The Republic of Indonesia has been independent since 1945, after having been the Dutch East Indies for more than 350 years. It is a huge country, stretching along both sides of the Equator for more than 46 degrees of longitude (roughly 5100 km or 3200 miles). Comprised of some 17,000 islands (more than 6000 inhabited islands), it has hundreds of major aids to navigation. Indonesia is divided into 38 provinces (provinsi) and the provinces are subdivided into county units called regencies (kabupaten). The lighthouses on this page are in Indonesian Papua (western New Guinea). In 1828 the Dutch extended their claim to the western half of New Guinea, the world's second-largest island, but they established no major settlements until nearly 1900. When Indonesia became independent in 1949 Papua was excluded and remained under Dutch control. Following strong Indonesian effrots to claim control an agreement in 1962 provided for a transitional period under United Nations administration. In 1969 an asembly of elder leaders decided to join Indonesia. However an independence movement called the Free Papua Movement (OPM) continues and a varying degree of unrest has persisted to the preent day. This page describes lighthouses on the north coasts of West Papua Province and Southwest Papua Province. These provinces include the oddly-shaped Doberai or Bird's Head (Vogelkop) Peninsula at the northwestern corner of New Guinea. These coasts face northwest on the Halmahera Sea and north on the Philippine Sea. Lighthouses of the south coasts of both provinces are described on the Western Papua South Coast page. More than 700 languages are spoken in Indonesia. The official national language, Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), was standardized from a form of Malay that served as a lingua franca across the archipelago. In Indonesian a lighthouse is a mercusuar or a menara suar. Tanjung is a cape, ujung is a headland or point of land, bukit is a hill, sungai is a river, kuala or muara is an estuary or river mouth, pulau is an island, karang is a reef, batu is a rock, laut is a sea, selat is a strait, teluk is a bay, pelabuhan is a harbor, and labuhan is a port. It's also worth knowing that the word for an island is nusa in Balinese and gili in the Sasak language spoken on Lombok and in western Sumbawa. Aids to navigation in Indonesia are operated and maintained by the Directorate of Marine Navigation within the Directorate General of Sea Transportation ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volumes F and Q of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publications 111 and 112.
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![]() Pulau Kofiau Light, Raja Ampat Islands, January 2010 ex-Panoramio photo copyright muhajir3012; used by permission |
Southwest Papua Province North Coast Lighthouses
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![]() Pulau Boo Besar Light, Raja Ampat Islands, July 2009 ex-Panoramio photo copyright muhajir3012; used by permission |
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![]() Pulau Dofior Light, Sorong, March 2014 ex-Panoramio photo copyright Richard Monny; used by permission |
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West Papua Province North Coast Lighthouses
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![]() ManokwariLight, Manokwari, January 2011 ex-Panoramio photo copyright David Worabay; used by permission |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: East: Northern Papua | South: West Papua South Coast | West: Central Maluku | Northwest: North Maluku
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted December 31, 2008. Checked and revised December 11, 2023. Lighthouses: 63. Site copyright 2023 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.