The nine small, jewel-like volcanic islands of the Banda Group, 160 km southeast of Ambon, became world famous from the 17th to 19th centuries as the original Spice Islands of the Dutch colonial history.
These were the islands Christopher Columbus was heading for in 1492 when the American continent got in his way. Thinking he had landed in the East Indies, he called the American natives he first encountered "Indians."
For their size, population (only 25,000) and location in the middle of nowhere on the northeast fringe of the Banda Sea, the Bandas played a gigantic role in Indonesian and world history.
The islands offer magnificent scenery, beautiful sandy beaches, puffing volcanos, easygoing accommodations, decaying Dutch forts, peerless coral reefs and crystal waters so clear that even minute objects can be seen to depths of up to eight fathoms.
Many races, languages and religions have produced today's homogenous, highly distinct and complex Bandanese people.
As yet uncorrupted by tourism, the Bandas receive a trickle of travelers and odd adventurers. Besides tourism and limited nutmeg production, the only other sector of the economy which shows promise is fishing.
One of the island’s dozen or so vehicles will meet you after your Merpati flight touches down at the airport on 3-sq-km Pulau Neira near the principle town, Bandaneira, once famous all over the Dutch East Indies for its beauty.
A Bloody History
Until the invention of refrigeration, spices were bound up inextricably in the history of these islands. The demand these natural preservatives in Europe reached such a fever pitch during the late 16th century that expeditions were dispatched in search of the source.
The Portuguese landed in 1512, and the first Dutch fleet arrived in 1599. To acquire control of the nutmeg and mace trade, in 1621 the ruthless 31-year-old Dutch Governor-General Jan Pieterszoon Coen, whose name Dutch historians have said "reeks of blood," invaded the Bandas from Batavia with a force of 2,000 men.
Coen's Japanese mercenaries rampaged through the islands, razing villages, burning boats, raping and looting. Going down in history as one of the blackest days in Dutch colonial history, Coen exterminated two-thirds of the indigenous population, selling the remainder into slavery or driving them into the hills to die of exposure.
The Dutchman then imposed a brutal monopoly on nutmeg production, carving up the islands into concessions, or perken, which were offered free to Dutch planters called perkenier – mostly rogues and drifters. Production was strictly controlled and prices were fixed, ensuring a guaranteed income for the perkenier and astronomical profits for the Dutch East India Company for over a century.
The irony through all the Banda’s suffering is that, while the rest of the world considers nutmeg a rare delicacy, the inhabitants of these islands have never used it as a condiment.
Bandaneria
The quiet, peaceful town of Bandaneira, perched on the edge of a gigantic crater, today consists of just a few short streets filled with sunbaked homes, shops and some of the finest examples of gracious old Dutch colonial architecture in existence, most crumbling under the merciless tropical sun.
The haunting old colonial town-houses and dilapidated buildings, reflecting the turbulent history they have seen, have an air of genteel decay about them. The landlocked harbor, with no visible outlet, was once one of the finest in the Indies. The wharf faces the narrow strait; in the middle sits conical-shaped, menacing Gunung Api.
On a plateau above Bandaneira is pentagonal-shaped Fort Belgica. Built in the 1620s, this massive fortress has survived numerous earthquakes and is in fairly good condition. Visit the information room and climb up to one of the towers for a sweeping view over the town, the sleepy harbor, nutmeg groves and looming volcanos.
In the center of town, the Dutch Reform Church (1852) has a clock that hasn’t worked since the moment the Japanese invaded 60 years ago. Near the church is a cemetery with lichen-covered inscriptions - probably the most fascinating collections of old tombstones outside of Jakarta. The old Catholic church has a clock face with only eight numbers, and no hands – another head-scratching anomaly.
The magnificent VOC Governor's palace, once the Dutch controlleur’s mansion, was built in the 1820s with giant granite paving slabs, bright floor tiles, shiny marble, heavily carved beams, huge wooden doors and shuttered windows. A stern, heavy, colonial air still pervades this building. Behind it, in the garden, is a statue of the Dutch King Willem III. Ask to see the inscription by a 19th-century French prisoner who scratched a lament on the wall.
The residential street running along the waterfront, now Jl. Pelabuhan, was called Middenstraat in colonial times. Here are the grand stone mansions, some restored but the majority in serious disrepair. The most imposing of these waterfront buildings, now in ruins, is the former Harmonie Club. Once the hub of social life, here the perkenier would socialize with their wives in the cool of the evening - smoking Dili cigars, drinking Bols gin, playing cards.
In the 20th century, the Bandas gained notoriety as isles of exile for several of Indonesia's most popular revolutionary leaders, Sutan Sjahrir and Mohammed Hatta. The Mohammed Hatta Museum contains the desk, typewriter and pens of Dr. Mohammed and other exile memorabilia.
Transferred from the infamous Boven Digul detention camp of West New Guinea, these famous visitors arrived on 11 February 1936 and soon endeared themselves to the townsfolk, ordering books from Batavia and tutoring the local children.
The nationalists swam, fished and hiked in what amounted to a delightful exile in an idyllic tropical setting, all of which ended abruptly in 1942 with the Japanese invasion.
After Indonesia achieved independence in 1949, the Bandas never regained their brilliance in the constellation of international trade.
E-mail : pakbill2003@yahoo.com
Copyright@2004 PakBill
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