Flores
 |
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. The largest town is
Maumere.
Flores is located east of
Sumbawa and
Komodo and west of
Lembata and the
Alor Archipelago. To the southeast is
Timor. To the south, across the Sumba strait, is
Sumba and to the north, beyond the
Flores Sea, is
Sulawesi.
Flores is part of the
East Nusa Tenggara province. The island is split into five
regencies (local government districts); from west to east these are:
Manggarai,
Ngada,
Ende,
Sikka and
Flores Timur.
Flores has several active and dormant
volcanoes, including
Egon,
Ilimuda,
Lereboleng, and
Lewotobi (see the
full list).
The west coast of Flores is one of the few places, aside from the island of
Komodo itself, where the
Komodo dragon can be found in the wild. The
Flores giant rat is also endemic to the Island.
In September 2004, at
Liang Bua Cave in western Flores,
paleoanthropologists discovered skeletons of a previously unknown
hominid species.
Homo floresiensis, affectionately termed
hobbits after the small characters in
the Lord of the Rings, appear to be miniaturized versions of
Homo erectus standing about one
metre tall. They may have existed until as recently as
11,000 BC. Local reports of
elf-like people, the
Ebu Gogo, or the
Orang Pendek of Sumatra, have caused speculation that Flores man may have survived into the historical period, or even to the present. The discovery has been published in the
October 28,
2004, issue of
Nature magazine.[
1]Flores was also a habitat of the extinct
Stegodon dwarf elephant until approximately 18,000 years ago.
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A statue of Jesus in Maumere, Flores |
There are many languages spoken on the island of Flores, all of them belonging to the
Austronesian family. In the centre of the island in the districts of
Ngada and
Ende there is what is variously called the Central Flores Dialect Chain or the Central Flores Linkage. Within this area there are slight
linguistic differences in almost every village. At least six separate languages are identifiable. These are from west to east:
Ngadha,
Nage,
Keo,
Ende,
Lio and
Palu'e, which is spoken on the island with the same name of the north coast of Flores. Locals would probably also add
So'a and
Bajawa to this list, which anthropologists have labeled dialects of Ngadha.
Portuguese traders and missionaries came to Flores in the 16th century, mainly to
Larantuka and
Sikka. Their influence is still discernible in Sikka's language and culture.
Flores is almost all Catholic and represents one of the "religious borders" created by the Catholic expansion in the Pacific and the spread of Islam from the west across Indonesia. In other places in Indonesia, such as in the Malukus and Sulawesi, the divide is more rigid and has been the source of bloody sectarian clashes.
The most famous tourist attraction in Flores is
Kelimutu; three coloured lakes in the district of Ende. These coloured lakes change colours on a regular basis. The latest colours (late 2004) were said to be turquoise, brown and black.
There is good
snorkelling and
diving on several locations along the north coast of Flores, most notably
Maumere and
Riung. However, due to the destructive practice of local fishermen using bombs to fish, and locals selling shells to tourists, combined with the after effects of a devastating tsunami in 1992, the reefs have slowly been destroyed.
Labuanbajo (on the western tip of Flores) is a town often used by tourists, from where they can visit
Komodo and
Rinca. Labuanbajo also attracts scuba divers, as
whale sharks inhabit the waters around Labuanbajo.
*
Flores Man special at Nature.com
