Enarotali is a town in Paniai Regency,

Central Papua Central Papua, officially the Central Papua Province () is an Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province located in the central region of Western New Guinea. It was formally established on 25 July 2022 from the former eight western regencies of ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It is located on the shore of Lake Paniai, in

Western New Guinea Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, and Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the island of New Guinea, formerly Dutch and granted to Indonesia in 1962. Given the island is alternatively named Papua, the region ...

highlands.

History

Enarotali is considered to be the only colonial city founded by the Dutch in the interior of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The Wissel Lakes area was not known outside New Guinea until 1937. In order to assert Dutch control over the area, a Christian mission and a radio-equipped government post were established there in May 1938. In April 1942, Dutch New Guinea was invaded by the Japanese, thus isolating the post from the coast, although it was resupplied by seaplanes from time to time. The Dutch maintained a small force there under code-named Operation Oaktree, made up of Papuan natives led by Jean Victor de Bruijn, harassing Japanese troops based on the coast at Timoeka near Kaukenau, where the Japanese had established an airfield in December 1942. With the objective of stopping those raids and preventing eventual allied reinforcements in the highland lake regions, the Japanese occupied the village in May 1943, although it had been preventively burnt to the ground by de Bruijn and his men. De Bruijn then withdrew to the surrounding valleys, harassing the Japanese forces occupying the lakes and gathering precious intelligence on Japanese troops in

, until his evacuation from the region in July 1944. At the end of the war in late 1945, Dutch colonial administration control was restored over the area, until it was transferred to Indonesia in May 1963 along with the rest of

2014 Massacre

On 8 December 2014 the

Indonesian army The Indonesian Army ( (TNI-AD), ) is the army, land branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. It has an estimated strength of 300,400 active personnel. The history of the Indonesian Army has its roots in 1945 when the (TKR) "People's Se ...

would open fire on a crowd of around 1,000 people protesting the severe beating of a group of young teens earlier that day, killing five and injuring 17.

Geography

It is located in the

Highlands Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Africa * Highlands, Johannesburg, South Africa * Highlands, Harare, Zimbab ...

, on the shore of Lake Paniai. Its altitude is about 1750 m, located near a fertile mountain plain surrounding the lake and it is surrounded by hills and mountains. It is served by the Enarotali Airport. It is the capital of Paniai Regency,

province. The city is at present developing towards Mahdi, located 12 km to the east.

Climate

Enarotali has a

subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring c ...

(Cfb) with heavy rainfall year-round.

Population

The population of the Paniai Regency was 170.193 in 2017, however most of them didn't live in the regency capital, but in the countryside. The main tribes are Mee,

Moni Moni or Mone ( Kamkata-vari: ''Mone''/''Mune''), also known as Mandi (from Prasun) was, after Imra, the second-most important god in the pre-Islamic pantheon of the Nuristani people. With his breath, Imra created Moni and Gish. Moni was believed ...

, Wolani and Dani. The former three tribes speak the

Paniai Lakes languages The Paniai Lakes languages, also known as the Wissel Lakes or Wissel Lakes – Kemandoga River, are a small family of closely related Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in the Paniai Lakes region of the highlands of Western New Guinea in the Pan ...

, which is a language family named after the lakes. They depend on agriculture, including the cultivation of

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its sizeable, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable, which is a staple food in parts of ...

and breeding livestock.

References

{{coord, 3, 55, 47, S, 136, 22, 40, E, display=title Populated places in Central Papua Regency seats of Central Papua