Mamasa Regency (), covering a land area of 3,005.88 km² with its capital at

Mamasa Mamasa may refer to: *Mamasa language *Mamasa Regency * Mamasa River See also * Polewali-Mamasa, a former Indonesian Regency *Toraja Mamasa Church The Toraja Mamasa Church was established on 7 June 1947, and based in West Sulawesi. It is a Protes ...

city, is the only inland regency without a

coast A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

among the six

regencies In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

that make up the

West Sulawesi West Sulawesi (), covering a land area of 17,152.99 km2 with its capital at Mamuju, is a province of Indonesia on the western side of Sulawesi (formerly Celebes) island, consisting 6 regencies ('' kabupaten''), namely Polewali Mandar, Ma ...

(Sulawesi Barat) Province on the island of

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

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, ...

. The

Mamasa people The Mamasa ( Mamasa: ''To Mamasa'') is an ethnic group residing in Mamasa Regency, West Sulawesi. The Mamasa community is known in districts in Mamasa Regency. The Mamasa people are part of the Toraja sub-people. Mamasa language is similar to T ...

, a sub-group of the

Toraja people The Torajan are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja"). Most of the population is Chri ...

, form the most common ethnic group. Despite being the home to the

Gandang Dewata National Park Gandang Dewata National Park (Taman Nasional Gandang Dewata in Indonesian language) is located in the Mamasa Regency of West Sulawesi province of Indonesia, with Tanete Gandangdewata (3,074 meters) and its mountain range at its core. The mountain ...

,Gandangdewata
gunungbagging.com, accessed 20 March 2025. the regency has immense untapped tourism potential hindered by the political apathy towards developing the transport and tourism infrastructure, which is keeping the local populace in poverty.

History

Pre-history

The oldest evidence for humans on Sulawesi are stone tools produced by

archaic humans ''Homo'' () is a genus of great ape (family Hominidae) that emerged from the genus ''Australopithecus'' and encompasses only a single extant species, ''Homo sapiens'' (modern humans), along with a number of extinct species (collectively calle ...

, dating from over 200,000 to 100,000 years ago, that were found at the Talepu site in southwestern Sulawesi.

Hindu-Buddhist era

In 1367, several identified polities located on the island were mentioned in the Javanese manuscript

Nagarakretagama The ''Nagarakretagama'' or ''Nagarakṛtāgama'', also known in Bali as ''Desawarnana'' or ''Deśavarṇana'', is an Old Javanese eulogy to Hayam Wuruk, a Javanese king of the Majapahit Empire. It was written on lontar as a ''kakawin'' by ...

dated from the

Majapahit Majapahit (; (eastern and central dialect) or (western dialect)), also known as Wilwatikta (; ), was a Javanese people, Javanese Hinduism, Hindu-Buddhism, Buddhist thalassocracy, thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia based on the island o ...

period. Canto 14 mentioned polities including Gowa, Makassar,

Luwu The Kingdom of Luwu (also Luwuq or Wareq) was a polity located in the northern part of the modern-day South Sulawesi province of Indonesia, on the island of Sulawesi. It is considered one of the earliest known Buginese kingdoms in Sulawesi, fou ...

and Banggai. It seems that by the 14th century, polities in the island were connected in an archipelagic maritime trading network, centered in the Majapahit port in East Java. By 1400, a number of nascent agricultural principalities had arisen in the western Cenrana valley, as well as on the south coast and on the west coast near modern Parepare.

Christian colonial era

The first Europeans to visit the island (which they believed to be an archipelago due to its contorted shape) were the Portuguese sailors Simão de Abreu in 1523, and

Gomes de Sequeira Gomes de Sequeira was a Portuguese explorer in the early 16th century. It has been suggested by some historians that Gomes de Sequeira may have sailed to the northeast coast of Australia as part of his explorations, although this is disputed. In ...

(among others) in 1525, sent from the Moluccas in search of gold, which the islands had the reputation of producing. A Portuguese base was installed in Makassar in the first decades of the 16th century, lasting until 1665, when it was taken by the Dutch. The Dutch had arrived in Sulawesi in 1605 and were quickly followed by the English, who established a factory in Makassar. From 1660, the Dutch were at war with

Gowa Gowa ('' Makassar language : '') is a regency in the province of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It has an area of 1,883.33 km2 and a population of 652,329 at the 2010 census,Biro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. increasing to 765,836 at the 2020 ...

, the major Makassar west coast power. In 1669, Admiral Speelman forced the ruler, Sultan Hasanuddin, to sign the

Treaty of Bongaya The Treaty of Bongaya (also spelled Bongaja) was signed on November 18, 1667, between Sultan Hasanuddin of Gowa and the Dutch East India Company (VOC). This treaty was developed after Dutch imperial forces (allied with the Bugis) defeated the Go ...

