Indonesia (December 2018): Five days in Ternate
and Tidore
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Ternate and Tidore
are two small islands in the Molucca (Maluku) Sea, located in the north of the
Maluku archipelago, a short distance west from the much bigger Halmahera island. Two ancient Islamic sultanates founded in the 13th
century (Ternate) and the 15th century (Tidore), they
were once the largest world producers of clove. For centuries, clove was an extremely
valuable spice used to preserve and flavor foods and beverages, prevent and
treat various medical ailments ranging from toothache to arthritis, manufacture
cosmetics... It is even said that visitors to the Han Dynasty court in China
were only permitted to address the emperor if their breath had been
sweetened with cloves! Their dominance in clove allowed Ternate and Tidore to become the most powerful sultanates in the region.
At the peak of their power near the end of the 16th century and during the 17th
century, they had influence over a large geographical area including parts of
Sulawesi, Halmahera, Ambon and Seram, and parts of
Papua. However, they also have a long history of bitter rivalry and they spent
much of their wealth fighting each other.
The first Europeans to establish a
settlement in the area were the Portuguese who were permitted by the Ternate sultan
to build a fort (Benteng Kastela)
in 1522 on the southwest coast of Ternate. But souring relations between Ternateans and Portuguese led to the killing of Sultan Hairun by the Portuguese in 1570, which then caused the
rebellion of the Ternateans and finally the expulsion
of the Portuguese from Ternate in 1575. Then the most active colonial powers in
the region (Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands) played one sultanate against
the other to extend or maintain their influence, while each of the two sultanates
played a similar game by exploiting rivalry and competition between these
powers, with the Dutch eventually prevailing. The existence of the two
sultanates continued almost un-interrupted until today. Although the current
sultans have little actual power, the sultanates remain well-respected
institutions.
Ternate is an almost perfect volcanic
cone, the Gamalama volcano culminating at 1715m. Tidore has a slightly more complicated geography, but the
island is also dominated by a volcanic cone, Kiematubu
(1730m). Gamalama is still active. Since the early
16th century over 70 eruptions have been recorded.
Ever since my first trip to Indonesia in
1972 (see here)
I had wished to visit Ternate and Tidore, mostly
because of their rich and unusual history. I finally did this trip in December
2018 by combining it with another trip to Taiwan. I spent 5 days in Ternate,
including a day ascent of Gamalama and a day trip to Tidore. Looking back, I should have planned a slightly
longer trip so that I could have spent more time in Tidore,
especially in highland villages, and climbed Kiematubu.
During my stay in Kota Ternate my ″home″
was the very friendly Kurnia homestay (photo below).
The owner, Aty, was a great source of help to find a
guide to climb Gamalama and a reliable ojek (motorbike taxi) driver to drive me around Ternate and
Tidore.
To see photos of this trip click on the
links below.
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Ascent
of Gamalama (day trip) |
Tidore (day trip) |
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