A brief description about

Indonesian Archipelago

Geographycal site

Indonesia "The Emerald in the far east"

A country With a large area of rain forests that may probably be the largest in the world. Location is right at the equator(longitude -95° to -142° latitude 7° to -11°), next to the north border are Singapore, Malaysia, South China sea, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brunei Darusalam, The Philipines and the Pacific ocean, to the south are the Indian ocean and Australia to the West is the Indian Ocean and to the East is Papua New Guinea.

A beautiful big archipelago nation consisting almost 14.000 islands and populated by almost 200 millions people.The capital city is Jakarta, a thight populated (10 million) metropolitan city located on the island of Java (JAWA). There are 27 State administrative area called provinces

The big population consisting of many tribes and ethnic groups with variouse culture and religions, although there are about 250 different languages but officially the Indonesian people use the Bahasa Indonesia (The Indonesian National Language) and Roman Characters for daily communication, all this diversities is stated in the State Seal "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" which means "Unity in Diversity" The State Seal is represented in the form of a giant eagle "Burung Garuda" which was taken from the myth of king Airlangga who Flew on a garuda over Indonesia to controlled his kingdom.

The INDONESIAN History and Cultural highlights

Based upon a lot of historical monuments and the discoveries of fossils, the famous one the trinil Phytecantropus Erectus, discovered in 1890 near the village of trinil in East Java, archeologist and histrorian had traced the history of Indonesia back to the pre-historic period and stone age civilization. Civilization started (around 300 BC) when a migration exodus flowed into the region from the north (China and Tonkin region). The migrants introduced Iron, Bronze cultures and agricultural techniques such as rice cultivation to the indigenous inhabitants.

Buddhism and Hinduism Era

Budha Statue
at Borobudur temple

trade transaction with India and China in the first century bring about an introduction to Buddhism, Hinduism and Sanskrit culture which last for centuries. The influence can be seen at many historical monument that scattered throughout Indonesia such as temples, the prominent one is the spectacular Borobudur, which was built around the eighth century. During these period, the Indonesian history witnessed the rise and fall of many Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms. In particular, the kingdom of SRIWIJAYA which emerged in southern part of Sumatra (centred in what is now the city of Palembang) between the seventh and ninth century AD.

In the tenth century, the history recorded the rise of the mighty kingdom of MAJAPAHIT in East Java. The kingdom reached the culmination of its power during the reign of the renowned King Hayam Wuruk with his mighty general Gadjah Mada in the middle of the thirteenth century. The kingdom territory covered all parts of the current nation of Indonesia and Malay peninsula.

The Introduction of Islam

Arab traders first landed in North Sumatra in the ninth century and introduced the moslem culture, from then many Moslem kingdom rose up and scattered about through out Indonesia, Majapahit started to fade out, the first powerfull moslem country in java was Demak and in the sixteenth century another powerfull Moslem kingdom MATARAM rose up in Mid Java near the city of Yogyakarta. and from then Islam become a dominant religion.

Europeans colonialism periods and the emerged of the Dutch Colonialism

The main Spices and other agriculture commodities from Indonesia atracted many foreign countries and this atracted also most of the European countries. But different from other Asian countries most of the European countries did their bussiness by means of monopoly and Power and at last teritorial domination in the form of colonialism. In 1292, history recorded the arrival of Marco Polo, the Portueguese explorers searching for spices arrive in what is today the islands of Maluku. And up to the 16th century they dominated the trade and economics throughout the archipelago.

In the early 16th century the Dutch explores under Jan Pieter Zoon Coen, with the East Indian Company (VOC) gained the control over the spice and coffee trade, the Dutch political rule started to dominate the archipelago. Due to a Europian war happened in 1811 - 1816 where Holland was occupied and dominated by the Frence, during that periode the British took over the Dutch colony, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles was appointed as the Governor General. And He is wellknown for his discovery of a giant flower (Raflesia) in the Island of Sumatera.

Rafflesia Flower

The transistion Periods and Independence

The Dutch dominion had lasted for 350 years, and during that periode the dutch had gained wealth from Indonesia for their Fatherland, but in contrary they did not even care about indegeouse destinies and in fact they bring about chaos and misteries among the mayor tribes, by implementing an unethical Devided at empera policy and a policy almost similar to the Apartheid policy in South Africa. It was Dr. Dowes Decker who in early 20th century forced the the Dutch colonial Government to think more about ethical policies. But eventhough the Indonesian people had already been hurted. Obviousely the healing proccess can not be instantly done and up to now there are remainder. The Indonesian Youth relized that they should be remain united and should opposed the impact of the colonialism policy, for that reasons they gathered together in 1928 and declared a Youth Oath which covers the Unity in language, nation and country that is INDONESIA. Since then the Indonesian Youth started to strugle against the Dutch Colonialism and many of them was send imprison banished to an isolation area. Eventhough it was recorded that the Indonesian people never rested in attempting to resist the colonialsm. The Japanese rise during the Second World War marked the beginning of the end for the Dutch rule over the region. After three and a half years under the Japanese occupation, Indonesia proclaimed its independence on August 17, 1945. The two most prominent national figures from this era were Soekarno and Mohammad Hatta, who later became the first president and vice president of Indonesia. But obviousely the Independencies was not for free, so the Indonesian was forced to protect the freedom against the Dutch which tried to redominated. And at last December 1949 the Dutch relized that, they were against an unfightable national and International support and therefor must admitted the sovereignity of The Republic of Indonesia.

Culture and Religions

There are officialy 5 religions: Islam, Christian, Catholic, Hindhu, and Budha and other spiritual beliefs. And the historical events influenced the cultural development in Indonesia and this is indicated in the existing variouse traditional custom. Like sanskrit, chinese, arabics and European influence that formed the unique Indonesian custom.

Updated October 04 1997.-