Bangka Island

Bangka Island

Bangka is an island lying east of Sumatra, administratively part of Sumatra, Indonesia, with a population of about 1 million. It is the main part of Bangka-Belitung Province. The provincial capital, Pangkal Pinang, lies on the island. The island is administratively divided into 4 regencies and a chartered city. There is an additional small island named Pulau Bangka in northern Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Since c. 1710, Bangka has been one of the world's principal tin-producing centers. Tin production is an Indonesian government monopoly, and there is the biggest tin smelter at Muntok. White pepper is also produced on the island.
The majority of the inhabitants are Malays and Chinese, mostly Hakkas. The population is split between those work on the tin mines, palm oil plantations, rubber plantations, fisherman and those who work on pepper farms.
Bangka was ceded to Britain by the sultan of Palembang in 1812, but in 1814 it was exchanged with the Dutch for Cochin in India. The island was occupied by the Japanese from February 1942 to August 1945. It became part of independent Indonesia in 1949. The island, together with neighboring Belitung, was formerly part of South Sumatra province, but in 2000 the two islands became the new province of Bangka-Belitung.
Bangka is famous for two other events: the Banka Island massacre during World War II, perpetrated by the Japanese against Australian nurses and British and Australian servicemen and civilians, and for reputedly being the setting for the book Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad.

In 1930 Bangka had a

population of 205,363.

Bangka is also home to a number of communist Indonesians who have been under house arrest since the 1960s anti-Communist purge and aren't permitted to leave the island.

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