The Tanimbar Islands Site

Welcome

Welcome to The Tanimbar Islands Site. This is a small website offering resources for those with an interest in the Tanimbar Islands, a small archipelago in Maluku Tenggara, East Indonesia.

The Tanimbar islands are made up of Yamdena, Larat, Sera, Fordata, Selaru and several other, smaller islands. They remain a relatively little-known corner of the world, and this site aims to provide a little more information.

The site is designed and maintained by me, Dr. Will Buckingham, a writer and academic based currently in the UK. I carried out research in Tanimbar in ¹⁹⁹⁴⁄₁₉₉₅, working at the University of Pattimura on a project sponsored by LIPI, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, researching the work of Tanimbarese wood-carvers.

Much more recently, I have written a book about Tanimbar called Stealing With the Eyes: Imaginings and Incantations in Indonesia, and published by Haus Publishing in 2018.

Much of what is on this site is of historical—rather than contemporary—interest. But it still seems worth preserving. On the menu above, you can find links to a few Tanimbarese stories, the initial report I wrote on my work in the Tanimbar islands back in 1995, information about Stealing With the Eyes, and some links to further resources.