
Geography
Coordinates00°4′N 127°25′E / 0.067°N 127.417°E / 0.067; 127.417
ArchipelagoMaluku Islands
Total islands66
Area179.97 km2 (69.49 sq mi)
Highest elevation422 m (1385 ft)
Highest pointMount Tigalalu
Administration
Indonesia
ProvinceNorth Maluku
Demographics
Population22,864 (mid 2022)
Pop. density127.0/km2 (328.9/sq mi)

Kayoa (also Kaioa), or in the native language Pulau Urimatiti, is a group of 66 islands, part of the Maluku Islands. It is located in South Halmahera Regency, part of North Maluku Province of Indonesia.

Geography

The Kayoa Islands are near the southern end of a chain of volcanic islands off the western coast of Halmaherato (Halmahera region), to the south of Makian and to the north of Bacan.[1] The 66 islands cover a land area of 179.97 km2. The main island is about 10 miles (16 km) long, about 9 miles (14.5 km) south of Makian with a line of hills along most of its length.[2] The group forms four districts within South Halmahera Regency (although Kayoa Barat District - comprising Muari Island and 4 smaller islands - is actually closer to the Bacan Islands than to Kayoa Island), and it had a total population of 20,176 at the 2010 Census[3] and 23,111 at the 2020 Census.[4] The official estimate for mid 2022 was 22,864.[5]

Name of
District		 English
name		 Area
in
km2		 Pop'n
Census
2010		 Pop'n
Census
2020		 Pop'n
Estimate
mid 2022		 Admin
centre		 No.
of
villages		 Post
code
Kayoa Barat
(= Pulau Muari)		 West Kayoa
(= Muari Island)		 27.07 3,469 4,336 4,225 Busua 4 (a) 97781
Kayoa 87.62 8,180 9,057 8,959 Guruapin 14 (b) 97780
Kayoa Selatan South Kayoa 26.06 5,856 6,822 6,825 Laluin 6 (c) 97780
Kayoa Utara North Kayoa 39.22 2,671 2,896 2,855 Laromabati 6 (d) 97781

Notes: (a) the desa of Bokimiake (with 10.4 km2 and 834 inhabitants in mid 2022), Hatejawa (with 6.1 km2 and 532 persons in mid 2022), Busua (with 6.1 km2 and 2,648 persons in mid 2022), and Fofao (with 4.5 km2 and 334 persons in mid 2022).
(b) the desa of Ligua, Kida, Buli, Lelei, Talimau, Tawabi, Guruapin, Bajo, Gunange, Karamat, Laigoma, Gafiu, Siuko and Dorolamo. (c) the desa of Laluin, Ngute-Ngute, Orimakurunga, Pasir Putih, Posi-Posi and Sagawele.
(d) the desa of Ake Jailolo, Gayap, Laromabati, Modayama, Ngokomalako and Wayasipang.


The islands were for centuries the only place in the world where cloves were produced. Kayoa lies on the equator and is subject to regular heavy rain in the two monsoon seasons, which are December to March and June to July.[6]

The stratovolcano Mount Tigalalu lies at the western end of Kayoa, partly flanked by coral limestones.[7] However, Kayoa Island differs from its neighbours in being composed mainly of sedimentary rather than volcanic rock. Its western side consists of terraces of raised coral limestone with pumice and beach sand.[6]

Languages and archaeology

There are two native languages on Kayoa island, as well as Indonesian. The language named West Makian, spoken by about 12,000 people in Kayoa and its outlying islands, is one of the North Halmahera languages, which appear to fall within the West Papuan family.[8] The language named Taba or East Makian is one of the Austronesian languages.[9]

Archaeological evidence shows a foraging culture on Kayoa before around 3,500 years ago, changing at that time to an agricultural way of life with animals including pigs and dogs, red-slipped pottery, shell bracelets and beads, and polished stone tools such as adzes. This change shows the arrival on Kayoa of a new culture by 1500 BC.[10][11] From 2,000 years ago the islands started to trade spices to India and beyond.[10] Chinese copper money is found in jar burials of between 2,000 and 1,000 years ago in the Uattamdi cave shelter on Kayoa, implying that trade in cloves began early on the island. With the jars are glass beads, pieces of bronze and iron, and large shells from the coral reef. One of the burial vessels has rectangular and triangular patterns like those found at Leang Buidane but not on nearby islands.[6]

Natural history

"Moluccan Beetles"

Naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace visited Kayoa, as described in his 1869 book The Malay Archipelago.[12] He records that

The next day (October 16th [1858]) I went beyond the swamp, and found a place where a new clearing was being made in the virgin forest... I have never in my life seen beetles so abundant as they were on this spot. Some dozen species of good-sized golden Buprestidae, green rose-chafers (Lomaptera), and long-horned weevils (Anthribidae) were so abundant that they rose up in swarms as I walked along, filling the air with a loud buzzing hum. Along with these, several fine Longicorns were almost equally common, forming such an assemblage as for once to realize that idea of tropical luxuriance which one obtains by looking over the drawers of a well-filled cabinet... It was a glorious spot, and one which will always live in my memory as exhibiting the insect-life of the tropics in unexampled luxuriance.

— Wallace[13]

References

  1. ^ "Kayoa". GetaMap.net. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
  2. ^ Anon (1916). Publications of the United States Hydrographic Office. Hydrographic Office. p. 91.
  3. ^ Biro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011.
  4. ^ Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021.
  5. ^ Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c Peregrine, Peter Neal; Ember, Melvin, eds. (2001). "Uattamdi". Encyclopedia of Prehistory. Vol. 3: East Asia and Oceania. Springer. ISBN 0306462575.
  7. ^ "Tigalalu". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on 20 February 2013. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
  8. ^ Watuseke, F.S. (September 1976). "LinguisticsWest Makian, a Language of the North-Halmahéra Group of the West-Irian Phylum". Anthropological Linguistics. 18 (6): 274–285. JSTOR 30027583.
  9. ^ Bowden, John; Hajek, John (June 1996). "Phonetic Representation Illustrations of the IPA: Taba". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 26 (1): 55–57. doi:10.1017/S0025100300005326. S2CID 249406196.
  10. ^ a b Bellwood, Peter (1997). "The archaeology of Papuan and Austronesian prehistory in the Northern Moluccas, Eastern Indonesia". In Blench, Roger; Spriggs, Matthew (eds.). Archaeology and Language II: Archaeological Data and Linguistic Hypotheses. Psychology Press. pp. 128–129. ISBN 9780415117616.
  11. ^ Ooi, Keat Gin (2004). Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 954. ISBN 9781576077702. Retrieved 23 March 2013.
  12. ^ Wallace, 1869. Volume 2, Chapter 23. pp. 28–33.
  13. ^ Wallace, 1869. Volume 2, pp. 31–32.

Bibliography

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