Indonesia in Brief
Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago,
with more than 17,500 islands that scattered between 6 degrees north latitude
to 11 degrees south latitude and from 9 degrees to 141 degrees east longitude.
Indonesia bridges two continents, Asia and Australia/Oceania. This strategic
position profoundly influences the country's culture, social and political
life, and the economy.
Spanning the length of 3,977 miles from the
Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, if its territorial waters were included, the
total area of Indonesia would cover 1.9 million square miles.
The five major islands of Indonesia are:
Sumatra with an area of 473,606 square km, Java with an area of 132,107 square
km, Kalimantan with 539,460 square km, Sulawesi with 189,216 square km, and
Papua covering an area of 421,981 square km.
Climate
The climate and weather of Indonesia is characterized by two
tropical seasons, which vary with the equatorial air circulation (The Walker
Circulation) and the meridian air circulation (The Hardley Circulation). The
displacement of the latter follows the north-south movement of the sun and its
relative position form the earth, in particular from the continents of Asia and
Australia, at certain periods of the year.
These factors contribute to the displacement and instensity of
the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) which is an equatorial trough of low
pressure that produces rain. Thus, the west and east monsoons, or the rainy and
dry seasons, are a prevalent feature of the tropical climate.
The Main Seasons
The climate changes every six months. The dry season (June to
September) is influenced by the Australian continental air masses; while the
rainy season (December to March) is the result of the Asian and Pacific Ocean
air masses. The air contains vapor which precipitates and produces rain in the
country. Tropical areas have rains almost the whole year through. However, the
climate of Central Maluku is an exception. The rainy season is from June to
September and the dry season from December to March. The transitional periods
between the two seasons are April to May and October to November.
Temperature and Humidity
Due to the large number of islands and mountains in the country,
average temperatures may be classified as follows: coastal plains : 28°C inland
and mountain areas : 26°C higher mountain areas: 23°C, varying with the
altitude.
Being in a tropical zone, Indonesia has an average relative
humidity between 70% and 90%, with a minimum of 73% and a maximum of 87%.
Culture
Sriwijaya...Majapahit...Mataram...Spice Islands... Dutch East
Indies...... over the centuries, the islands have been known by many different
names. The modern Republic of Indonesia , born on August 17, 1945, may be
relatively young among the world's roster of nations. But it embraces a people
whose roots stretch deep into antiquity. Indeed, one of the earliest
archaelogical discoveries of human life named "Java Man."
One way of grasping the successive waves of human settlement
shaping Indonesian history is to observe the composition of Indonesia's 180
million citizens as they are today. In all, Indonesia is home to nearly 300
seperate linguistic groups. The majority of Indonesia's people are or Malay
stock (similar to the original inhabitants of the neighboting countries of Malaysia
and the Philippines).
Historically, the Malay people split into dozens of smaller
subgroups, dispersing throughout the archipelago in widely varying family
structures and language groups.
Of these, the most numerous and culturally influential within
Indonesia today are the Javanese, inhabitant of Central Java. But equally
enduring cultural traditions are to be found among the Sundanese of West
Java... the Minahasan people of North Sulawesi... The Bugis and Makassars of
South Sulawesi... and of course, the people of Bali, famed for their changeless
ways.
Indigenous People
Indonesia also is home to a rich tapestry of other ethnically
distinc indigenous people. The Dani, Asmat, and dozens of other tribes of Irian
Jaya (the Indonesian province on the island of New Guinea) are of Melanesian
stock. The people of Nusa Tenggara (Lesser Sunda) islands... the Dayaks of
Kalimantan (the Indonesian portion of Borneo)... and the Batak of North
Sumatra, each represent groups of distinct ethnic origins and customs.
Indonesia even has one large ethnic subgroup -- the Minangkabau
of West Sumatra -- whose matrilineal society is ruled by women, with property
passed from mother to daughter, rather from father to son. (Make a link to this
text along with pictures)
With diverse traditions of social organization and cultural
development in place for hundreds of years. Indonesia's people naturally
provide a rich and varied mosaic of artistic and cultural activities in all
forms an expressions.
The lively arts -- music and dance -- are widespread throughout
Indonesia. Traditional forms -- especially gamelan music from Java and dance
from Bali -- have long been known beyond the borders of Indonesia. They are
still being learned from childhood -- and performed actively -- to this day.
Indonesia's graphic arts -- most notably its fabled textiles, including
Javanese batik and ikat weavings from Sumatra and the Nusa Tenggara islands --
have achieved high forms of expression an are prized by collectors the world
over.
Many of Indonesia's smaller ethnic groups -- particularly the
Batak, Dayak, Nias and Asmat peoples -- have developed a strongly
characteristic form of artistic expression, rendered prolifically in ceremonial
objects, fashioned in unique design motifs from wood and stone. In the face of
such ethnic diversity, the newly-formed republic decided following independence
that a single, standard, nationwide language was essential as a meands of
uniting Indonesia's people. To this day, local dialects can still be heard in
villages throughout the archipelago. But "Bahasa Indonesia" (which
gained formal recognition in the 1920s, founded on the traditional Malay
language, which is also today's official language in neighboring Malaysia) has
met with almost universal exceptance -- making it one of the most widely spoken
languages in the world.
