What Made Indonesia Indonesia + Tons of Stuff That Osama
(or W. Bush, Jr., or CNN, or CIA, or Christina Aguilera)
Never Told You About

Also contains history of
1). the World, 2). the Netherlands, & 3). Japan,
since unfortunately Indonesia got a lot to do with the last two
even if nothing whatever with the first.

[with relevant pictures & reverent piques]

DISCONTENTS

Page 1	300 - 1500 Buddhist empires, Hindu kingdoms, ancient mariners, moonstruck brokers, rings of vendetta, where the number 'zero' came from, how much you should pay for a Mongolian ear, the dirtiest dowry in the world, what God got to do without Bali, a man who killed everybody for love, and how to earn a few bucks through a pair of nymphs, a jolly sprite, an angry ghost, and an infra-red camera.	GO TO PAGE
Page 2	1501 - 1825 The eve of Islam, descent of Christendom, anemic heroes, colonial phantasmagoria, how baptism got in vogue, a weird sort of slavery, rubber barons, sugar lords, tea squires, tobacco bosses, what the Pope got to do with nutmegs, how to get famous by sitting down in Brussels, how come a Javanese kingdom got a Chinese king, and what happened after an Englishman sold a town to a grocer.	GO TO PAGE
Page 3	1826 - 1945 Concubines, an angry priest, colonial diva in Hollywood, end of the wars of the kings, seeds of tropical fury, lionization of a chronic loser, humanism, secret letters of a Javanese Lady, my scary ancestor, birth of the Republic, history of my name, what no one needs to know about the Eurasians and why they all make movies.	GO TO PAGE
Page 4	1946 - 1984 Assassins who screwed up, a President who told Lyndon Johnson to go to hell, a clumsy coup d'etat, Indonesian highland tribe, CIA lullabies, what the Indonesian Communists got to do with Mel Gibson, and random evil under the sun.	GO TO PAGE
Page 5	1985 - Today Conspiracy of fear, terror in vinyl, farewell to a dictator, anthems of mobocracy, a nationwide post-power syndrome, heartbreaking football accidents, lavish bombings, 5 Presidents in 8 years, the most ridiculous riot of all times, and the link between Indonesian babies and Osama bin Laden.	GO TO PAGE

PRESIDENTS

Ir. Sukarno ('Bung Karno')

General H. Muhammad Suharto ('Pak Harto')

Prof. Dr. H. Baharuddin Jusuf Habibie, Dipl. Ing. ('Rudy')

Mr. KH. Abdurrahman Wahid ('Gus Dur')

Ms. Hj. Megawati Sukarnoputri Kiemas ('Mbak Mega')

Lieutenant-General Dr. H. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ('SBY')

