country gorong archipelago
___MASK27___ ( or ; Indonesian : ), officially the Republic of ___MASK27___ , is a unitary sovereign state and transcontinental country located mainly in Southeast Asia with some territories in Oceania . Situated between the Indian and Pacific oceans , it is the world ' s largest island country , with more than seventeen thousand islands . At , ___MASK27___ is the world ' s 14th - largest country in terms of land area and world ' s 7th - largest country in terms of combined sea and land area . It has an estimated population of over 260 million people and is the world ' s fourth most populous country , the most populous Austronesian nation , as well as the most populous Muslim - majority country . The world ' s most populous island of Java contains more than half of the country ' s population . Halmahera Plate has recently ( 1990s ) been postulated to be a microplate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone of eastern ___MASK27___ . Nutmeg ( also known as " pala " in ___MASK27___ ) is one of the two spices  the other being mace  derived from several species of tree in the genus " Myristica ". The most important commercial species is " Myristica fragrans ", an evergreen tree indigenous to the Banda Islands in the Moluccas ( or Spice Islands ) of ___MASK27___ . The Maluku Islands or the Moluccas are an archipelago within ___MASK27___ . Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone . Geographically they are located east of Sulawesi , west of New Guinea , and north and east of Timor . The islands were also the historical core of the Spice Islands known to the Chinese and Europeans , but this term usually included other adjacent areas such as Sulawesi . The name was due to the nutmeg , mace and cloves that were originally exclusively found there , and the presence of these sparked colonial interest from Europe in the 16th century . Watubela is an archipelago in the Maluku Islands , east of Ceram and north of Kai Islands , southeast of the Gorong archipelago , and southwest of the Bomberai Peninsula of Papua , ___MASK27___ . It includes the islands of Kasiui and Teor ( also called " Tio ' or "). Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae , Syzygium aromaticum . They are native to the Maluku Islands in ___MASK27___ , and are commonly used as a spice . Cloves are commercially harvested primarily in Bangladesh , ___MASK27___ , India , Madagascar , Zanzibar , Pakistan , Sri Lanka , and Tanzania . Cloves are available throughout the year . The Molucca Sea Collision Zone is postulated by paleogeologists to explain the tectonics of the area based on the Molucca Sea in ___MASK27___ , and adjacent involved areas . The Kai Islands ( also Kei Islands ) of ___MASK27___ are a group of islands located in the south - eastern part of the Maluku Islands , in Maluku Province . The Malakus have been known as the Spice Islands due to region specific plants such as nutmeg , mace and cloves that originally intrigued European nations of the 16th century . Bomberai Peninsula is located on the Western New ___MASK13___ region at the opposite south of the Bird ' s Head Peninsula in South East Asia . To the west lies the Sebakor Bay and the south Kamrau Bay . Sabuda island lies off the western tip of the peninsula , which is separated from the mainland by Berau and Bintuni straits . Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia , north of the Timor Sea . The island is divided between the sovereign states of ___MASK21___ , on the eastern part , and ___MASK27___ , on the western part . The Indonesian part , also known as West Timor , constitutes part of the province of East Nusa Tenggara . Within West Timor lies an exclave of ___MASK21___ called Oecusse District . The island covers an area of . The name is a variant of " timur ", Malay for " east "; it is so called because it lies at the eastern end of the Lesser Sunda Islands . Gorong archipelago is a group of islands between Watubela archipelago and Ceram in the Maluku Islands . New ___MASK13___ ( or , historically , "") is a large Island in the South West Pacific region . Sulawesi , formerly known as Celebes ( or ), is an island in ___MASK27___ . One of the four Greater Sunda Islands , and the world ' s eleventh - largest island , it is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands . Within ___MASK27___ , only Sumatra , Borneo and Papua are larger in territory , and only Java and Sumatra have larger populations . Halmahera , formerly known as Jilolo , Gilolo , or Jailolo , is the largest island in the Maluku Islands . It is part of the North Maluku province of ___MASK27___ and Sofifi , the capital of the province , is located on the west coast of the island .