ABSTRACT
The Province of West Sumatra (Sumatera Barat) faces the Indian Ocean, which lies beyond the chain of coastal islands that mark the other side of the Mentawai Strait, which runs from north-west to south-east along the western coast of Sumatra. West Sumatra is bounded by the provinces of North Sumatra (Sumatera Utara) to the north, Riau to the north-east, Jambi to the southeast (having formed with the latter two part of Central Sumatra—Sumatera Tengah—until 1958) and Bengkulu to the south. Administratively, in 2007, the province consisted of 12 regencies (kabupaten) and seven cities (kota).
