Bungin Island

Bungin Island, near the north coast of Sumbawa about 70 km from Sumbawa Besar, is home to a community of Bajo people — the "sea nomads" of Southeast Asia who have traditionally lived on or above the water. The island itself is built on coral and sand; the Bajo have been extending it outward for generations as their community grows, and it is now densely packed with houses, jetties, and workshops.

A visit to Bungin offers a remarkable glimpse into a way of life centred entirely on the sea. The Bajo fish, build boats, and process sea products like sea cucumbers and dried fish. The island produces carved shell artefacts that are worth looking for. Kaung Island, another Bajo settlement, lies nearby and can be visited in the same trip.

things to do sight
A story
Bungin is sometimes described as the most densely populated island in the world — a claim that is hard to verify precisely but that gives a sense of the scale. The island is man-made: the Bajo people who live here have been adding coral and sand to the original reef for generations, extending their territory outward into the sea as the population grows. There is almost no vacant land, and houses crowd the shoreline on all sides.