, which handed control of trade to 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 ...

. The Dutch were aided in their conquest by the Bugis warlord Arung Palakka, ruler of the Bugis kingdom of

Bone A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ...

. The Dutch built a fort at Ujung Pandang, while Arung Palakka became the regional overlord and Bone the dominant kingdom. Political and cultural development seems to have slowed as a result of the status quo.

Post-independence era

Mamasa Regency used to be part of Polewali Mamasa Regency, a former Indonesian

Regency In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

that used to be part of

South Sulawesi South Sulawesi () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province in the South Peninsula, Sulawesi, southern peninsula of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital and largest ci ...

but later became part of

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

. In 2002, the regency was split into two smaller regencies:

Polewali Mandar Regency Polewali Mandar is one of the five regencies in West Sulawesi province of Indonesia. It borders on the regencies of Mamasa Regency, Mamasa in the North, Majene Regency, Majene in the West and Pinrang Regency, Pinrang regency of South Sulawesi in ...

which is located on the sea-side region, and Mamasa Regency on the mountain area.

Polewali Mandar Polewali Mandar is one of the five regencies in West Sulawesi province of Indonesia. It borders on the regencies of Mamasa in the North, Majene in the West and Pinrang regency of South Sulawesi in the East. It covers an area of 2,074.76 km2 an ...

is mainly inhabited by the Mandar

ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...

, while Mamasa is home to the Mamasa people, who are related to the ethnic group

Geography

The Mamasa Regency is located at an altitude of 600–2,000 metres above sea level. The West Sulawesi Province, with 6 regencies including Mamasa Regency, lies on the west side of Sulawesi Island (formerly called Celebes). Within the West Sulawesi Province, the Mamasa Regency lies on the central-west side, with

Mamuju Regency Mamuju Regency is a Regencies of Indonesia, regency () of West Sulawesi province, Indonesia. The regency capital is at Karema, while Mamuju (city), Mamuju town is the capital of West Sulawesi. The population of the regency was 336,879 at the 2010 ...

to its north and northwest, Majene Regency on the southwest, and

to the southwest. The entire east side of Mamasa Regency has a border with the

Province, mostly with the

Tana Toraja Regency Tana Toraja ( 'Toraja Land' in Toraja language) is a landlocked regency ('' kabupaten'') of South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia, and home to the Toraja ethnic group. It covers an area of and had a population of 221,081 at the 2010 censusBiro Pu ...

and a small southeastern border with

Pinrang Regency Pinrang Regency () is one of the twenty-one regencies in South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia. Pinrang town in Watang Sawitto District is the administrative capital of Pinrang Regency. The regency is situated in the northwest of the South Sulawes ...

Climate

Mamasa has a

tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southeast Florida, United States ...

(Af) that closely borders 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 moderate rainfall in August and September and heavy rainfall in the remaining months.

Demographics

Ethnic groups

The original inhabitants of Mamasa Regency are the

, which is a sub-group of the

. Because the province of West Sulawesi was a division of the province of

, some of the indigenous people of South Sulawesi also live in West Sulawesi, and their largest ethnic groups are the

Bugis The Bugis people, also known as Buginese, are an Austronesian ethnic groupthe most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi (the others being Makassarese and Torajan), in the south-western province of Sula ...

and

Makassar Makassar ( ), formerly Ujung Pandang ( ), is the capital of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, ...

. There are also other immigrant ethnic groups such as the Javanese and

Balinese Balinese may refer to: *Bali, an Indonesian island *Balinese art *Balinese dance *Balinese people *Balinese language *Nusa Penida Balinese * Bali Aga Balinese **Balinese script **Balinese (Unicode block) *Balinese mythology *Balinese cat, a cat bre ...

Religion

Mamasa Regency has diversity of ethnicities, religions, races and customs. Based on Ministry of Home Affairs 2020 data from

Statistics Indonesia Statistics Indonesia (), is a non-departmental government institute of Indonesia that is responsible for conducting statistical surveys. Its main customer is the government, but statistical data is also available to the public. Annual surveys c ...

, Mamasa Regency has 77.83% Christian (74.78% Protestant and 3.05% Catholic), 17.30%

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 ...

, 4.85% as

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

s (1.53% Balinese Hindus and 3.34% ''"Ada' Mappurondo"'' and ''"Aluk To Dolo"'' which are the native animist belief as part of

Hinduism in Indonesia Hinduism is the third-largest religion in Indonesia, based on civil registration data in 2023 from Ministry of Home Affairs, is practised by about 1.68% of the total population, and almost 87% of the population in Bali. Hinduism was the dom ...

