Bangka Belitung Honey
The name Bangka derives from wangka – a Sanskrit word for tin. That name appears in an Indian literary text from the first century BC, which means the islands had an international reputation for metal extraction before most of the world’s current countries existed. The discovery of easily accessible tin deposits around 1710 turned that reputation into an industrial operation: the Dutch and British colonial powers brought tens of thousands of Hakka Chinese laborers from Guangdong to work the mines, the islands changed colonial hands twice in the nineteenth century – Britain ceded Bangka to the Dutch in 1814 in exchange for Cochin in India – and the company whose name is now attached to one of the world’s largest mining corporations took its name from the smaller of the two islands. Billiton, the Dutch mining concern founded here, merged with BHP in 2001. The tin is still being extracted. Bangka alone supplies approximately 90% of Indonesia’s tin production, and offshore dredging operations now work the seabed as well as the land.
The consequence of three centuries of extraction is visible in the landscape. Much of Bangka’s original forest cover is gone – stripped for mining operations, replaced with laterite and open pit. Belitung absorbed the same history but sits differently in the present: its coastline, studded with ancient granite boulders too large and too beautiful to quarry profitably, has become the more photographed of the two islands. The journey between them – by ferry across the Gaspar Strait or by the short domestic flight between Pangkalpinang and Tanjung Pandan – is a study in how a single industrial history produces different visible outcomes. The reason to make this journey is not the industry but what survived it.
Bangka is the larger island and the one with more obvious evidence of its centuries of use. The provincial capital, Pangkalpinang, carries its colonial and Chinese-Indonesian history in its architecture and in the Tua Pek Kong temple complex at the center of town.
The island where tin made history, and the single forest that remembers what it looked like before
Pangkalpinang is practical as a base. The Hakka Chinese community that arrived in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has been here long enough to produce generations of mixed Indonesian-Chinese culture -- the Tua Pek Kong temple in the center of town dates to that era, and the street food follows the same fusion logic. Bangka is known for its white pepper, grown here for centuries and still a significant commodity; the markets stock it alongside the small bottles of dark honey that have become the island's other notable export. The beaches at Matras and Parai Tenggiri in the Sungailiat district are the easiest day trip from Pangkalpinang. The island's oldest community, the Lom people, lives along the northeastern coast at Tuing, where a stretch of 290-million-year-old metamorphic rocks lines the shore and traditional fishing still operates without interference from mining.
One hour south of Pangkalpinang, in Kecamatan Namang, Kabupaten Bangka Tengah, is the pelawan forest -- Hutan Pelawan. It is approximately 260 hectares of community-protected forest on an island where intact forest is rare enough to be remarkable, anchored by a formally designated 47-hectare biodiversity park, protected by a village regulation that the head of Desa Namang put in place in 2008 specifically to prevent the forest from following the trajectory of the rest of the island. The pelawan tree (Tristaniopsis merguensis, family Myrtaceae) gives the forest its name; it also gives it its color. The bark peels to expose a red underwood beneath, and the trunks stand in the forest like lit torches. Bangka Tengah regency has formally designated this area as a biodiversity park with three stated priorities: ecotourism, education, and research. Ninety-nine bird species have been documented in the biodiversity park (Henri et al. 2017) -- birds that abandoned degraded habitat elsewhere on the island and relocated to the intact pelawan canopy.
The pelawan tree supports three harvests simultaneously. Apis dorsata -- the giant wild honeybee -- nests in the canopy and produces Madu Pelawan, the distinctively bitter honey that is Bangka's most commercially recognized food product. The tree's roots host an edible ectomycorrhizal mushroom, jamur pelawan (Heimioporus sp.), which grows only here, harvests twice annually when the seasonal transition brings rain after drought, and commands Rp 2,000,000 to Rp 5,000,000 per kilogram dried. Historically, pelawan timber was also used for construction and boat-building, though this use has declined as the tree's conservation value has been recognized. The village of Desa Namang organizes honey and mushroom tourism directly from the forest; visitors can taste honey on site, walk the forest at night, and buy bottled Madu Pelawan from village producers.
Belitung is 150 kilometers east of Bangka across the Gaspar Strait, and its character is quieter and more photogenic. The granite boulders along the northwestern beaches – Tanjung Tinggi, Tanjung Kelayang – are the visual signature of the island, smooth and pale against turquoise water.
The island whose beaches couldn't be mined, and the film that made them known
Belitung was mined for tin as extensively as Bangka, but the coastal granite formations proved too massive to extract efficiently, and the beaches remained. The same tin history left its mark in the interior -- Kaolin Lake, a former mining pit now filled with mineral-rich milky turquoise water, has become one of the more photographed landscapes on the island, a strange beauty produced by industrial abandonment. The island's 100-odd surrounding islets are accessible by boat; the calm, shallow seas between them are good for snorkeling and anchoring, and the fishing villages along the coast maintain the rhythm of dawn departures and afternoon returns that the tourist circuit hasn't disrupted. UNESCO has recognized the Belitung Geopark, which covers seventeen sites across the island including its geological formations and coastal landscapes.
