Liran (, ) is a small island off the southwest coast of

Wetar Wetar is a tropical island which belongs to the Indonesian province of Maluku and is the largest island of the Maluku Barat Daya Islands (literally ''Southwest Islands'') Regency of the Maluku Islands. It lies east of the Lesser Sunda Islands, ...

Island,

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, ...

. Administratively it is part of West Wetar District (''Kecamatan Wetar Barat'') within the

Southwest Maluku Regency Southwest Maluku Regency (; ) is a regency of Maluku Province, Indonesia. Geographically it forms the most eastern portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands, although it has never been administratively included with them, and politically has always com ...

(''Kabupaten Maluku Barat Daya''). The

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

ese island

Atauro Atauro (, , ), also known as Kambing Island (), is an island and municipality (, or ) of Timor-Leste. Atauro is a small oceanic island situated north of Dili, on the extinct Wetar segment of the volcanic Inner Banda Arc, between the Indones ...

is 12 km to the southwest. Liran is the westernmost of the

Barat Daya Islands The Barat Daya Islands (; ) are a group of islands in the Maluku province of Indonesia. The Indonesian phrase ''barat daya'' means 'south-west'. Geography These islands are located off the eastern end of East Timor. Wetar is the largest island i ...

in the province of

Maluku Maluku may refer to: Places * Maluku Islands, an archipelago that is part of Indonesia ** List of the Maluku Islands * Maluku (province), a province of Indonesia comprising the central and southern parts of the archipelago * North Maluku, a provin ...

. It covers an area of 39.14 km² (including minor offshore islands) and had 841 inhabitants in 2019.Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. Liran is surrounded by

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...

s. It has a small population, who speak

Wetarese Wetarese is an Austronesian language of Wetar, an island in the south Maluku, Indonesia, and of the nearby island Liran. Background The four identified principal varieties of Wetarese on Wetar – Aputai, Iliʼuun, Perai and Tugun – ar ...

. They primarily live in the small village Ustutun on the east coast of the island, which also serves as the administrative centre for the West Wetar District. There is also a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

References

External links

Satellite photo of Liran, off the coast of Wetar
Barat Daya Islands Islands of the Maluku Islands Populated places in Indonesia {{Maluku-geo-stub