Pantar is the second largest island in the Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n Alor Archipelago

Alor Archipelago

The Alor Archipelago is located at the easternmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands.Alor is the largest island in the archipelago which is located at its eastern end. Other islands in the archipelago include Pantar, Kepa, Buaya, Ternate , Pura and Tereweng...

, after Alor. To the east is the island of Alor and other small islands in the archipelago; to the west is the Alor Strait

Alor Strait

Alor Strait . divides the Solor Archipelago from the Alor Archipelago, in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia. It lies mainly between the larger islands of Pantar and Lembata....

, which separates it from the Solor Archipelago

Solor Archipelago

The Solor Archipelago is a group of islands in the Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia, lying to the east of Flores and to the west of the Alor Strait and the Alor Archipelago. To the north is the west part of the Banda Sea, while to the south across the Savu Sea lies the island of Timor...

. To the south is the Ombai Strait

Ombai Strait

The Ombai Strait is the strait which separates the Alor Archipelago from the islands of Wetar, Atauro, and Timor in the Lesser Sunda Islands. Wetar is part of the Maluku Province of Indonesia, the Alor Archipelago and the western part of Timor are part of the province of East Nusa Tenggara,...

, and 72 km away, the island of Timor

Timor

Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, north of the Timor Sea. It is divided between the independent state of East Timor, and West Timor, belonging to the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. The island's surface is 30,777 square kilometres...

. To the north is the Banda Sea

Banda Sea

The Banda Sea is a sea in the Maluku Islands of Indonesia, technically part of the Pacific Ocean but separated from it by hundreds of islands, as well as the Halmahera and Ceram Seas...

. The island is about 50 km north-to-south, and varies from 11 to 29 km in east-west width. It has an area of 728 km². The main towns on the island are Baranusa and Kabir. Administratively, the island is part of the Alor Regency

Alor Regency

Alor Regency is a regency in East Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia. Established in 1958, Alor Regency administers the Alor Archipelago with its seat in Kalabahi on Alor Island....

.

The island consists of two distinct geographic zones. The eastern zone is dominated by a range of verdant hills which drop steeply to the coast of the Alor Strait

Alor Strait

Alor Strait . divides the Solor Archipelago from the Alor Archipelago, in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia. It lies mainly between the larger islands of Pantar and Lembata....

. The western zone is relatively flat, consisting of a plain which gently slopes to the west from the 900 m active volcano, Mt. Sirung. The western zone is characteristically drier and much less densely populated than the eastern zone. Owing to its relatively low elevation, the entire island is drier than neighboring Alor

Alor

Alor is the largest island in the Alor Archipelago located at the eastern-most end of the Lesser Sunda Islands that runs through southern Indonesia, which from the west include such islands as Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Komodo, and Flores....

. The dry season is long, interspersed with heavy rainfall during the rainy season, which peaks during January and February.

The economy is dominated by subsistence agriculture and fishing. The most common crops are rice

Rice

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

, corn

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

, and cassava

Cassava

Cassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...

. Crops are harvested annually in April and stored for consumption throughout the dry season. Excess production is sometimes traded for fish or to help support school children studying in the district capital of Kalabahi

Kalabahi

Kalabahi is a town on Alor Island and it is the capital of Alor Regency in East Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia....

. Recently, commercial production of seaweed

Carrageenan

Carrageenans or carrageenins are a family of linear sulfated polysaccharides that are extracted from red seaweeds. There are several varieties of carrageen used in cooking and baking. Kappa-carrageenan is used mostly in breading and batter due to its gelling nature...

 has been promoted along the north coast. A limited craft industry focused on ikat

Ikat

Ikat, or Ikkat, is a dyeing technique used to pattern textiles that employs a resist dyeing process similar to tie-dye on either the warp or weft fibres....

 weaving is centered in Baranusa. Tourism remains underdeveloped, though a small dive resort was recently established on the northeast coast.

Access to the island is by water only; there is no airstrip on Pantar. Small wooden power boats ply the route between Alor and Pantar daily, serving numerous communities. The state-run ferry serves Baranusa weekly between Kalabahi

Kalabahi

Kalabahi is a town on Alor Island and it is the capital of Alor Regency in East Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia....

 (Alor) and Larantuka

Larantuka

Larantuka is a subdistrict of East Flores Regency, on the eastern end of Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Like much of the region, Larantuka has a strong a colonial Portuguese influence...

 (Flores).

Languages

At least 11 different languages are spoken on Pantar. These include eight non-Austronesian languages

Papuan languages

The Papuan languages are those languages of the western Pacific which are neither Austronesian nor Australian. The term does not presuppose a genetic relationship. The concept of Papuan peoples as distinct from Melanesians was first suggested and named by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1892.-The...

 belonging to the Alor–Pantar family, as well as the Austronesian language Alorese. A small community of Bajau

Sama-Bajaw languages

The Sama–Bajaw languages are a well established group of languages spoken by the Bajau and Sama peoples of the Philippines and Malaysia, on Borneo and the Sulu Archipelago between Borneo and Mindanao.-Languages:*Abaknon/Inabaknon...

 speakers is located north of Kabir

Kabir

Kabīr was a mystic poet and saint of India, whose writings have greatly influenced the Bhakti movement...

. Local varieties of Malay

Malay language

Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...

 and more standardized Indonesian

Indonesian language

Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....

are used as languages of wider communication.

External links

• Regency of Alor Website
• Van Galen's Memorandum on the Alor Islands in 1946 http://lnu.se/polopoly_fs/1.24684!HumaNetten%2C%20Nr%2025%2C%20v%C3%A5ren%202010.pdf