Palue Island

This article is about the island. For the language, see Paluʼe language. For the mount, see Paluweh.

Palue Island (Palu'e: Nua Lu'a; often referred to as Palu'e) is located north of Flores Island in the Flores Sea. It is part of Lesser Sunda Islands. Palue is under the administrative region of Sikka Regency of East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia.

Palue

Native name: Nua Lu'a (Palu'e), Pulau Palue (Indonesian)
The island on 12 February 2013, as seen from space.
Geography
Location	Southeast Asia
Coordinates	8°19′27″S 121°42′36″E
Archipelago	Lesser Sunda Islands
Area	49 km2 (19 sq mi)
Highest elevation	875 m (2871 ft)
Highest point	Mount Rokatenda[1]
Administration
Indonesia
Province	East Nusa Tenggara
Demographics
Population	10,000
Ethnic groups	Palue people

The island has an area of 39.69 km² and population of 9,497 people (at the 2020 Census); the official estimate as of mid 2023 was 9,874,^[2] resident in eight mountain villages. There are no roads or vehicles on the island. Palue can be reached from Maumere, the Sikka Regency capital on Flores, which takes six hours by wooden motorboat.

The language spoken on this island is Palu'e, an Austronesian language, which is the native language of the Palue people.

Rokatenda (Paluweh) volcano is located in the northern region of Paluʼe. The volcano erupted on August 10, 2013 and killed six people, three adults and three children.^[3][4]