Location of the Banda Islands among the Maluku Islands

The Banda Islands () are a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about south of Seram Island and about east of Java, and are part of the Indonesian province of Maluku.

* Maluku Islands

Banda is the Blessed Land: sacred practice and identity in the Banda Islands, Maluku.

He then visited other Maluku Islands including Ternate and Morotai.

Francis Xavier's work initiated permanent change in eastern Indonesia, and he was known as the ' Apostle of the Indies ' where in 1546-1547 he worked in the Maluku Islands among the people of Ambon, Ternate, and Morotai ( or Moro ), and laid the foundations for a permanent mission.

After he left the Maluku Islands, others carried on his work and by the 1560s there were 10, 000 Catholics in the area, mostly on Ambon.

In addition to continuing economic malaise, his government faced regional, interethnic, and interreligious conflict, particularly in Aceh, the Maluku Islands, and Irian Jaya.

It comprises five main islands: Sumatra, Java, Borneo ( known as " Kalimantan " in Indonesia ), Sulawesi, and New Guinea ; two major archipelagos ( Nusa Tenggara and the Maluku Islands ); and sixty smaller archipelagoes.

Between these two shelves lie Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara ( also known as the Lesser Sunda Islands ), and the Maluku Islands ( or the Moluccas ), which form a second island group where the surrounding seas in some places reach in depth.

The Maluku Islands ( or Moluccas ) are geologically among the most complex of the Indonesian islands.

The islands of North Maluku are the original Spice Islands, a distinct rainforest ecoregion.

A string of volcanoes runs through Sumatra, Java, Bali and Nusa Tenggara, and then loops around through to the Banda Islands of Maluku to northeastern Sulawesi.

Explorations seeking a natural waterway between the Atlantic and the South Sea with the hope of reaching the Molucas ( Spice Islands — Maluku Islands ) and Cathay ( China ) were also pursued.

Maluku Islands | South Moluccan Shaman exorcising evil spirits occupying children, Buru.

It is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands.

The Sangihe Islands and Talaud Islands stretch northward from the northeastern tip, while Buton Island justs southeast, Togian Islands are in the Gulf of Tomini, and Peleng Island and Banggai Islands form a cluster between Sulawesi and Maluku.

Darwin was hard at work on his " big book " on Natural Selection, when on 18 June 1858 he received a parcel from Wallace, who stayed on the Maluku Islands ( Ternate and Gilolo ).

For this reason, the islands, together with Tanzania's Mafia Island, are sometimes called the Spice Islands ( a term also associated with the Maluku Islands in Indonesia ).

Apart from some relatively minor cultural influences, the most significant lasting effects of the Portuguese presence was the disruption and reorganisation of the Southeast Asian trade, and in eastern Indonesia — including Maluku — the introduction of Christianity.

The Maluku islands differ from other areas in Indonesia ; they contain some of the country's smallest islands, coral island reefs scattered through some of the deepest seas in the world, and no large islands such as Java or Sumatra.

According to the book of Nagarakertagama pupuh ( canto ) XIII and XIV mentioned several states in Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara islands, Maluku, New Guinea, and some parts of Philippines islands as under Majapahit realm of power.

The Javanese dish gurame and more so ikan asem, also known as ikan asam ( sweet and sour fish, commonly a carp or river fish ) is served throughout Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore ; some dishes in Manado, Sulawesi and Maluku cuisines use tamarind.

Though this practice has died out among the Maranao due to its non-Islamic nature, some areas in Mindanao, Sabah and Maluku still practice this ancient tradition.

The Central Maluku Regency ( Kabupaten Maluku Tengah ), with its capital at Masohi, includes the middle part of Ceram, as well as some other smaller islands.

* M. amethistina ( Schneider, 1801 ), Amethystine python, found in Indonesia ( Maluku Islands, Timorlaut Islands, Banda, Kai Islands, Aru Islands, Misool, Selawati, most of Western New Guinea, many islands in Geelvink Bay ), Papua New Guinea ( including Umboi Island, Bismarck Archipelago, Trobriand Islands, the d ' Entrecasteaux Islands to Rossel Island, Louisiade Archipelago ), and Australia ( on some islands in the Torres Strait, the northern Cape York Peninsula south including the Atherton Tableland and the eastern foothills of the Great Dividing Range ).

By the early 1990s, Christians became a minority for the first time in some areas of the Maluku Islands.

Ternate saw some violence in the 1999 – 2000 sectarian conflict across the Maluku islands, not, however, to the extent of other islands such as nearby Halmahera.

" Spice Islands " most commonly refers to the Maluku Islands and often also to the small volcanic Banda Islands, once the only source of mace and nutmeg.

The Portuguese had conquered the city state of Malacca in the early 16th century and their influence was most strongly felt in Maluku and other parts of eastern Indonesia.

Rainforest covered most of northern and central Maluku, which, on the smaller islands has been replaced by plantations, including the region's endemic cloves and nutmeg.

Seram, Ambon, and most of Maluku are part of Wallacea, the group of Indonesian islands that are separated by deep water from both the Asian and Australian continents, and have never been linked to the continents by land.

Together with Timor, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, and most of Maluku, the Barat Daya Islands are part of Wallacea, the group of Indonesian islands that are separated by deep water from both the Australian and Asian continental shelves.

They are also present in varying numbers throughout the Bismarck Archipelago, the Kai Islands, the Aru Islands, the Maluku Islands, and many other islands within the region including Timor, and most islands within the Torres Strait.

In the early 2000s, most of the population was concentrated in the coastal areas, and comprised the following major groups: indigenous Buru ( 33, 000 people ), Lisela ( 13, 000 ), Ambelau ( 6, 000 ) and Kayeli people ( 800 ); migrants from Java, and migrants from other Maluku Islands.

Most Christians are indigenous islanders and migrants from Maluku Islands, while most Muslims originate from Java.

The abdomen and nape of the females are blue in most subspecies, purple abdomen and nape in the subspecies ( roratus ) and lavender abdomen and nape in the ( vosmaeri ) subspecies from the north and central Maluku Islands, and red abdomen and nape in the subspecies from Sumba and Tanimbar Islands ( cornelia and riedeli ).

Muslims constitute a majority in most regions of Java, Sumatra, West Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, coastal areas of Kalimantan, and North Maluku.

In the precolonial era, Ternate was the dominant political and economic power over most of the " Spice Islands " of Maluku.

The day before attacking Balikpapan, Beale had also damaged a Shell complex at Ambon, Maluku.

The islands of North Maluku are mostly of volcanic origin, with the volcanoes of Dukono on Halmahera, Gamalama on Ternate still active and the whole of Tidore consisting of a large stratovolcano.