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ar meanings the dutch who arrived later under jacob le maire and willem schouten called it schouten island they later used this name only to refer to islands off the north coast of papua proper the schouten islands or biak island when the dutch colonized the main island as part of the dutch east indies they called it nieuw guinea 2 the name irian was used in the indonesian language to refer to the island and indonesian province as irian barat west irian province and later irian jaya province the name irian was suggested during a tribal committee meeting in tobati jayapura when formed by soegoro atmoprasodjo under governor j p van eechoed to decide on a new name because of the negative association of papua frans kaisiepo the committee leader suggested the name from mansren koreri myths iri an from the biak language of biak island meaning hot land referring to the climate but also from iryan which means heated process as a metaphor for a land that is entering a new era in serui iri an lit land nation means pillar of nation while in merauke iri an lit placed higher nation means rising spirit or to rise 6 9 the name was promoted in 1945 by marcus kaisiepo brother of frans kaisiepo 4 the name was politicized later by corinus krey 10 marthen indey silas papare and others with the indonesian backronym ikut republik indonesia anti nederland join the republic of indonesia oppose the netherlands 11 6 irian was used somewhat in 1972 12 the name was used until 2001 when papua was again used for the island and the province the name irian which was originally favoured by natives is now considered to be a name imposed by the indonesian government 4 geography edit new guinea located in relation to melanesia papua new guinea map of köppen climate classification see also list of highest mountains of new guinea new guinea is an island to the north of the australian mainland south of the equator it is isolated by the arafura sea to the west and the torres strait and coral sea to the east sometimes considered to be the easternmost island of the indonesian archipelago it lies north of australia s top end the gulf of carpentaria and cape york peninsula and west of the bismarck archipelago and the solomon islands archipelago biologically new guinea may also be considered part of australia as there is a continuity of flora and fauna between the two regions 13 politically the western half of the island comprises six provinces of indonesia papua central papua highland papua south papua west papua and southwest papua the eastern half forms the mainland of the country of papua new guinea the shape of new guinea is often compared to that of a bird of paradise indigenous to the island and this results in the usual names for the two extremes of the island the bird s head peninsula in the northwest vogelkop in dutch kepala burung in indonesian also known as the doberai peninsula and the bird s tail peninsula in the southeast also known as the papuan peninsula a spine of east west mountains the new guinea highlands dominates the geography of new guinea stretching over 1 600 km 1 000 mi across the island with many mountains over 4 000 m 13 100 ft the western half of the island contains the highest mountains in oceania with its highest point puncak jaya reaching an elevation of 4 884 m 16 023 ft the tree line is around 4 000 m 13 100 ft elevation and the tallest peaks contain equatorial glaciers which have been retreating since at least 1936 14 15 16 various other smaller mountain ranges occur both north and west of the central ranges except in high elevations most areas possess a warm humid climate throughout the year with some seasonal variation associated with the northeast monsoon season mount bosavi another major habitat feature is the vast southern and northern lowlands stretching for hundreds of kilometres these include lowland rainforests extensive wetlands savanna grasslands and some of the largest expanses of mangrove forest in the world the southern lowlands are the site of lorentz national park a unesco world heritage site the northern lowlands are drained principally by the mamberamo river and its tributaries on the western side and by the sepik on the eastern side the more extensive southern lowlands are drained by a larger number of rivers principally the digul in the west and the fly in the east the largest island offshore dolak lies near the digul estuary separated by a strait so narrow it has been named a creek new guinea contains many of the world s ecosystem types glacial alpine tundra savanna montane and lowland rainforest mangroves wetlands lake and river ecosystems seagrasses and some of the richest coral reefs on the planet the entire length of the new guinea highlands system passes through new guinea s vast watershed the northern rivers flow into the pacific ocean the southern rivers into the arafura sea and the gulf of papua on the north side the largest rivers are the mamberamo sepik and ramu mamberamo is born at the confluence of two large inland rivers tariku comes from the west to the east and taritatu from the east these rivers meander through swamps with huge internal descents and then merge the mamberamo thus formed reaches the ocean by breaking through the coastal mountains mamberamo river is navigable to marine falls the sepik which also collects water from a spacious pool is 1 100 kilometres from the victor emanuel range to the estuary making it the longest river in new guinea the winding muddy sluggish river has 500 km of navigable length ramu is a 650 km long river its lower section is navigable but its upper flow is high falling fast flowing the energy of the river is used by a power plant near the city of kainantu on the south side notable rivers include the pulau digul fly kikori and purari the digul river originates from the star mountains which rise to an altitude of 4 700 m and is the largest river in the western part of the island the coastal plain is bordered by a swamp hundreds of kilometres wide digul is the main transport route to the fertile hills and mountains within the island the fly river is born near the eastern branches of the digul it is named after one of the ships of the english royal fleet which first sailed into the mouth of the river in 1845 the total length of the river is 1 050 km smaller boats can sail 900 km on the river the estuary section which decomposes into islands is 70 km wide the tide of the sea can have an effect of up to 300 kilometres strickland a tributary of the fly reaches the papuan plain through wild gorges fly and strickland together form the largest river in new guinea the many rivers flowing into the gulf of papua form a single delta complex the rivers of new guinea are notorious for their amount of water due to the annual rainfall of 2 000 10 000 mm it has been estimated that the island s rivers carry about 1 500 km 3 a 48 000 m 3 s of water into the sea with fly alone carrying more water 238 km 3 a 7 500 m 3 s than all the rivers in australia combined 17 relation to surroundings edit highlands of papua new guinea the island of new guinea lies to the east of the malay archipelago with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater indo australian archipelago 18 geologically it is a part of the same tectonic plate as australia when world sea levels were low the two shared shorelines which now lie 100 to 140 metres below sea level 19 and combined with lands now inundated into the