Lingga Islands
Encyclopedia
Not to be confused with "Linga", a common Scottish island name, see Linga (disambiguation)
Linga (disambiguation)
Linga may refer to:* Lingam, symbol of Shiva, which is used for worship* Linga, Victoria, a town in Australia* One of numerous Scottish islands - see List of islands called Linga* Linga P03 a ship in the Latvian Naval Forces...


The Lingga Islands or Lingga Archipelago (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....

: Kepulauan Lingga) are a group of islands in 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...

, located south of Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, along both sides of the equator
Equator
An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....

, off the eastern coast of Riau Islands province on Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

 island. They are south of the populated Riau Archipelago
Riau Archipelago
Not to be confused with Riau Islands Province, a province of Indonesia.The Riau Archipelago is the core group of islands within the Riau Islands Province in Indonesia, and located south of Singapore...

, known for the industrial island of Batam
Batam
Batam is an island and city in Riau Islands Province of Indonesia, known for its free trade zone area as part of the Sijori Growth Triangle, is located off Singapore's south coast...

 and the tourist-frequented island of Bintan
Bintan
Bintan Island or Negeri Segantang Lada is an island in the Riau archipelago of Indonesia. It is part of the Riau Islands province, the capital of which, Tanjung Pinang, lies in the island's south and is the island's main community....

, although the Lingga Islands themselves are rarely visited due to the infrequent local transportation. The equator
Equator
An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....

 goes through the northern tip of Lingga, the name of the main island in the archipelago.Administratively they form a regency with an area of 2117.72 km² and a population of 86,150 people. The capital lies at Daik
Daik
Daik is the main town on the island of Lingga of Lingga Regency, in the Riau archipelago in Indonesia. It is located at .-History:Daik was the capital of the Lingga sultanate for almost 100 years, from 1819 to 1911....

.

The population are mainly Malay
Malay people
Malays are an ethnic group of Austronesian people predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, including the southernmost parts of Thailand, the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and the smaller islands which lie between these locations...

, Bugis
Bugis
The Bugis are the most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi, the southwestern province of Sulawesi, Indonesia's third largest island. Although many Bugis live in the large port cities of Makassar and Parepare, the majority are farmers who grow wet rice on the...

 and Chinese (predominantly Hakka
Hakka people
The Hakka , sometimes Hakka Han, are Han Chinese who speak the Hakka language and have links to the provincial areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Fujian in China....

, Teochew
Teochew people
The Chaozhou people are Han people, native to the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province of China who speak the Teochew dialect. Today, most Teochew people live outside China in Southeast Asia especially in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. They can also be found almost anywhere in the...

 and Hokkien).

Name

Lingga derives its name from the profile of Mount Daik; Lingam is the Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

 word for phallus
Phallus
A phallus is an erect penis, a penis-shaped object such as a dildo, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. Any object that symbolically resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic...

. This mountain has three sharp teeth as peak, one of them seems to have broken off at its base, and it was immortalized by Malay poets as the symbol of durability.

Nearby are the remains of the fort of Benteng Bukit Cening, overlooking the sea. The cannons are still lined up, as if they were awaiting another enemy attack.

Islands

By size and population the most important islands in the archipelago are
Lingga and Singkep
Singkep
Singkep is an island in the Lingga Archipelago in Indonesia. Its area is . It is separated from the east coast of Sumatra by the Berhala Strait. It is surrounded by islands P. Posik to the west, P. Serak to the SW, P. Lalang to the South, and P. Selayar of Riau Islands between Lingga and...

, then Sebangka and Bakung.
  • Lingga with smaller Pulau (P.) Alut.
  • P. Selayar of Riau Islands between Lingga and Singkep.
  • Singkep
    Singkep
    Singkep is an island in the Lingga Archipelago in Indonesia. Its area is . It is separated from the east coast of Sumatra by the Berhala Strait. It is surrounded by islands P. Posik to the west, P. Serak to the SW, P. Lalang to the South, and P. Selayar of Riau Islands between Lingga and...

     with P. Posik to the west, P. Serak to the SW, P. Lalang to the South.
  • Sebangka and Bakung NW of Lingga, with town of Limas, islets Senayang, Kapas, Kentar, Mowang.
  • P. Lobam and Cempah to the west of Sebangka.
  • Temiang and Mesawak in the north.

Transport

Ferry services to the islands from outside the archipelago come from the provincial capital to the north, Tanjung Pinang
Tanjung Pinang
Tanjung Pinang or Tanjungpinang is the capital and second largest city of the Indonesian province of Riau Islands after Batam. A city with about 200,000 residents) it is a trading port between islands in the Riau archipelago...

 on Bintan
Bintan
Bintan Island or Negeri Segantang Lada is an island in the Riau archipelago of Indonesia. It is part of the Riau Islands province, the capital of which, Tanjung Pinang, lies in the island's south and is the island's main community....

, including from Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

. These days the main industry is fishing. There are a number of fine beaches with some coral around the Archipelago but there is very little tourism on account of the poor transport links with the outside world.
  • Singkep has two ports, Dabo near Dabosingkep and Jago
    Jago
    Jago is usually given as the Cornish for the name James and as an alternate spelling for Iago. It may also refer to:People:*Jago , about the name "Jago"*Fred W. P. Jago, scholar of the Cornish language*F. V...

     near Sungaibuluh. Service to the port of Muntok
    Muntok
    Muntok or, more commonly, Mentok is a town in the Indonesian province of Bangka-Belitung, Indonesia. Muntok is the capital of the West Bangka Regency...

     on P. Bangka
    Bangka
    Bangka can refer to:* Bangka Island, an island of Indonesia* Bangka Regency, Indonesia* Bangka Strait, a strait of Indonesia* Bangka language, spoken in Indonesia* Tagalog: bangka, an outrigger canoe* Wanhua District, Taipei City...

     of Sumatera Selatan ceased operating regularly with the demise of the tin
    Tin
    Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...

     mining industry. However, a high-speed ferry continues to connect Tanjung Pinang to Singkep, from where local boats may be chartered to Lingga.

  • For Lingga, Daik
    Daik
    Daik is the main town on the island of Lingga of Lingga Regency, in the Riau archipelago in Indonesia. It is located at .-History:Daik was the capital of the Lingga sultanate for almost 100 years, from 1819 to 1911....

    is the major town and port. It can be reached in a day from Singapore transferring at Tanjung Pinang.


External links

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