Bau Bau City

Bau-Bau or Bau-bau is the main city on Buton island, Indonesia. There is a big porh here called called Murhum serves the city sea transportation with a ferry terminal (jetty) operated by the Indonesian state-owned sealiner, Pelni.

During the fifteenth century (1401—1499), Bau-Bau was the center of the Buton (or Wolio) kingdom. There was no historical records known from this kingdom, except from a description in the Nagarakretagama text, an Old Javanese eulogy written by Mpu Prapanca during the Majapahit Kingdom. The kingdom of Buton firstly established by Mia Patamiana, a four musketeer acted as a chieftain. The four musketeer were known as Sipanjonga, Simalui, Sitamanajo and Sijawangkati, based on a historical record Semenanjung Tanah Melayu (or the Malay peninsula record) written in the thirteenth century. They arrived on the island and founded a village called Wolio and appointed small district leaders known as Limbo. Later, they united into the kingdom of Button and appointed Wa Kaa Kaa as the first queen in 1332; she was the wife of one of descendants of the Majapahit ruler. In 1542, the kingdom of Button transformed itself into sultanate when Islam entered the area. The first sultan of Button was Lakilaponto, entitled as the Sultan Murhum Kaimuddin Khalifatul Khamis. The last sultan (the 38th) was Muhammad Falihi Kaimuddin in 1960.

Geographically, Bau-bau lies between lattitute 5.21°S–5.33°S and longitude 122.30°E–122.47°E, or lies on the southern part of south east Sulawesi region. Bau-Bau is bordered at the north by the Buton strait, the east by the Kapontori subdistrict, the south by the Pasarwajo subdistrict and the west by the Kadatua subdistrict. The area of the city is about 221–km2, with the sea area around 30–km2
As for other Indonesian cities, Bau-Bau observes tropical weather. The day and night temperature varies around 29 to 33 Celsius during day time and 20 to 29 Celsius during night time. The ecosystems consist of rain forests, spiny forests and desert.

The population of the city is estimated at 120,000 people, consisting mainly of the Butonese, Buginese, Moluccan, Javanese, Sundanese and Chinese people. The city economy lies on the service industry such as hotel (30%), trade (20%) with mostly sea trade, agricultural (20%) with main coconut production, and the rest are in public transportation business. Bau-Bau is also a major fishing center in Sulawesi area producing trepang (sea cucumber).