Maluku (province) in the context of "East Nusa Tenggara"

The Aru Islands Regency (Indonesian: Kabupaten Kepulauan Aru) is a group of about 95 low-lying islands in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia. It also forms a regency of Maluku Province, with a land area of 6,426.77 km (2,481.39 sq mi). At the 2011 Census the Regency had a population of 84,138; the 2020 Census produced a total of 102,237, and the official estimate as at mid 2024 was 112,531 (comprising 57,767 males and 54,764 females). Some sources regard the archipelago as part of Asia, while others regard it as part of Melanesia.

Nutmeg is the seed, or the ground spice derived from the seed, of several tree species of the genus Myristica; fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg (M. fragrans) is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg, from its seed, and mace, from the seed covering. It is also a commercial source of nutmeg essential oil and nutmeg butter. The Banda Islands, in Maluku, Indonesia, are the main producer of nutmeg and mace, and the true nutmeg tree is native to the islands.

Nutmeg and mace, commonly used as food spices, have been traditionally employed for their psychoactive and aphrodisiac effects, though clinical evidence is lacking. High doses can cause serious toxic effects including acute psychosis, with risks heightened during pregnancy and with psychiatric conditions.

The Australasian realm is one of eight biogeographic realms that is coincident with, but not (by some definitions) the same as, the geographical region of Australasia. The realm includes Australia, the island of New Guinea (comprising Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian province of Papua), and the eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago, including the island of Sulawesi, the Moluccas (the Indonesian provinces of Maluku and North Maluku), and the islands of Lombok, Sumbawa, Sumba, Flores, and Timor, often known as the Lesser Sundas.

The Australasian realm also includes several Pacific island groups, including the Bismarck Archipelago, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and New Caledonia. New Zealand and its surrounding islands are a distinctive sub-region of the Australasian realm. The rest of Indonesia is part of the Indomalayan realm. In the classification scheme developed by Miklos Udvardy, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and New Zealand are placed in the Oceanian realm.

Southeast Sulawesi (Indonesian: Sulawesi Tenggara, Indonesian pronunciation: [sulaˌwesi t̪əŋˈɡara]; often abbreviated to Sultra, Indonesian pronunciation: [ˈsʊlt̪ra]), is a province on the island of Sulawesi, forming the southeastern peninsula of that island, together with a number of substantial offshore islands such as Buton, Muna, Kabaena and Wawonii (formerly called Wowoni), together with many smaller islands. It is bordered by South Sulawesi and Central Sulawesi to the north, sharing a maritime border with Maluku and North Maluku to the east and East Nusa Tenggara to the south, as well a very narrow maritime border with East Timor to the south. The capital is the city of Kendari, on the east coast of the peninsula.

The province has no highway road connecting to the rest of the island, and the primary transportation link is a ferry across the Bone Gulf between Watampone (Bone) in South Sulawesi and the port of Kolaka in Southeast Sulawesi.

The Barat Daya Islands (Indonesian: Kepulauan Barat Daya; Indonesian pronunciation: [kəpuˌlawan ˌbarat̚ ˈdaja]) are a group of islands in the Maluku province of Indonesia. The Indonesian phrase barat daya means 'south-west'.

The Tanimbar Islands (Indonesian: Kepulauan Tanimbar; Indonesian pronunciation: [kəpuˌlawan̪ t̪aˈnimbar]), also called Timur Laut (literally, "North East"; Indonesian pronunciation: [ˌt̪imʊr ˈlaʊt̪̚]), are a group of about 65 islands in the Maluku province of Indonesia. The largest and most central of the islands is Yamdena; others include Selaru to the southwest of Yamdena, Larat and Fordata to the northeast, Maru and Molu to the north, and Seira, Wuliaru, Selu, Wotap and Makasar to the west. The Indonesian phrase timur laut means "east of the sea" or "northeast".

The Tanimbar Islands are administered as the Tanimbar Islands Regency (Indonesian: Kabupaten Kepulauan Tanimbar), a regency of Maluku. The Regency covers a land area of 10,166.82 km, and it had a population of 105,341 at the 2010 census, rising to 123,572 at the 2020 census; the official estimate as at mid 2024 was 132,337. The principal town and administrative centre lies at Saumlaki which (with the suburban North Saumlaki (Saumlaki Utara) and the villages of Olilit and Sifnana) occupies a peninsula in the southeast of Yamdena Island.

Moluccans are the Melanesian-Austronesian and Papuan-speaking ethnic groups indigenous to the Maluku Islands (also called the Moluccas). The region was historically known as the Spice Islands, and today consists of two Indonesian provinces of Maluku and North Maluku. As such, the term Moluccans is used as a blanket term for the various ethnic and linguistic groups native to the islands.

Most Moluccans practice Islam, followed by Christianity. Despite religious differences, all groups share strong cultural bonds and a sense of common identity, such as through Adat. Music is also a binding factor, playing an important role in the cultural identity, and the Moluccan capital city of Ambon was awarded the official status of City of Music by UNESCO in 2019.

North Maluku (Indonesian: Maluku Utara; Indonesian pronunciation: [maˌluku (ʔ)uˈt̪ara]) is a province of Indonesia. It covers the northern part of the Maluku Islands, bordering the Pacific Ocean to the north, the Halmahera Sea to the east, the Molucca Sea to the west, and the Seram Sea to the south. It shares maritime borders with North Sulawesi and Central Sulawesi to the west; Maluku (province) to the south; Southwest Papua to the east; and Palau to the north. The provincial capital is Sofifi, mostly part of the city of Tidore Islands on the largest island of Halmahera, while the largest city is the island city of Ternate. The population of North Maluku was 1,038,087 in the 2010 census, making it one of the least-populous provinces in Indonesia, but by the 2020 Census the population had risen to 1,282,937, and the official estimate as at mid 2024 was 1,355,620 (comprising 694,630 males and 660,990 females).

North Maluku was originally the centre of the four largest Islamic sultanates in the eastern Indonesian archipelago—Bacan, Jailolo, Tidore and Ternate—known as the Moloku Kië Raha (the Four Mountains of Maluku). Upon Europeans' arrival at the beginning of the 16th century, North Maluku became the site of competition between the Portuguese, Spanish and the Dutch to control trade. In the end, the Dutch emerged victorious, beginning three centuries of Dutch rule in the region. The Japanese invaded the region during World War II, and Ternate became the center of the Japanese rule of the Pacific region. Following Indonesian independence, the region became a part of the province of Maluku.