Belitung gained national prominence through the 2008 film Laskar Pelangi (Rainbow Troops), adapted from Andrea Hirata's novel about a group of students in a tin-mining town school. The film was a substantial domestic success and brought the island's landscape into wider Indonesian cultural consciousness. The set locations -- including the iconic school building -- have become tourist sites, and the story of education and resilience in a resource-extraction economy resonated across the archipelago in ways that persist. Tanjung Pandan is the island's main town and airport hub, with domestic connections from Pangkalpinang and Jakarta.
No commercially named honey type specific to Belitung has been documented in available academic or retail sources. The pelawan tree's range extends to Belitung, and Apis dorsata foraging exists across the island, but production is not organized at a named commercial scale. This is a documented research gap; honey exists, but no named type or named producer has been identified after a dedicated search.
The honeys of Bangka Belitung are defined by a single tree that grew here before the tin industry arrived and has survived it. Madu Pelawan is bitter in a way that no other named Indonesian honey is bitter – not as a flaw in processing or a secondary character note, but as the primary descriptor, sought specifically and attributed to the phytochemical profile of Tristaniopsis merguensis flowers. Bangka produces it and Bangka is where it must be bought; the provincial export supply is modest and the production village is an hour from the capital. East across the strait, Belitung has the beaches and the geopark but no named honey identity yet.
The Honey Road
One island. One forest. One honey. The road to it is straightforward.
Pangkalpinang, Bangka -- year-round (retail stop)
The provincial capital and the practical entry point for both islands. Depati Amir Airport has domestic connections from Jakarta and within the province. Madu Pelawan is sold in local markets, honey shops, and pharmacies across Pangkalpinang; it is the island's most recognized food product and is not hard to find. @juragan_madubangka (Widi Madu Bangka) is the primary confirmed web-accessible Pelawan honey seller. The Tua Pek Kong temple district, the white pepper market at Pasar Pagi, and the Hakka food scene in the city give Pangkalpinang a full day of content on the way through.
Desa Namang, Kecamatan Namang, Bangka Tengah -- dry season, May through October (tour stop)
One hour south of Pangkalpinang on sealed road. Desa Namang is a designated wisata desa (tourism village) and the production center for Madu Pelawan. The Kelompok Sadar Wisata Pelawan organizes honey tasting directly from the forest hives, a night walk through the pelawan canopy, and sale of bottled honey and dried jamur pelawan mushroom. The Zona Hisap Madu Kelulut -- a tasting station for the kelulut (stingless bee) honey from the same trees -- opened in 2022 in partnership with Universitas Brawijaya. Village head Zaiwan's 2008 conservation regulation is the reason the forest exists; the village will tell you so directly. No advance booking infrastructure exists; go in and ask for the Kelompok Sadar Wisata. Follow @desawisatanamang for current operations before traveling.
Getting Here
Pangkalpinang (Depati Amir Airport) is the main gateway for Bangka, with domestic connections from Jakarta (Soekarno-Hatta), Batam, Palembang, and several other Indonesian cities. Belitung is served by H.A.S. Hanandjoeddin International Airport at Tanjung Pandan, with connections from Jakarta and Pangkalpinang. A short domestic flight connects the two islands directly. Ferry services operate between Bangka and the Sumatra mainland (Palembang and Muntok routes) and between Bangka and Belitung, though flight is the practical choice for most travelers. The Gaspar Strait ferry crossing between the two islands takes several hours and schedules are weather-dependent.
Seasonal Events Not to Miss
Jamur pelawan harvest (late March and mid-September): The pelawan mushroom harvests twice annually at the transition between dry and wet seasons – specifically when a period of drought is followed by at least a week of rain and a thunderstorm. Neither harvest has a fixed calendar date; local knowledge and weather observation determine it. At Rp 2,000,000 to Rp 5,000,000 per kilogram dried, these harvests are significant economic events for Desa Namang and draw buyers from across the province.
Madu Pelawan harvest (dry season, May through October): Apis dorsata honey harvest in the pelawan forest follows the dry season, when ambient humidity is low and the pelawan trees are in flower. The musung madu traditional harvest uses a sunggau – a rattan platform built in the canopy – from which the harvester approaches the open comb. Fresh-season honey from Desa Namang is available directly from village producers during and after the harvest window.
Cap Go Meh (15th day of Chinese New Year, January or February): The Hakka Chinese community on Bangka celebrates Cap Go Meh with street processions and ceremonial activity that is larger and more publicly visible here than in most Indonesian cities, a consequence of the community’s deep roots and cultural continuity on the island.
Where to Buy Honey
Madu Pelawan is available in Pangkalpinang’s local markets, honey specialty shops, and pharmacies. The on-island product is genuine and unadulterated; off-island, quality requires verification. @juragan_madubangka (Widi Madu Bangka) is the primary confirmed web source for Madu Pelawan outside the production village. Direct purchase from Desa Namang village producers at Hutan Pelawan is the most traceable option and supports the conservation community directly; follow @desawisatanamang for current stock availability. No national e-commerce listing with confirmed Namang village provenance has been identified; Tokopedia and Shopee carry multiple “madu pahit” sellers whose provenance requires buyer verification.