NOTES

• 'Ir.': Insinyur = Engineer, Indonesian academic title of a Bachelor of Engineering.
• 'Bung': Indonesian word equals to 'comrade', in popular usage during the Indonesian war for Independence in 1945, dumped during Suharto's reign, revived after his fall in 1998. Usually applied only to adult males no younger than 20 and no older than 60.
• 'Pak': Bapak = Indonesian word taken from the Javanese lexicon, could mean 'mister', 'sir', 'father', 'boss', depends on the context of usage. In this case it most pronouncedly mirrored fear; nobody ever called Suharto 'Bung'. The name 'Muhammad' was only appropriated by him when finally he did the pilgrimage to Mecca in mid-1990's, and usually not attached to his simple Javanese name in any reference. 'Muhammad', like 'Siti' for a female, is after all just similar to Catholic names given upon baptism. It could be left out to simplify discussion.
• 'Dipl. Ing.': foreign doctorate title for engineering.
• 'H.': Haji = Indonesian word taken from Arabian, a religious title for a male Muslim who has done his optional pilgrimage to Mecca, Arabia.
• 'Hj.': Hajjah = ditto, for Muslim woman.
• 'Mbak': Indonesian word, taken from the Javanese language, meaning 'older sister'. It's a salad of reverence and affection at once.
• 'KH': Kyai Haji = Muslim leader in social, political, educational fields, usually headmaster of a Muslim boarding school managed a bit like a commune, called 'pesantren'. It originally belongs to the Javanese dictionary. In this case the title is actually too narrow to let what ex-president Wahid has been to pass; he's the leader of the moderate Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama, whose members are more than 40 million of people.
• 'Gus': reverential but camaraderie third-person singular lifted up from East Javanese vocab, applied to a Javanese or Madurese Muslim scholar.
• All of those presidents are male except Megawati. All of them have made a pilgrimage to Mecca except Sukarno. All of them are Javanese, except Habibie (he's a Sulawesinese).
• Suharto and Yudhoyono were with the Indonesian Army. Suharto gave himself the rank of 'Grand General' (Jenderal Besar) in the last years of his reign, but normally we don't refer to him as such after he's ousted. The Grand Generals that Indonesians think of as really deserving the title have never been Presidents: Sudirman, our Washington for the Independence War, and A.H. Nasution, military thinker and strategician. Both of them were the Indonesian Armed Forces' Chiefs of Staff, and both were from the Army.
• Click here for everything about Indonesian names, clans, titles, etc.

PERIODS

Kingdoms

Colonial

Revolution

Independence

Old Order

New Order

Reform

BITS

Portraits of Indonesia

Pictures of Java & Yogya

History of Indonesian Literature

History of Indonesian Fine Arts

History of Indonesian Movies & Television

Today's Indonesian Fine Art

Eurasian subculture in colonial & independent Indonesia

History of the Tionghoans (Indonesian Chinese)

Indonesian slavery

Two poetic princes

The Dukes of Mangkunegaran

Lady Kartini of Jepara

Indonesian language

Indonesian dog eaters

The man who thought he was Jesus

Indonesian cats

Dangdut, the most popular music in Indonesia

True story of life in suburban Javanese town today

Colonial dinner party

Tribal Indonesia

When musicians were imprisoned as enemies of the state

Indonesian Communists

The most bizarre Indonesian riot in history

A village of artists in the island of Java

Real-life Javanese Muslim wedding in Indonesia

Growing up in Java

All the President's Men (He & Himself)

Pictures of Indonesia in the good old times

How the Javanese mind ticks: concepts of power in a theater state

Wayang (Javanese puppet theater), how everybody used it to spread every religion, and why

How ancient Javanese people looked like before Islam landed there

Romantic history of the Indonesian military

What Indonesian freedom fighters looked like

Pictures of Indonesian ethnicities

Indonesian Fans of Anything

Indonesian Food, Drinks, Fruits, Vegetables, Snacks

Indonesian Language

Meanings of Indonesian Names

Indonesian Architecture

Indonesian Palaces

Ordinary Indonesian Houses

Indonesian Neighborhoods

The Tourist Section In Town

How We Tell the Difference Between Tourists & Expats

Don't Get Here Before You Read This!

Traditional Indonesian Brides

Indonesian Interior Designs

Indonesian Gardens

Indonesian Music & Dance

Indonesian Clothes

Definitely Indonesian: The People's 'Trademarx'

Javanese & Indonesian Traditions About Which We Are Just As Clueless As You Are

No Cliché: Real People's Authentic Comments About the Real Java & the True Indonesia (Honest Testimonials of Foreign Tourists, Expatriates, Artists-In-Residence, Students, Researchers, etc.)

History of Indonesia © 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Nina Wilhelmina
[Also contains history of the world, especially history of Japan & the Netherlands.]

Based on Planet Loco © 2002 Nin, editors Luh Kingkin & Rawi Salatin, proof readers Ryan Kane & Thomas Erskine, published by Badd Painting Publishing House, Solo, Indonesia, first printing 2002.

This nude online version of Indonesian history
is intended to get irregularly updated.

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