Interesting Facts about Indonesia

Stupas at Borobudur, the world's largest Buddhist temple, overlook Java's jungles.

Interesting Facts about Indonesia: If you planning to visit Indonesia or wanted to know really Interesting Facts about Indonesia, here you are at the right place. Check out: 

• Boasting the world's largest Muslim population, this vast archipelago between Asia and Australia harbors a highly diverse people speaking more than 300 languages.
•  From glittering beaches to isolated jungle villages, it offers endless studies in extremes.
• The influence of the Dutch, who united the island chain in 1900, may be felt everywhere
• Japan's wartime occupation, happily, is a distant memory.
• Located at the intersection of two tectonic plates, the islands are prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
• Life is defined by easeful charm and a warm sense of welcome.
• Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago consisting of many thousands of islands. Around six thousand of the islands are inhabited.
• The Indonesian name for Indonesia is "Tanah Air Kita" - Our Land and Water.
• Indonesia's national motto is Unity in Diversity.
• The highest point in Indonesia is Puncak Jaya (5,030 m) in the highlands of Papua.
• Indonesia's region of Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) shares the island of New Guinea with Papua New Guinea.
• The Indonesian administrative divisions of Kalimantan share Borneo with Malaysia and Brunei.
• The islands of New Guinea and Borneo are two of the largest islands in the world.
• The eruption of Mount Tambora, on Sumbawa Island, in 1815 was the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history. 1816 was known as the "Year Without Summer" because of the global climatic effects of the eruption.
• In 1883 the volcanic island of Krakatoa (part of the Indonesian archipelago) was destroyed by a volcanic eruption. This caused a tidal wave that killed over thirty thousand people.
• Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions sometimes cause a tsunami, a giant wave which can swamp islands and coastal settlements. A tsunami can travel as fast as 800 kph.
• Indonesia is part of the Ring of Fire which includes about seventy-five percent of all the world's volcanoes. (The rim of the Pacific Basin is ringed with volcanoes, from Alaska through the USA, Mexico and South America, then on to New Zealand and up to Japan and Russia.).
• In the early 1890s Eugene Dubois discovered a skull and thigh bone of Homo erectus in East Java. Dubois published his findings of "Java Man" in 1894, claiming that Homo erectus was an ancestor of modern humans.
• The Sangiran Early Man Site, on the World Heritage List, is estimated to have been inhabited one and a half million years ago. Half of the world's hominid fossils have been found at Sangiran in Java.
• Marco Polo was one of the first Europeans to visit Indonesia.
• Europeans went to Indonesia in search of spices. Spices were a very valuable commodity in Europe.
• Indonesia is one the world's largest producers of nutmeg.
• By the late eighteenth century "Indonesia" was part of the Dutch colonial empire and known as the Netherlands East Indies.
• Indonesia's island of Bali did not come under the control of the Netherlands until 1906. During the Dutch capture of the island many thousands of Balinese were killed. Puputan Square in Denpasar is named after the suicidal battle of the Balinese aristocracy in their struggle against the Dutch.
• Between 1811 and 1816 (during the Napoleonic Wars), "Indonesia" came under Britishrule but was returned to the Dutch.
• After the War (1939-1945) Indonesia declared independence. Sukarno, the independence leader, became the country's first president.
• Following independence, the Dutch remained in control of the western part of New Guinea (now Papua). This territory was eventually passed to Indonesia under a United Nations agreement (1963).
• In 1975 East Timor gained independence from the Portuguese but was annexed by Indonesia in 1976. East Timor voted for independence in 1999 but did not regain independence until 2002.
• In October 2002 a terrorist bomb in Bali (Kuta town) killed over 180 people. Three years later, suicide bombings in Bali killed over twenty people.
• In 2003 a car bomb outside the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta killed fourteen people. A year later, another car bomb in Jakarta outside the Australian embassy killed nine people.
• On 26 December 2004, a quake occurred under the sea near Aceh in north Indonesia (8.9 on the Richter scale); this produced tsunamis causing flooding and destruction in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Thailand, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and the east coast of Africa (Kenya and Somalia).
• An earthquake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale, off the coast of Sumatra, killed between one and two thousand people in March 2005. Many of the victims lived on the small island of Nias.
• Towards the end of May 2006 an earthquake measuring 6.2 struck the Indonesian island of Java killing over three thousand people.
• A tsunami, caused by an undersea earthquake (magnitude 7.7), struck the island of Java on 17 July 2006 killing over 500 people.
• In November 2008 an earthquake near the island of Sulawesi, magnitude 7.5, killed at least six people.
• An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 occurred near the north coast of Papua in January 2009. Another earthquate, 7.9 magnitude, struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra in September.
• In November 2008 three Islamic militants who were convicted of carrying out the 2002 Bali bombings were executed.
• In July 2009 President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was re-elected. Suicide bomb attacks on the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta killed nine people and injured many others. In September police shot dead Indonesia’s most wanted Islamist militant Noordin Mohammad Top.
• In March 2010 Police shot dead Dulmatin, the last main suspect of the 2002 Bali bombings. In 2010 US President Barack Obama visited and hailed Indonesia as an example of how a developing nation can embrace democracy.

