Karimunjawa National Park, also Karimun Jawa National Park, is a national marine park designated in the Karimunjawa archipelago, Jepara Regency, Central Java, Indonesia. It lies 80 km north west of Jepara, Central Java in the Java Sea. The national park was formally declared as Marine Protection Area in 2001. Based on popular local myth, this archipelago was discovered by Sunan Nyamplungan, the nephew of Sunan Kudus who is one of the Wali Sanga.
Karimunjawa is also a tourist attraction popular for its white sandy beach, pristine coral reefs, challenging treks through the hills, the pilgrimage to Sunan Nyamplungan Cemetery, and the customs and traditions of the Karimunjawa community.
Many researchers have been attracted to the marine biodiversity and pristine forest as well as the uniqueness of the Karimunjawa archipelago. During the Dutch colonial era, many Dutch botanists such as Teijsmann (1854), Koorders (1886), Schlechter (1910) and Dammerman (1926) came to the Karimunjawa archipelago.
Karimunjawa has five types of ecosystems: coral reef, seagrass and seaweed, mangrove forest, coastal forest and low land tropical rainforest. Fresh water is confined to a few small wells and forest streams in the islands.
The coral reefs
Karimunjawa Marine National Park is one of the six marine national parks in Indonesia, and was among the first areas recognised as being important for conservation and marine biodiversity protection. It was formally declared a Strict Natural Reserve in 1986 and has since been declared one of the priority areas for the conservation of marine biodiversity in Southeast Asia. Then in 1999, the Ministry of Forestry established Karimunjawa archipelago as the Karimunjawa Marine National Park covering 111,625 ha. In 2001, an area of 110,117.30 ha was declared as Marine Protection Area (MPA).
The legend of Karimunjawa is related to Sunan Nyamplungan story. Sunan Nyamplungan was born Amir Hasan, the son of Sunan Muria, one of the Wali Sanga. He was very spoiled by his mother, and is a disobedient child. By his father, he was entrusted to his uncle, Sunan Kudus. After some time being under Sunan Kudus's upbringing, he became an obedient young man. He was sent back to his parent, only to turn into a disobedient person again. Furious of his constant disobedience, Sunan Muria strove to inculcate in him a certain hard lesson. So one day Sunan Muria drove his son away from home with the warning that he was not to set foot on Java again.
Not willing to disobey his father again, he prepared himself for the journey. In sadness, the son left Mount Muria where they dwelt and moved on to the open seas to the north. He sailed on a boat for many days through stormy weather and amidst huge waves, not really knowing his destination and perhaps with little will to survive. Then one day, his boat landed on the shores of a small, uninhabited island. Meanwhile, from the peak of Mount Muria in Java, the boy's father was secretly watching over his son clairvoyantly. But for some reason his vision was vague and unclear, and thus lost track of the whereabouts of the boy on that island. In the old Javanese language, the word "vague" is translated as kerimun. Thus the island became known as "Karimun-java."
courtesy of: en.wikipedia.org
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