Overview
The Lesser Sunda Islands, now known as Nusa Tenggara Islands in Indonesia, is an archipelago in the Indonesian archipelago and Timor Leste. Most of the Lesser Sunda Islands are located within the Wallacea region, except for the Bali province which is west of the Wallace Line and is within the Sunda Shelf. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west, they make up the Sunda Islands. The islands are part of a volcanic arc, the Sunda Arc, formed by subduction along the Sunda Trench in the Java Sea. In 1930 the population was 3,460,059; today over 17 million people live on the islands. Etymologically, the name Nusa Tenggara means 'Southeast Islands' from the words nusa meaning 'island' and tenggara meaning 'southeast'.