Riau Islands

The Riau Islands, a province in western Indonesia, was carved out of Riau Province in 2002, making it the country’s third-youngest province. Its capital is Tanjung Pinang, while Batam serves as the largest city. The province spans 2,408 islands—1,798 of which are named—scattered between Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, and Borneo. These islands sit along the Malacca Strait and the Natuna Sea, some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and share maritime borders with Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, and several Indonesian provinces, including Riau, Jambi, Bangka Belitung, and West Kalimantan. The region holds significant mineral, energy, and marine resources.

For centuries, the Riau Islands have been central to Nusantara’s maritime history. From the 7th to the 13th centuries, the Srivijaya Empire, a powerful maritime kingdom, influenced the area, as evidenced by the Pasir Panjang Inscription in Karimun Regency, which features Buddha’s footprints and points to early Buddhist practices. After Srivijaya’s decline, the Bentan Kingdom emerged around 1100 AD, with Raja Iskandar Syah as a notable ruler. Later, the islands became part of the Johor Sultanate. Following the 1824 Anglo-Dutch Treaty, the region was split: the Riau-Lingga Sultanate fell under Dutch control as a protectorate from 1824 to 1911, then was directly ruled by the Dutch East Indies. Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945 and the Indonesian National Revolution (1945–1949) led to the islands joining Indonesia. They separated from Riau Province in September 2002.

The name “Riau” has several proposed origins. One theory traces it to the Portuguese word *rio* (river), linked to Portuguese pursuits after the fall of the Malacca Sultanate in the early 16th century. Another suggests it comes from *riahi* (sea water), allegedly from Sinbad the Sailor in *One Thousand and One Nights*. A third version derives it from the Malay word *riuh* (crowded, frenzied working people), reflecting the character of Malay communities in Bintan. This name gained prominence after Raja Kecil moved the Malay kingdom’s center from Johor to Ulu Riau in 1719, becoming part of the Riau-Lingga-Johor-Pahang sultanates. The 1824 treaty split these sultanates, with Johor-Pahang under British influence and Riau-Lingga under Dutch.

The Riau Islands have long been home to Malay and Orang Laut (sea nomad) communities, with later migrants from southern China and Indochina. Today, people from across Asia have settled there. The archipelago lies on the ancient China–India maritime trade route. Chinese records note that Bintan and Temasek (old Singapore) were inhabited by Malay corsairs, who used up to 300 ships to attack Chinese vessels returning from the Indian Ocean, forcing them into pirate harbors. Large quantities of Chinese ceramics from the early Song dynasty (960–1127) have been found on Bintan. The 13th-century Arab explorer Ibn Battuta described armed black pirates on small islands, and 12th-century Chinese ship logs confirm such raids. Despite centuries of piracy, the region has transformed.

Since the 1970s, the Riau Islands have industrialized rapidly, thanks to a free trade zone within the Indonesia–Malaysia–Singapore Growth Triangle. As of 2011, the province had the fourth-highest GDP per capita in Indonesia, after East Kalimantan, Jakarta, and Riau. Its Human Development Index in 2018 was 0.748, also fourth-highest, behind Jakarta, Yogyakarta, and East Kalimantan. The population is highly diverse, including Malays, Chinese, Javanese, Minangkabau, and others, with economic growth drawing immigrants from across Indonesia. Batam hosts many expatriates, about 80% from other Asian countries, with Westerners mostly from the UK, Europe, Australia, and the US. The province ranks second in Indonesia for foreign tourist arrivals, after Bali.