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The Tambora Challenge and Enchanting Tambora Festival 2016

 

Following last year’s success , the Tambora Challenge will again be the highlight of the Festival Pesona Tambora (the Enchanting Tambora Festival) 2016which will take place from 11th to 16th April 2016. Presented by the province of West Nusa Tenggara and supported by the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with Kompas daily, the Enchanting Tambora Festival will be centered at  Doro Ncanga, at the foot of Mount Tambora, on Sumbawa Island, in the West Nusa Tenggara Province.

Mt Tambora is the volcano on North Sumbawa island, that erupted violently in 1816 causing widespread devastation and climate anomalies in many parts of the world.

To commemorate the event and to turn this into a positive push for redevelopment, the festival will feature cultural activities, the Lau traditional ritual, art and cultural performances, and a Tambora Literary Festival, a film festival on Satonda Island, fine art exhibitions, and seminars on marine tourism, developing Mount Rinjani into an international scaled Geopark, in addition to discussions on raising Halal Tourism on the next door island of Lombok, and more.  

As main feature, the Tambora Challenge Sports event will open a number of extremely challenging outdoor and sport competitions. For those who enjoy to take on the challenge of running extreme tracks, there will be the Tambora Ultra Run or Ultra Marathon, to be divided into the 320Km and 100Km categories. Viewed from their distances and terrain to be covered, the 320Km Ultra Run is one of the longest and most challenging competition in Southeast Asia. There will also be a trail run competition across  Mount Tambora trails, divided into the 25Km and 50Km categories.

The Tambora Challenge will also  challenges cyclists on the Tambora Bike Camp which will take riders on an exciting route across the magnificent natural splendors of the island of Sumbawa. Combining cycling and camping, the track starts from Taliwang,  in West Sumbawa, continuing to Sumbawa Besar, Moyo Island, and finishing at Doro Ncangga in Dompu.

 

Situated near the northern edge of the island of Sumbawa in the West Nusatenggara Province,  - between the islands of Lombok and Flores, Mount Tambora is known to the world as the site of the largest and most deadly volcanic eruption in recorded history. If the mega-eruption of Mount Toba in north Sumatra is believed to have plunged the earth into a 6-to-10-years of volcanic winter, and the explosion of Mount Krakatau in 1883 produced the loudest sound ever heard in the world in modern history, the super volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora also created a global episode where following its eruption the previous year, the year 1816 is today forever remembered as “The Year Without Summer”, resulting in the worst famine of the 19th century.

In 2004, archaeologist Haraldur Sigurdsson discovered the preserved bodies of two adults buried in nearly 10 feet of ash in the remnants of a small village on the volcano. The discovery is similar to the one made in the wake of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy in the year 79 that destroyed the city of Pompeii, prompting Mount Tambora's nickname to become "the Pompeii of the East."

Today, aside from attracting seismologists, volcanologists, archeologists, biologists, and other scientists, Mount Tambora is also known as a prime destination for mountaineers from all over the globe who enjoy the thrill of conquering  its challenging tracks.

For more information log on to: www.tamborachallenge.com

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