The patterns characterizing Indonesia's ethnic history can also
be seen in the country's religious development. In successive phases, Indonesia
was influenced by the spread of Animism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity.
(link to picture with text.)
Indonesia and Islam
Today, Indonesia is the most populous Islamic country in the
world, though Indonesia is a republican country. Indeed, with over 85 percent
of the population following the Islamic faith, Indonesia has more Moslem
adherents than the entire Arab world. In spite of this, all major religions
continue to be practiced throughout the country, a freedom guaranteed by
national law. Each of the country's four major religions is honored with at least
one national holiday every year.
Today, the world's most magnificent Buddhist temple, Borobudur,
can be found only a few miles from one of Hinduism's most important historic
shrines -- Prambanan -- in Central Java. Meanwhile, in modern downtown Jakarta,
the city's Roman Catholic cathedral and Istiqlal, the largest of its Islamic
mosques, stand only a few hundred meters apart.
Because Indonesia achieved national independence through
revolution, the early years of the new republic were focused on forging a consensus
of national unity and basic political orientation under the leadership of
Soekarno, the nation's founding president. The first two decades following
independence were marked by political and economic turbulence not uncommon
among countries in the initial stages of nation building. By the late 1960's,
however, following several years of "growing pains" -- characterized
by intense cathartic internal struggles -- Indonesia succeeded in resolving its
early difficulties, including a period of severe political volatility in
1965-1966. Under the "New Order" government of President Soeharto,
the country launched itself briskly on a path of pragmatic growth and
development, to which it has held firmly ever since
Geography
Indonesia is a land of vivid contrasts. Gleaming urban
skyscrapes tower above tiny roadside kiosks selling ancient herbal remedies
thatch-roofed village houses sport a television in the family room and a team
of oxen tethered in the yard.
To understand the forces shaping the personality of Indonesia,
past and present, many of the nation's most fundamental characteristics can be
discerned from the contours of a map.
The map reveals a sprawling nation, tracing the path of the
Equator over several thousand miles. Comprising 13,700 islands a bridge between
the landmass of Southeast Asia and the continent of Australia -- the vast
archipelago of Indonesia spans three time zones over a width greater than the
distance from Dublin to Moscow, or from Florida to Alaska. Indonesia's
historical evolution has been strongly influenced by the sheer forces of it's
own geography -- with the interplay between climate, rainfall and volcanic
activity shaping agricultural and population patterns in different ways
throughout the country's enormous diversity of islands. Islands such as Java
and Bali are endowed with some of the most fertile soil of the Earth.
For this reason, they are most heavily populated and enjoy the
most ancient of cultures. Other regions -- such as Kalimantan, with its heavy
forest canopy, or Nusa Tenggara (Lesser Sunda) islands, with their more arid
climate -- are home to smaller numbers of people.
The distance seperating islands both from one another and from
neighboring countries also played a critical role in determining Indonesia's
early patterns of settlement and population movement. Whether for trade or
cultural reasons, certain regions of Indonesia shared histories that were
closely interwined.
Other regions remained largely untouched by outside contact and
developed their traditions in relative isolation. Java, for example was
strongly influenced by the early Hindu and Buddhist traders from India, as long
ago as the 7th century, coastal Kalimantan, on the other hand, was touched more
directly by influences from Northeast Asian nations; Aceh, in northernmost
Sumatra, was more strongly affected by Islamic traders from the Middle East.
All have joined together to create the Indonesian mosaic today.
Geography has also played role in the remarkable diversity of
Indonesia's abundant plant and animal life. The 19th-century British botanist
Alfred Russell Wallace, who is credited , together with Darwin, with the theory
of evolution, determined a precise line of demarkation between the Indonesian
islands of Bali and Lombok -- the "Wallace Line" -- which separates
the flora and fauna found throughout Asia from those unique to Australasia.
Sometimes called the "Ring of Fire" (referring to the
chain of active volcanoes that form its spine) Indonesia also is the sole
habitat for several of the world's most unusual living species -- ranging from
the menacing Komodo Drageon, a 10-foot carnivorous lizard, to a bizarre flower
known as Rafflesia, with damp and tropical petals opening more than a meter in
diameter. Just as the forces of geography and climate strongly influenced these
islands in the past , they continue to play a critical roled in shaping the
evolving nature of Indonesia today.
Beginning as a loosely structured amalgam of autonomous regions
and races, Indonesia has worked diligently to develop a common national
language and a shared political ideology Together these have played a crucial
role in forging former fiefdoms into today's proud unified nation. It was with
good reason that the new country adopted as its motto the slogan Bhinneka
Tunggal Ika. Taken from the ancient sanskrit means "Unity in
Diversity" - aptly expressing the rich complexity of the people of
Indonesia and their nation. Taken from Embassy of Indonesia Website,
Ottawa-Canada.
People
The population policy is directed toward development of the population as human
resources in order that the national development can be effective and valuable,
while the quality of life is gradually improving. Meanwhile, the control of
population growth is carried out through efforts to lower the birth and
mortality rate, especially that of infants and children. These efforts in
particular have been implemented through family planning programs which also
have the purpose of improving the welfare of mother and child and at the same
time create a small, happy, and prosperous family.
Source: undp.or.id
