INFORMATION, SOCIAL & CULTURAL SECTION

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Background

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 17th 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 archaeological discoveries of human life is 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 separate linguistic groups.

The majority of Indonesia’s people are Malay stock (similar to the original inhabitants of the neighboring 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, inhabitants 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, fames for their changeless ways.

Indonesia also is home to a rich tapestry of other ethnically distinct indigenous people. The Dani, Asmat, and dozens of other tribes of Papua (the Indonesian province of the island of New Guinea) are of Melanesians. The people of the Nusa Tenggara islands, the Dayaks of Kalimantan (the Indonesian part 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 than from father to son.

With diverse tradition 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 and expressions.

The lively arts – music and dance – are widespread through Indonesia. Traditional forms – especially gamelan music from Java and dance from Bali – have long been known beyond the borders of Indonesia. 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 and 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.

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, Islam and Christianity.

Today, the country’s dominant religion is Islam. Indeed, with over 85 percent of the population following the Islamic faith, Indonesia has more Moslem adherents than the entire Arab world.

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