JAKARTA ~

The Seventh Lake Sentani Festival in Kalkhote, Sentani, Jayapura District, Papua Province, from June 19 to 23, 2014, was hoped could promote tourism in Papua and preserve the local culture and arts.

“I am pleased to welcome the implementation of the Lake Sentani Festival. Hopefully, this event will attract more domestic and foreign tourists to Papua and West Papua provinces, and help preserve as well as promote Indonesia’s art and cultural heritage existing in Papua,” Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Agung Laksono said when officially inaugurated the annual festival in Sentani, Jayapura.

The minister praised the beautiful natural scenery around Lake Sentani, which is located in a mountainous area. “I hope there will be a direct international flight to Jayapura in the near future,” the minister added.

During the Festival, various artists from 19 sub-districts are offering a wide range of cultural performances, exhibitions, and culinary feasts.

This year, the Festival was successful in breaking two records in Indonesian Book of Record MURI, respectively on painting in a 100-meter-long piece of tree bark and creating a giant clay pot having a diameter of one meter and a height of 50 centimeters.

Having a theme: “My Culture, My Life”, the Lake Sentani Festival is part of a series of activities prior to the international maritime event, Sail Raja Ampat, which will be organized on August 22-23, 2014. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is expected to inaugurate the Sail Raja Ampat.

Lake Sentani is one of the largest lakes and the most beautiful one on the island of Papua. Being a volcanic lake, Sentani is 70-90 meters above sea level and located in the Cyclops Mountains.

The lake, which is considered by the local population as the home of the rainbows, is part of the Cyclops Strict Nature Reserve and contains many species of fish that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

It harbors 33 species of fish, of which 12 are indigenous, 8 anadromous and 13 introduced. Besides having its own species of rainbowfish (Sentani rainbowfish and red rainbowfish), Lake Sentani is also home to another fish species that cannot be found anywhere else, the Sentani gudgeon.