Muntok () or, more commonly, Mentok is a town in the Indonesian province of

Bangka-Belitung The Bangka Belitung Islands (; Jawi: ) is a province of Indonesia. Situated off the southeastern coast of Sumatra, the province comprises two main land masses — the islands of Bangka and Belitung — and numerous smaller islands. Bangka Bel ...

on the island of Sumatra. The capital of

West Bangka Regency West Bangka Regency () is a regency (''kabupaten'') of Bangka Belitung Islands Province, Indonesia. It comprises the northwestern part of Bangka Island, together with a number of small islands off its coast. The regency covers an area of 2,820.61 ...

(''Bangka Barat''), it is the site of the biggest tin smelter on the world. Mentok refers to ''the tip of'' the island.

History

Mentok was founded at 1732 by Encek Wan Akub as the order of Sultan Palembang Darussalam Sri Susuhan Mahmud Badaruddin I, beginning as a small village consisting of 7 wooden houses for the royal family of Encek Wan Abdul Jabbar, father-in-law of Sultan Badaruddin I of Palembang Darussalam who was married his daughter Zamnah for his 2nd wife from Siantan

Natuna Natuna Regency is an islands regency located in the northernmost part of the Province of Riau Islands, Indonesia. It contains at least 154 islands, of which 127 of them are reported as uninhabited. This archipelago, with a land area of 1,978.49& ...

. Encek Wan Akub discovered a large amount of tin ore at ''Ulim river'', south Bangka Island, on a voyage of discovery with his secret task force and reported it to Sultan Badaruddin I of Palembang Darussalam. By approval of Sultan Badaruddin I of Palembang Darussalam, Encek Wan Akub ordered his nephew, Wan Serin, to seek tin miners in

Johor Johor, also spelled Johore,'' is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. It borders with Pahang, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan to the north. Johor has maritime borders with Singapore ...

Siam Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

and Campa and start

tin mining Tin mining began early in the Bronze Age, as bronze is a copper-tin alloy. Tin is a relatively rare element in the Earth's crust, with approximately 2 ppm (parts per million), compared to iron with 50,000 ppm. History Tin extraction and use ca ...

on Bangka Island. From that time Muntok become an exporter of tin ingots and was filled by merchant ships from many countries including the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

. In 1812 the British

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

captured Muntok, renamed it Minto (after

Lord Minto Earl of Minto, in the County of Roxburgh, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1813 for Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st Baron Minto. The current earl is Gilbert Timothy George Lariston Elliot-Murray-Kynynm ...

, then Governor-General of India),http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Captain+Burn+and+associates:+British+intelligence-gathering,+trade,...-a0134382052 Captain Burn and associates... and used it as their headquarters in Fort Nugent of Tandjoeng Kaleang to attack Palembang Darussalam for monopoly of the tin trade. After the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 in 1816 the British left Bangka Island and Mentok to the Dutch. In 1913 the Dutch Indies Government moved the capital of the Bangka-Belitung Residency from Mentok to

Pangkal Pinang Pangkalpinang, colloquially written as Pangkal Pinang, also known as Pin-kong in Hakka, is the capital and largest city of the Bangka Belitung Islands Province in Indonesia. It is located on Bangka Island's east coast, the city is divided into ...

Demographics

The majority of the people in Mentok are Malay and

Hakka Chinese Hakka ( zh, c=, p=Kèjiāhuà; '' Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: '', zh, c=, p=Kèjiāyǔ; '' Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: '') forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people in parts of Southern China, Taiwan, some diaspora areas ...

. The Malays are

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, while the Chinese are mostly

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, and

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

. There is also a small population of Arab and Indian Muslims in the area.

Economy

Mentok is a tin smelter town and many people work in the smelter. Other people are government employees, and there are also fishermen, farmers, and tin miners. Mentok is 3 hours from

Palembang Palembang (, Palembang: ''Pelémbang'', Mandarin: 巨港 (Jùgǎng), Hokkien: 舊港 (Kū-káng), Jawi: ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River in the ea ...

by ferry through the

Port of Tanjung Kalian The Port of Tanjung Kalian is a seaport located in the town of Muntok, in West Bangka Regency of the Bangka Belitung Islands, Indonesia. It serves as both a cargo port and a passenger ferry port, connecting the island of Bangka to Sumatra throug ...

and 2 hours by paved road from

References

External links

*
Old town around Black-nest Swiftlet tower
*
Historic town in West Bangka
Populated places in the Bangka Belitung Islands Regency seats of the Bangka Belitung Islands Districts of the Bangka Belitung Islands {{BangkaBelitung-geo-stub