Bawean is an island located in the Mer of Java, to approximately 200 km in the north of Surabaya in Indonesia. The island has a diameter of approximately 15 km. It is dominated extinct volcano which culminates with more than 650 m to the top of the sea level.

The population of Bawean is approximately 65.000 inhabitants, of which 40.000 live in the chief town, Sangkapura.

The island is covered with jungle and has beautiful sand beaches white and mangrove. It is surrounded by and sand bank coral reefs ( noko ).

Language and culture

In Indonesia, Bawean is called " the island of the femmes" because of the great number of men who expatrient themselves to work as merchants and sailors. A proverb of Bawean known as qu'" one is not really a man before to have spent several years abroad ". Besides one finds important communities of Bawean with Singapore, in Malaysia and even with the Vietnam and in the Chinese island of Hainan.

Bawean are Moslem but like elsewhere in Indonesia, they continue to observe traditional beliefs and practices. A belief in Bawean for example wants that which plunges in the lake of crater Teraga Kastoba, will die.