Sumbawa is an Indonesian island, located in the middle of the Lesser Sunda Islands chain, with Lombok to the west, Flores to the east, and Sumba further to the southeast. It is in the province of West Nusa Tenggara. Map of Lesser Sunda Islands The Nusa Tenggara, or Lesser Sunda Islands, are a group of islands in the middle-south part of the Malay Archipelago. ... Satellite photograph of Lombok, showing its volcano. ... Map of Flores Island Flores (Portuguese for flowers) is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, an island arc with an estimated area of 14,300 km² extending east from the Java island of Indonesia. ... Sumba NASA Earthview Sumba is an Indonesian island. ... Map showing West Nusa Tenggara province in Indonesia West Nusa Tenggara (Indonesian: Nusa Tenggara Barat) is a province in south-central Indonesia. ...

Sumbawa is 15.448 km² (three times the size of Lombok) with a population of around one and a half million. It marks the boundary between the islands to the west, which were influenced by religion and culture spreading from India, and the region to the east that was not so influenced.

History

Four principalities in western Sumbawa were dependencies of the Majapahit Empire of eastern Java. Because of Sumbawa's natural resources it was regularly invaded by outside forces - Japanese, Dutch, Makassarese. The Dutch first arrived in 1605, but did not effectively rule Sumbawa until the early 20th century. The Balinese kingdom of Gelgel ruled western Sumbawa for a short period as well. The Majapahit Empire was based in eastern Java and ruled much of the southern Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, and Bali from about 1293 to around 1500. ... Java (Indonesian, Javanese, and Sundanese: Jawa) is an island of Indonesia, and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. ... Makassar, (Macassar, Mangkasar) is the provincial capital of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. ... // Events April 13 - Tsar Boris Godunow dies - Feodor II accedes to the throne May 16 - Paul V becomes Pope June 1 - Russian troops in Moscow imprison Feodor II and his mother. ... Bali is an Indonesian island located at , , one of the Lesser Sunda Islands. ...

Demographics

Islam was introduced via the Makassarese of Sulawesi. Islam(Arabic: ; ) is a monotheistic religion based on the Quran. ... Sulawesi (formerly Celebes ) is a large island in Indonesia. ...

Sumbawa has historically had two major linguistic groups who spoke languages that were unintelligible to each other. One group centered in the western side of the island speaks Sumbawanese (Indonesian: Bahasa Semawa) which is similar to the Sasak language from Lombok; the second group in the east speaks Bima (Bahasa Bima). The kingdoms located in Sumbawa Besar and Bima were the two focal points of Sumbawa. This division of the island into two parts remains today; Sumbawa Besar and Bima are the two largest towns on the island, and are the centers of distinct cultural groups that share the island. The Sasak live mainly on the island of Lombok, numbering around 2. ...

Volcanoes

Sumbawa lies within the Pacific Ring of Fire. It is a volcanic island, including Mount Tambora (8°14’41”S, 117°59’35”E) which exploded in 1815, the most destructive volcanic eruption in modern history, larger even than Krakatoa, between Java and Sumatra. The Tambora eruption killed 117,000 people outright, and many more indirectly. It also apparently destroyed a small kingdom of people of Southeast Asian descent, known to archaeologists as the Tamboran kingdom. It launched 100 cubic kilometers of ash into the upper atmosphere (seven times that released by Krakatoa), which caused 1816 to be the "year without a summer." [1] The Pacific Ring of Fire The Ring of Fire is a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that encircles the basin of the Pacific Ocean. ... A volcano is a geological landform usually generated by the eruption through a planets surface of magma, molten rock welling up from the planets interior. ... Mount Tambora is a stratovolcano on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa. ... The Battle of New Orleans 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Krakatoa (Indonesian name: Krakatau) is a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. ... Sumatra (also spelled Sumatara and Sumatera) is the sixth largest island of the world (approximately 470,000 km²) and is the 3rd largest island of Indonesia after Kalimantan and New Guinea. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... The Year Without a Summer, also known as the Poverty Year and Eighteen hundred and froze to death, was 1816, in which severe summer climate abnormalities destroyed crops in Northern Europe, the American Northeast and eastern Canada[1][2]. It is now generally thought that the aberrations occurred because of...

Surfing

Sumbawa is well known for its surfing and many surfers from around the world travel here to surf the waves of places like Scar Reef, Super Sucks and Lakey Peak. Many famous surfers like Kelly Slater have surfed here. The Irish pro girls "Team Pipe" also graced Lakey Peak with their surf skills in August 2005. Kelly Slater (born Robert Kelly Slater on February 11, 1972) from Cocoa Beach, Florida is the most successful professional surfer in the history of the sport. ...