bugis schooners - 34 photos
Bugis Phinisi (or Pinisi) Schooner is a traditional Indonesian two-masted wooden sailing ship. It is mainly built by the Konjo tribe, a sub-ethnic group of Bugis-Makassar mostly residents at the Bulukumba regency of South Sulawesi, and still is used mostly for inter-insular transportation, cargo and fishing purposes within the Indonesian archipelago.
The Bugis together with the Mandar, both of South Sulawesi, are master shipbuilders and superb mariners. These boats have carried the Bugis far across the archipelago and many have further settled on Java, Kalimantan (Borneo), Sumatra, Papua, and the Nusatenggara islands. The Bugis were not only respected as master seafarers but were also greatly feared as pirates.
The Bugis of 100 tons to 200 tons today still play a vital role in traditional transport and inter-island trade. In the 19th century, Bugis perahus (boats) were loaded with European and Chinese manufactured goods from Singapore carrying these too far away Dobo in the Aru Islands in East Nusatenggara stopping at remote ports along the route. From the Indonesian islands, they gathered birds-of-paradise feathers, sandalwood, spices, gold, and pepper to sell them at the significant profit in Singapore to Chinese and Indian merchants.
Today, the Bugis (now mostly motorized, and with only one small mast) carry all sorts of cargo from timber to cement, house tiles, rice, sugar, up to motorcycles and crates of cigarettes to sell these to islanders in the archipelago.
For more information, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinisi
