About Bima Empire , NTB Province.By hasnan habib depok

Bima is a city on the eastern coast of the island Sumbawa in central Indonesia's province West Nusa Tenggara, and the largest city on the island. In 2010 the municipality counted some 142,443 people, separate from (but surrounded by) the adjoining Regency of Bima with 407,636 population. The city is located on eastern shore of Bima bay, traditionally Bima was a port city that connected to other port cities in Eastern Indonesia such as Makassar and Ternate, as well as to ports in Lombok, Bali, and East Java. The people of Bima and the entire eastern side of Sumbawa speak what is known as Bahasa Bima Bima language or Nggahi Mbojo in native language.

Modern day Bima is the largest regional and economic hub of Eastern Sumbawa with transmigrants from other parts of Indonesia, especially Java, Bali, and Lombok. It has a central downtown commercial zone. It is home to Sultan Salahuddin mosque and a Sultan Salahuddin museum (former Bima Sultanate palace). It is connected by provincial road to Dompu and Sape.

Contents 1 History 2 Transportation 3 Tourism 4 Sources, References and External links 5 Further reading History Sultan of Bima, ca. 1920–1943 The first people on the island is considered habitated the west coast of Bima Bay, where nowadays found a craved cave in Donggo Village called Sowa. Based on the Bimananese note called by 'Bo', the earliest inhabitants on the east part of the island was called by dou donggo people(which literally means people who live in highland, or far away land', which was consist of two groups, the donngo ipa (is the west coast of Bima Bay, which is now part of Donggo subdistrict of Bima regency) and donggo ele (now is situated around wawo, a mountainous subdistrict of Bima Regency). At current time, the inhabitants on both are speak in the same language as entire land of Bima and Dompu, except a group of people which is considered by term 'Bimanese' but speaks in more different language or dialects called dou Sambori (dou means people). While the nowadays Bimanese is the mixture of local inhabitants and the seafarers and transmigrants of Bugis people who came on the first time of Sultanate of Bima.

On the earliest era around 10 AD, the area was consist of fives groups of protectorate, called by Ncuhi. The fives Ncuhis were administrated and controlled different area, but coordinated among of them. The area was divided by the location of the protectorate, the Ncuhi Wera in the North, Ncuhi Bangga Pupa in the South, Ncuhi Bolo in the west, Ncuhi Sape in the east and Ncuhi Dawra in the central part. All of these protectorates were united while Sang Bima, a Kind from Medang Kingdom came and were reigned by all of procterorated as the first King of Bima Kingdom. The earliest document mentioning about the kingdom of Bima was found in 14th century Majapahit script of Nagarakretagama. Bima was the eponymous capital of the Sultanate of Bima (id:Kesultanan Bima), which seceded after Islamisation in the early 17th century to an ancient Hindu kingdom on the eastern seaboard of the island of Sumbawa.

Only in 1792 the Dutch persuaded Sultan 'Abdu'l Hamid Muhammad Shah to sign a definitive contract, making Bima a protectorate, first of the VOC (indirect rule by charter company) and later of the Dutch Indies, but the colonial hand weighed lighter than in most Indonesian princely states. Transportation Bima is connected through trans Sumbawa road to Sape harbour in the east and Dompu in Southwest all the way to Sumbawa Besar and Taliwang in the western part of Sumbawa. Bus services connected Bima to other neighboring cities in Sumbawa as far as Mataram in Lombok are available. Air transportation is served through Sultan Salahuddin Airport in southern outskirt of Bima by Merpati Nusantara Airlines and Wings Air to Denpasar and Surabaya. Tourism

Bima has several well-known tourism objects, such as Mount Tambora, Wawo traditional Village, Snake Island, Ana fari Lake (Lake of the angels) or Satonda Island. There are many of white-sandy beaches in the south and northern part of Bima, which have a beautiful scene, but still rare to visit. Bima only has modest tourism accommodations, such as melati class hotels and restaurants. The city's main attraction is the Sultan Salahuddin mosque and Sultan Salahuddin museum (former Bima Sultanate palace). Bima is usually served as the air-hub for domestic and foreign visitors that are more attracted to visit Hu'u beach for surfing or Tambora volcano for hiking.