tectonic continent of sahul 20 21 also known as greater australia 22 the two landmasses became separated when the area now known as the torres strait flooded after the end of the last glacial period anthropologically new guinea is considered part of melanesia 23 new guinea is differentiated from its drier flatter 24 and less fertile 25 26 southern counterpart australia by its much higher rainfall and its active volcanic geology yet the two land masses share a similar animal fauna with marsupials including wallabies and possums and the egg laying monotreme the echidna other than bats and some two dozen indigenous rodent genera 27 there are no pre human indigenous placental mammals pigs several additional species of rats and the ancestor of the new guinea singing dog were introduced with human colonization prior to the 1970s archaeologists called the single pleistocene landmass by the name australasia 20 although this word is most often used for a wider region that includes lands such as new zealand which are not on the same continental shelf in the early 1970s they introduced the term greater australia for the pleistocene continent 20 then at a 1975 conference and consequent publication 21 they extended the name sahul from its previous use for just the sahul shelf to cover the continent 20 political divisions edit political divisions of new guinea 2006 southwest papua province west papua province papua province central papua province highland papua province south papua province the island of new guinea is divided politically into roughly equal halves across a north south line the western portion of the island located west of 141 e longitude except for a small section of territory to the east of the fly river which belongs to papua new guinea was formerly a dutch colony part of the dutch east indies after the west new guinea dispute it is now six indonesian provinces west papua with manokwari as its capital papua with the city of jayapura as its capital highland papua with jayawijaya regency as its capital central papua with nabire regency as its capital south papua with merauke regency as its capital southwest papua with sorong as its capital the eastern part forms the mainland of papua new guinea which has been an independent country since 1975 it was formerly the territory of papua and new guinea governed by australia consisting of the trust territory of new guinea northeastern quarter formerly german new guinea and the territory of papua southeastern quarter three of papua new guinea s four regions are parts of new guinea island southern consisting of western gulf central oro northern and milne bay provinces highlands consisting of southern highlands hela province jiwaka province enga province western highlands simbu and eastern highlands provinces momase consisting of morobe madang east sepik and sandaun west sepik provinces demographics edit 10 largest cities and towns in new guinea papua by population edit port moresby the most populous city on the island of new guinea papua provincial capital national capital rank city population country province 1 port moresby 756 754 papua new guinea ncd 2 jayapura 414 862 indonesia papua 3 sorong 294 978 indonesia southwest papua 4 lae 203 056 papua new guinea morobe 5 timika 142 909 indonesia central papua 6 manokwari 107 325 indonesia west papua 7 merauke 102 351 indonesia south papua 8 nabire 99 848 indonesia central papua 9 sentani 71 174 indonesia papua 10 wamena 66 080 indonesia highland papua people edit see also people of new guinea yali tribesman in the baliem valley the current population of the island of new guinea is about fifteen million archaeological evidence indicates that humans may have inhabited the island continuously since 50 000 bce 28 29 and first settlement possibly dating back to 60 000 years ago has been proposed the island is presently populated by almost a thousand different tribal groups and a near equivalent number of separate languages which makes new guinea the most linguistically diverse area in the world ethnologue s 14th edition lists 826 languages of papua new guinea and 257 languages of western new guinea total 1073 languages with 12 languages overlapping clarification needed they can be divided into two groups the austronesian languages and all the others placed in the catch all category of papuan languages most of which are unrelated 30 the separation is not merely linguistic warfare among societies was a factor in the evolution of the men s house separate housing for groups of adult men away from the single family houses of women and children citation needed pig based trade between groups and pig based feasts form a common tradition with the other peoples of southeast asia and oceania most papuan societies practice agriculture supplemented by hunting and gathering yali mabel kurulu village war chief at baliem valley current evidence indicates that the papuans who constitute the majority of the island s peoples are descended from the earliest human inhabitants of new guinea these original inhabitants first arrived in new guinea during the last glacial period when the island was connected to the australian continent via a land bridge forming the landmass of sahul these peoples had made the shortened sea crossing from the islands of wallacea and sundaland the present malay archipelago by at least 40 000 years ago korowai tribesman the ancestral austronesian peoples are believed to have arrived considerably later approximately 3 500 years ago as part of a gradual seafaring migration from southeast asia possibly originating in taiwan austronesian speaking peoples colonized many of the offshore islands to the north and east of new guinea such as new ireland and new britain with settlements also on the coastal fringes of the main island in places human habitation of new guinea over tens of thousands of years has led to a great deal of diversity which was further increased by the later arrival of the austronesians and the more recent history of european and asian settlement through events like transmigration in addition to christianity and traditional belief systems islamic communities in parts of new guinea particularly in areas such as fakfak and sorong have been noted for encouraging interfaith cooperation and maintaining traditions of peace and tolerance 31 large areas of new guinea are yet to be explored by scientists and anthropologists the indonesian province of west papua is home to an estimated 44 uncontacted tribal groups 32 biodiversity and ecology edit main article fauna of new guinea with some 786 000 km 2 of tropical land less than one half of one percent 0 5 of the earth s surface new guinea has an immense biodiversity containing between 5 and 10 percent of the total species on the planet this percentage is about the same amount as that found in the united states or australia a high percentage of new guinea s species are endemic and thousands are still unknown to science probably well over 200 000 species of insect between 11 000 and 20 000 plant species and over 650 resident bird species most of these species are shared at least in their origin with the continent of australia which was until fairly recent geological times part of the same landmass see australia new guinea for an overview the island is so large that it is considered nearly a continent in terms of its biological distinctiveness in the period from 1998 to 2008 conservationists identified 1 060 new species in new guinea including 2...