BUNGIN ISLAND

BUNGIN ISLAND

THE CORAL ISLAND

       It's not easy to imagine a city without land-go ahead and try. Yet that's exactly what we've stumbled across here in bungin, small fishing village on the north coast of Sumbawa. Instead of land, bungin has just a coral reef that becomes fully submerged twice each day high tide

Bungin island is located in alas subdistric of sumbawa.while from Lombok it requires 6-8 hours drive to the east.

     Commonly referred as the world's most populous island, due to it's population density +14.000 people/km. with an area of eight hectares inhabited more than 2.800 residents. 200 years ago, this way just a place where local fisherman dried their nets, but today it's become the most densely populated place Indonesia.

       The whole island, by necessity, is built on stilts with elevated wooden platforms and raised concrete footpaths connecting each shack-like home to the others. for a man wanting to start a family, the village rules require him to first stack more coral on the outside of the reef as a fondation for his home, there's simply no space left.

       Another famous story of bungin island is about the paper-eating goats. due to the island's man-made soil is basically just a stack of corals and reefs, making it difficult to grow any vegetation grow. while they still need a livestock to fulfill their needs and goats are the most common livestock, with very limited food resource the goats adapted to consume what can be easily found, in this case it's the trashes.

       Household waste is also on of the problem faced in the island, at the moment landfill is the solution. This landfills becoming the alternative food resource to the goats and paper waste is their favorite, may be it has a similar taste to the grasses.

       One would think a landless village of shacks like bungin, just on storm surge away from complete annihilation, would be a recipe for lifelong misery. But one would be very wrong. The people especially the kids, are perhaps the happiest kids ever seen anywhere. The city behaves as one big family, visitors are welcomed like honored guest - with the density of people in very direction, and it's impossible to reciprocate every smile and very greeting.

       Altought Bungin Island is many be the world most populous island with it's strange paper-eating goat, but live in this coral island is far more beatiful than live in the concrete jungle.