In this post, we are pleased to share with you some interesting history of Alor and the origin and choice of the name “Alor Tanapi” for our dive resort. We often get asked “What is the meaning of Alor Tanapi?” There are several meanings behind “Tanapi”, through this article we hope you will understand how and why we felt connected to this specific name, after searching long and hard for a name, finally this one just felt right.
So, What Does It Mean?
“Tanapi” or “tenapi” in Alorese means ikat or sarong, a traditional woven textile made and worn in Alor, worn during special occasions for specific celebrations. Historically, knowledge about weaving is associated with the introduction of Islam and with local beliefs in hari, underwater humans.
A Short Story About Alor Tanapi
This story brings us to a small village on the island of Ternate in the Pantar strait, one of the main weaving centers in the Alor district. Textiles in Alor are produced for barter and sale for local need and to a small trickle of tourists that make it to Alor. Most women depend heavily on textile production for income, while many men are divers, spending time looking for marine products. The “Tanapi” or “Tenapi” is a sarong, woven textile produced in this small village on Ternate island for the local market in Alor. It is made from a mix of cotton and other fibers. The mixture is appreciated for its soft and strong fibres and the floss is the secret behind “silk” sarongs from Alor. One reason that this specialization developed in this village is due to the lack of farming land in Ternate. Ternate is little more than a mountain rising up out of the sea with little land suitable for farming. The limitations on tillable land have been exacerbated by the district authorities who have prohibited farming above the village due to the risk of landslides. As compensation, villagers from Ternate have been given access to farming land on mainland Alor. During the intense part of the farming year, many villagers go across to the mainland and live in farm huts while working the lands. Weaving is the daily activity of the long dry season, but the conditions on Ternate make it difficult for them to grow sufficient quantities of cotton. Historically, a solution to this shortage was found in an inter-island trade network. Using canoes, the weavers from Ternate would bring textiles to the village of Ampera, a centre for local pottery on the Bird’s Head of Alor. Textiles were bartered for cooking pots, loaded onto the canoes and taken to Ili Api on Lembata, a sizeable distance for travel in a small canoe. There, the pots were bartered for raw cotton. In modern times machine-spun yarn entered the market and the weavers could go to Kalabahi and buy what they needed for their production. Still, men from Ternate sometimes take pots from Ampera in their motorboats when they go on diving trips. This Ternate, in the strait between the islands Pantar and Alor, derives its name from the more famous Ternate in Maluku which historically was a powerful sultanate. The Alorese-speaking, ikat-weaving area in Northwest Alor and adjacent areas are Muslim. Christian conversion dates to late colonial times (20th century). Islam has a long history, possibly dating as far back as the 15th century. According to the people of Ternate, the introduction of Islam is associated with the introduction of weaving. According to them, Islam originated in the legendary kingdom Munaseli on Pantar. Following a war between the kingdoms Munaseli and Pandai, the aristocrats from Munaseli fled in different directions. Babullah went to Maluku and became Sultan there. Sakbal Duli, another high-ranking refugee from Munaseli settled in the village Alor Kecil. Babullah was a famous Sultan from Ternate, Maluku, who fought the Portuguese and ruled 1570-1583. He brought with him a patola, a famous kind of double ikat textile from Gujarat, India. At the time, people in Alor Kecil wore bark cloth, but with the arrival of Sakbal Duli they learnt how to grow cotton, make yarn and weave. Sakbal Duli married Eko Sari. She was a hari woman; a hari is a kind of human believed to live in the underwater world. On marrying, Eko Sari settled on land with Sakbal Duli and taught the people in Alor Kecil to make patterns on textiles and to make dyes to color the yarns. The production of ikat textiles is still associated with the sea and has religious connotations. In Ternate and other Muslim weaving villages a special ceremony for the women is celebrated at harvest time. In the course of the year, the women gather used strings when they make ikat-patterns on their warps. These ceremonies bind together the sea, textiles and farming as they are held when the first corn ripens, the strings are taken to the beach and offered to the sea. As such, we felt it was only fitting to name our dive resort “Tanapi”, as its meaning fell in line with our philosophy and concept: advocating for the ocean, supporting Alorese culture and traditions, as well as designing and maintaining agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems through the teachings of permaculture. The interlacing of the fabrics from the weave symbolises how we are all intertwined and inextricably connected, and how our actions impact and affect our community, environment and planet. 
You can read the full paper “The Secrets of Alorese ‘Silk’ yarn: Kolon susu, triangle trade and underwater women in Eastern Indonesia” by Emilie Wellfelt here
Thanks for Reading!
We hope that you enjoyed reading about the meaning and name choice for our Alor Tanapi Dive Resort. For more information, learn morre about our activities in Alor. Please find out more About us here