Indonesia, my beautiful country

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