Raja Ampat, or the Four Kings, is an archipelago located off the northwest tip of Bird's Head Peninsula on the island of New Guinea, in Indonesia's Southwest Papua province. It comprises over 1,500 small islands, cays, and shoals surrounding the four main islands of Misool, Salawati, Batanta, and Waigeo, and the smaller island of Kofiau.
The Raja Ampat archipelago straddles the Equator and forms part of Coral Triangle which contains the richest marine biodiversity on earth.
Administratively, the archipelago is part of the province of Southwest Papua. Most of the islands constitute the Raja Ampat Regency, which was separated out from Sorong Regency in 2004. The regency encompasses around of land and sea, of which 8,034.44 km2 constitutes the land area and has a population of 64,141 at the 2020 Census. This excludes the southern half of Salawati Island, which is not part of this regency but instead constitutes the Salawati Selatan and Salawati Tengah Districts of Sorong Regency.
History
The name of Raja Ampat (Raja means king, and empat means four) comes from local mythology that told of a woman who found seven eggs, in one version this woman was Boki Tabai, daughter of Al-Mansur of Tidore and wife to Gurabesi. Three of the seven hatched and became kings who occupy Raja Ampat Islands, the fourth hatched and settled in Waigama but later migrated to Kalimuri (Seram). In another version, the fifth egg hatched into a woman (Pin Take) who later washed away to Biak, married Manar Makeri and later gave birth to Gurabesi. The sixth egg hatched into a spirit, while the seventh egg did not hatch and turned to stone and worshipped as a king in Kali Raja (Wawiyai, Waigeo). Historically the 'four' kingdoms were Waigeo, Salawati, Sailolof, Misool and Waigama. Locally Waigama is not considered one of the Raja Ampat, while Sailolof is not considered one of the Raja Ampat by Tidore.
The first recorded sighting and landing by Europeans of the Raja Ampat Islands was by the Portuguese navigator Jorge de Menezes and his crew in 1526, en route from Biak, the Bird's Head Peninsula, and Waigeo, to Halmahera (Ternate).
Islam first arrived in the Raja Ampat Islands in the 15th century due to political and economic contacts with the Bacan Sultanate. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Maluku-based Sultante of Tidore had close economic and political ties with the islands especially with Gurabesi. During this period, Islam became firmly established and local chiefs had begun adopting Islam.
As a consequence of these ties, Raja Ampat was considered a part of the Sultanate of Tidore. After the Dutch invaded Maluku, it was claimed by the Netherlands.
The English explorer William Dampier gave his name to Dampier Strait, which separates Batanta island from Waigeo island. To the east, there is a strait that separates Batanta from Salawati. In 1759 Captain William Wilson sailing in the East Indiaman Pitt navigated these waters and named a strait the 'Pitt strait', after his vessel; this was probably the channel between Batanta and Salawati.
Climate
The islands have a tropical climate, with temperatures ranging from .
Water temperature in North Raja Ampat ranges from , while in the South in Misool, it ranges from (Water temperature chart in Misog ol).
Ecology
Terrestrial
The islands are part of the Vogelkop-Aru lowland rain forests ecoregion. The rain forests that covers the islands is the natural habitat of many species of birds, mammals, reptiles and insects. Two species of bird-of-paradise, the red bird-of-paradise (Paradisaea rubra) and Wilson's bird-of-paradise (Diphyllodes respublica), are endemic to the islands of Waigeo, Gam, and Batanta.
The recently discovered palm tree Wallaceodoxa raja-ampat is endemic to the Raja Ampat Islands.
Marine
Raja Ampat is considered the global center of tropical marine bio-diversity and is referred to as The Crown Jewel of the Bird's Head Seascape, which also includes Cenderawasih Bay and Triton Bay. The region contains more than 600 species of hard corals, equaling about 75 percent of known species globally, and more than 1,700 species of reef fish – including on both shallow and mesophotic reefs. Compared to similar-sized ecosystems elsewhere in the world, this makes Raja Ampat's biodiversity the richest in the world. Endangered and rare marine mammals such as dugongs, whales (such as blue or/and pygmy blue, bryde's, less known omura's, sperm), dolphins, and orcas occur there.