Denied (Indonésien: Pulau Denied , Niha: Tanö Niha ) is a island Indonesia, located at 125 km at broad of the west coast of Sumatra.

Geography

The island has a surface of 5.625 km ² (largest of the 131 islands attached to the Northern province of Sumatra). It belongs to a chain of reliefs, separated from Sumatra by the Détroit of Mentawai. On this chain, the island of Simeulue is located at 140 km in the North-West, the islands Batu to 80 km in South-east, then the islands Mentawai: Siberut, Sipora and North Pagai. This chain re-appears more in the east to form the Small islands of the Probe then the mountainous chains of Sumba and of the Timor. This arc carries out a zone of Subduction, the oceanic plate of Denied being in conflict with the Asian plate under which it is inserted at the speed of 52 mm per annum.

The principal cities of the island are Gunung Sitoli and Teluk Dalam.

The inhabitants, 640.000, include/understand in addition to the Ono Niha , inhabitants Indigène S of the island, the Malais, the Batak and the Chinese.

Administration

Administratively, the island belongs to the Northern province of Sumatra. Since 2003, it is divided into two kabupaten (departments):

• Denied , whose chief town is Gunung Sitoli (economic capital of the island and center of the businesses)
• Nias Selatan (" Denied of Sud"), whose chief town is Teluk Dalam.

Culture

Beside the National language, the Indonésien, the inhabitants of Denied speak the Niha, which belongs to the group known as " sumatrien" Austronesian branch of the Languages austronésiennes, with the languages batak, Enggano, Mentawai and Simeulue.

The religions present at Nias are the Catholicisme, the Protestantisme and the Islam.

Natural disasters

• Nias underwent the Tsunami of December 26th, 2004 without too much damage.
• But the Earthquake of March 28th, 2005, of amplitude 8,7 was terrible. Hundreds of people died under the debris of their houses. To the south of the island in the area of Teluk Dalam, it was followed, 20 minutes after, by a tsunami. Fortunately people fled as of the first jolts and nobody was killed in spite of the height of vagueness (4 to 5 m). On the other hand, on all the coast, the houses which had not been destroyed by the jolts it were by the tidal wave, the boats crushed on the beaches.

Tourism and surfing

• In the south of the island, on the beach of Sorake Bay , one finds villages with their houses of traditional architecture.
• Différents spots from surfing is snuffed:
• Sorake Bay , beach of the south of the island near the town of Tuluk Dalam;
• islands Hinako Archipelago of small islands (of which Asu and Baya) located at broad of the west coast of Denied;
• islands Banyak (" nombreuses"), an archipelago of 60 small islands in the north of Denied which belong to the province of Aceh. Their total surface area is of 319 km ². Largest of these islands are Tuanku and Bangkaru;
• islands Batu in the south of Denied.

External bonds

• NiasPost.Com
• Humanitarian association for Denied: Association Faomasi (Indonesia - France)
• ethnologue.com: '' Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Sumatra ''

Random links:

Orchis goat | 1985 as a cartoon | Piper Laurie | Willemstad (Brabant-Septentrional) | Wilhelm Taubert