). "Aluk To Dolo" is primarily associated with the Toraja people of Tana Toraja. "Ada' Mappurondo" is primarily associated with the Mamasa people of Mamasa Regency who are subset of Toraja people. The Indonesian government has recognised Toraja and Mamasa's Pre-Christian Pre-Islamic native indigenous animistic belief ''"Ada' Mappurondo"'' and ''"Aluk To Dolo"'' ("Way of the Ancestors") as the ''"Hindu Alukta"'' a form of Hinduism. "Mangngaro traditional ceremonies" of Mamasa people of Sulawesi is a cultural practice entailing a series of activities offering spiritual gratitude to individuals or groups who have made significant contributions to Mamasa society, often involving re-wrapping the body of the deceased.The mysterious cultures of Sulawesi
coralexpeditions.com, 24 Dec 2019. There were 795 Christian churches (646 Protestant and 49 Catholic), 129 mosques, 45 Hindu religious buildings (26 Balinese Hindu

Pura Pura may refer to: Places * Pura, Kushtagi, a village in Koppal district, Karnataka, India * Pura, Iran, a village in Mazandaran Province, Iran * Pura, Tarlac, a municipality in the Philippines * Pura, Switzerland, a municipality in Ticino, Sw ...

temples and 19 "Ada' Mappurondo" prayer rooms).

Population

The Mamasa Regency's official population was 170,354 (87,722 males and 83,632 females) in mid 2023,Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 28 February 2024, ''Kabupaten Mamuju Dalam Angka 2024'' (Katalog-BPS 1102001.7602) 163,383 (83,928 males and 79,455 females) during the 2020 Census,Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. and 140,082 at 2010 censuses.Biro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011.

Administration

The Mamasa Regency is divided into 17 ''kecamatan'' (

districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

) covering 13 ''

kelurahan In Indonesia, village or subdistrict is the fourth-level subdivision and the smallest administrative division of Indonesia below a district, regency/city, and province. Similar administrative divisions outside of Indonesia include barangays in t ...

'' (urban villages or towns) and 168 '' desa'' (rural villages), which are listed below with their areas and their populations.

Tourism

Home to the Gandang Dewata National Park, several waterfalls and ecotourism locations, the regency has immense untapped tourism potential hindered by the political apathy towards developing the transport and tourism infrastructure, hence keeping the local populace in poverty.

Transport

There is only one airport, no rail transport or designated national and state highways in Mamasa Regency: local transport is mainly through shared jeeps. West Sulawesi's transportation sector shows mixed trends, with a tiny non-growing aviation sector and growing shipping sector.Transportation Development in West Sulawesi Shows Significant Dynamics
sulbar.bps.go.id, 1 Feb 2024.

Road Transport

Only 11% of roads were asphalted and the remaining 58% were very poor condition in 2013.

Sumarorong Airport

The Sumarorong Airport, Bandar Udara Sumarorong in

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

, developed from an earlier dirt airstrip to a 700-meter paved runway in 2012, and further expanded to a 1,500-meter runway in 2013 at the cost of IDR107 billion (US$9.5 million) for wide-body aircraft operations. Scheduled commercial flight operations ceased in 2016 due to low passenger numbers, but resumed in November 2020. Earlier, the overland transport route to the nearest major commercial hub of

city used to take 8 hours, flights from Mamasa to Makasar's

Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport is an international airport serving Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The airport is located on the border between Makassar and Maros, a suburb in South Sulawesi, approximately 20 km (12 mi) or 15 ...

take only 1 hour, from where international flights are available.Sumarorong Mamasa Airport profile
CentreForAviation.com, accessed 18 March 2025. The nearest other airport is Tampa Padang Airport in

Issues

Impact of lack of transport infrastructure

Mamasa Regency, a mountainous region within West Sulawesi, faces significant transportation challenges primarily due to its underdeveloped road infrastructure. The mountainous terrain further compounds these challenges, making road development and maintenance particularly difficult. The area relies heavily on roads, yet a substantial portion of the network remains in poor condition. Specifically, data from 2013 research reveals that only 11% of roads were asphalted, while a concerning 58% were classified as being in very poor condition. This deficiency directly impacts accessibility and the region's tourism potential, hindering both economic activities and the daily lives of residents. Connecting Mamasa to other key areas, such as Polewali Mandar Regency, Mamuju and Tanah Toraja, is vital for trade and travel, but the poor condition of these roads severely limits the potential for growth. While research indicates a positive correlation between road infrastructure expenditure and economic growth in Mamasa, the current state of the road network acts as a significant impediment.Laen Sugi Rante Tandung, 30 March 2022, Analysis of the influence of road infrastructure on the economic growth of the Mama district in the period 2003-2013, Indonesian Accounting Research Journal, 09x (03) (2022), pp. 116-122.

References

{{coord, 3, 06, 47, S, 119, 22, 58, E, region:ID-SR_type:adm2nd_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Regencies of West Sulawesi Torajan people