Alor Primitive

THE WONDER OF CANNARY ISLAND

(the regency of Alor)

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION

1. Position of the territory

The Canary Island (the Regency of Alor) is situated in the ost east of nusa Tenggara archipelago. Geographically, the alor regency stretches from 123۫ to 225۫ 81 east longitude and from 8۫,8 to 8۫, 36 south latitude. The canary island (the regency of Alor) is adjacent to the Flores Sea in the north, the Ombay strait in the south, the Timor Leste state in the east, and the Lomblen strait in the west.

2. Size of the territory

The Alor regency measures 285, 464 ha or 2,864, 64 Km2 comprising 15 islands; 9 of them are inhabited by people whereas 6 others are not yet inhabited by the human beings but by the fauna (animals).

3. Physical characteristics of the territory

1. Administratively, the regency of Alor is divided into 9 subdistricts, 158villages and 17 village administrations. The nine sub-districts are as follows:

i. The sub-district of Mutiara Bay

ii. The sub-district of North west Alor

iii. The sub-district of South West Alor

iv. The sub-district of South Alor

v. The sub-district of North central Alor

vi. The sub-district of North East Alor

vii. The sub-district of East Alor

viii. The sub-district of Pantar

ix. The sub-district of West Pantar

2. Topographical characteristic of The Alor regency

Viewed from its topography, 64.25% of total size of territory are mountainous and hilly with some 67,691.44 ha or 23.63 km2 declivity. The declivity degree of the land that ranges from 30 to 150 comprises the area of 24,750.49 ha or 8.64% of total size. At average, the area of The Alor regency has 0.3 degree of declivity. The rainfall in Alor is relatively normal.

NATURE AND PEOPLE OF THE CANARY ISLAND

1. Natural Resources

The Alor regency is very potential in natural resources for the development of people’s economic life. Several promising commodity plants grow very well in this region such as vanilla in Desa Apui, Tungma, Vabailu (at the South Alor sub-district). The great harvest of vanilla watch carried out on March 23, 2001. other commodity crop having been cultivated and having good marketing prospect are kernels, coconuts, areca nuts, tamarind, cashew trees, cloves, and coffee. Whereas, other crops that are still being developed are pepper, vanilla, cocoa, and nutmeg.

Beside that, there are some commodity plants grow in Alor such as coconut-mango and “kusambi”; trees that produce lacquer lice. The Alor regency has some outstanding marine resources such as grass, ridge of rock (coral reef), and its beautiful seabed decorated by various kinds of fishes, such as ornamenting fish, “kerapu” fish, and onather kind of fish around Marica Beach, the island of Kepa and Mulut Kumbang (mounth of the beetle). There are also some quarrying materials such as black-stone, gypsum, kaolin, clean sands, as well as mining materials such as copper, gold and lead.

2. Human Resources

1. Population

Based on population census of The Alor regency in 2000, the population in alor consists of:

· Males : 79,869 persons

· Females : 84,368 persons

· Total : 164,237 persons

· Families : 35,595 families

2. Density
• Density: 58 persons per sq km.
• Population growth: 1,47% (1980-1990), 1,28% (1990-2000)

3. Jobs

the jobs of the population aged ten years up according to main field of work and sexes. (Table 01)

• Education status (table 02)
• Shcools: numbers and levels of education institutions in The Alor regency are displayed in table 03.
• Hospital, Public Health Centers, doctors and nurses: hospital 1 unit, Public Health Center 17 units, subsidiary Public Health Center 4 Clinics 3 unit, Medical Personnels (doctors); doctors are non permanent employees 5 persons, Child Specialist doctor 1 person, Civil Servant doctors 4 persons, para medical personnels (nurses) are 82 persons
• Per capita income of The Alor regency: in 1997, the per-capita income was Rp. 928,018. in 1998 the per-capita income was Rp 967,940.

4. Flora and Fauna

The natural richness of fauna and flora from The Alor regency comprises sea park somewhere around Pura, Kepa, Ternate and Buaya islands as well as around Marica beach. In this sea park, we find some kind of beautiful fish and variety of undersea plants. Another these sceneries, we can found also many kind of wild deer in Rusa island (deer island). There are canary wood in some places.

5. Aboriginal people and ethnic groups

Hidayah Zulyani,in Ensiklopedia suku bangsa di Indonesia (The Encyclopedia of Ethnics in Indonesia) writes that in The Alor regency lives a number of sub-ethnic in Alor such as Abui, Alor, Belagar, Deing Kabola, Kawel, Kemang, Kui, Lemma, Maneta, Mauta, Seboda, Wersin and Wuwuli.

6. Languages

Stokhof Woisika (1975), Preliminari Notes on the Alor and Pantar Languages, mentioned that there are 17 local languages used by the people of The Alor regency.those languages are: Alor language, Abui language, Blagar language, Hamap language, Kabola language, Kafoa language, Kamang language, Kelon language, Kui language, Kula language, Lamma language, Nedebeng language, Retta language, Sawila language, Terewanglanguage, Tewa language and Wersing language.

7. Religions and beliefs

Vast majority of the population of The Alor regency are Protestants, Moslems, Catholic, Budha, and Hindus. Only view of them still believe in traditional religions. There are many evident to prove that the people of Alor are still strongly holding the the traditional belief such as the altars, and the “adapt” offering-sites. These places can be found in many non-inhibited islands or in the location o traditional villages.

The people of Alor are generally religious. At least, it is indicates by the numbers of the people who hold religion/beliefs and by the presence of houses of worship every where throughout the district.

(*All of this information are taken from book: THE WONDER OF CANNARY ISLAND)