Bakar Tongkang

Bagansiapiapi was founded in the mid-nineteenth century by Hokkien families who, by the account the town keeps, fled Fujian by junk, were guided ashore by a light, and settled at the river mouth where they built the fishing industry that once made the port one of the largest fish producers in the world. Bakar Tongkang commemorates that arrival: a wooden replica ship is built over months, paraded through the streets and burned at a site outside town, and the direction the mast falls is read as an omen for the coming year's fortune - the crowd waits for it. The festival falls on the sixteenth day of the fifth lunar month, usually in June, and draws tens of thousands of Chinese Indonesians, including families who left the town generations ago and return for it.

What you actually see

• A ship built to be burned - the wooden replica paraded and set alight.
• The falling mast - the direction read as an omen for the year's fortune.
• A founding story - the Hokkien arrival the festival commemorates.
• A returning diaspora - families coming back to the town for the date.

When to go

The sixteenth day of the fifth lunar month, usually June. Two days.

Honest expectations

The date moves with the lunar calendar - check it. Bagansiapiapi is remote and accommodation fills entirely for the festival. Crowds at the burning are dense and the heat is intense.

Nearby

Dumai is east on the coast; Pekanbaru is south-east.