Country Overview: Indonesia

Population: 221,932,000

Capital: Jakarta; 13,194,000

Area: 1,922,570 square kilometers (742,308 square miles)

Language: Bahasa Indonesia, English, Dutch, Javanese, and other local dialects

Religion: Muslim, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist

Currency: Indonesian rupiah

Life Expectancy: 68

GDP per Capita: U.S. $3,100

Literacy Percent: 89

Indonesia is a vast equatorial archipelago of 17,000 islands extending 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) east to west, between the Indian and Pacific Oceans in Southeast Asia. The largest islands are Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), Sulawesi, and the Indonesian part of New Guinea (known as Papua or Irian Jaya). Islands are mountainous with dense rain forests, and some have active volcanoes. Most of the smaller islands belong to larger groups, like the Moluccas (Spice Islands).

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, is 86 percent Muslim—and the largest Islamic country, though it is a secular state. Indonesians are separated by seas and clustered on islands. The largest cluster is on Java, with some 130 million inhabitants (60 percent of the country's population) on an island the size of New York State. Sumatra, much larger than Java, has less than a third of its people. Ethnically the country is highly diverse, with over 580 languages and dialects—but only 13 have more than one million speakers.

After independence from the Netherlands in 1945, the new republic confronted a high birthrate, low productivity, and illiteracy—areas in which progress has since been made. The government used a "transmigration" policy to address uneven population distribution by relocating millions of people from Java to other islands. Unity and stability are improving, although outer areas of the archipelago resent domination by Java. The Asian financial crisis hit Indonesia extremely hard. Public unrest, including violent rioting, forced President Suharto—in office since 1967—to resign in May 1998. One year later Indonesia conducted its first democratic elections since 1955.

The democratic government faces many problems after years of military dictatorship. Secessionists in the regions of Papua and Aceh (northwest tip of Sumatra) had been encouraged by East Timor's (now Timor-Leste) 1999 success in breaking away after 25 years of Indonesian military occupation. A 2005 peace agreement with Aceh separatists led to 2006 elections and a cooling of the tension. Militants on Papua still engage in a low-level insurgency. Militant Islamic groups have become active in recent years, and religious conflict between Muslims and Christians recently flared in Sulawesi and the Moluccas. The island of Bali, a center of Hindu culture, suffered a terrorist bomb blast in 2002 that killed more than 200 people—mostly tourists. Three years later, in 2005, the country was hit by the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed more than 220,000 Indonesians.

Export earnings from oil and natural gas help the economy, and Indonesia is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Tourists come to see the rich diversity of plants and wildlife—some, like the giant Komodo dragon and the Javan rhinoceros, exist nowhere else.

Check out Interesting Facts about Indonesia in Pictures:

Borobudur Temple - Construction of Java’s Borobudur Temple, one of the world’s largest Buddhist monuments and a World Heritage site, began in the eighth century, under the Sailendra dynasty. Framed by four volcanoes, it stands 105 feet (32 meters) high.

Mount Semeru and Mount Bromo - Some Indonesians believe that belching volcanoes such as Mount Semeru (in background) and Mount Bromo (in foreground) are portals to a subterranean world that has shaped not only Indonesia’s landscape but also its beliefs and culture. A long exposure time captured stars in this photo—and the brief balanced light from both a fading moon and a brightening eastern sky.

Goa Gajah, Bali - The intricately carved walls of Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave) on the island of Bali depict leaves, waves, animals, and demons.

Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta - Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world, can hold more than 70,000 worshippers at a time. Arab traders brought Islam to the region a thousand years ago. Today Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country.

Minangkabau Women - Young Minangkabau women in traditional clothes wait to perform a dance in Bagor.

Borobudur Temple - Borobudur Temple was damaged in an earthquake and buried for centuries under volcanic ash. Excavations began in the early 20th century.

Rice Paddies - Rice paddies cover terraces built into an Indonesian hillside. Farmers on Java are surrounded by more than 30 volcanoes, which provide the rich volcanic ash that allows them to harvest three crops of rice in a season—unlike farmers on neighboring Borneo, who have only one volcano.

Balinese Dancers - Opulent costumes adorn performers in a Balinese barong dance, which brings mythological characters to life in a struggle between good and evil, complete with choreographed fight scenes reminiscent of professional wrestling.

Carved Mask - Bali craftsmen create everything from carvings to paintings in hopes of catching a tourist’s eye. Traditional carved masks, called topeng, are also used in Balinese dances.

Coffee Plantation, West Java - A woman pauses in an intricately carved doorway on a coffee plantation in west Java. Draped across 3,200 miles (5,150 kilometers), Indonesia is a cloth of many colors, comprising five main islands and 30 smaller archipelagoes, with a collection of cultures as diverse as its geography. Historically the center of wealth and power, the island of Java still dominates, though 250 unique languages still survive.

Orangutans - Orangutans are native only to Indonesia and Malaysia. The endangered great apes have lost much of their habitat to deforestation.

Raja Ampat Islands - The islands of Raja Ampat may well be home to the greatest biodiversity in the world, with almost 600 species of coral, abundant plant life, and unique creatures, such as a shark that walks on its fins and a shrimp that looks like a praying mantis.

Komodo Dragon - Komodo National Park is the last sanctuary for the endemic Komodo dragon, native only to Indonesia. Largest of all lizards, it can reach a fearsome ten feet (three meters) in length.

Nusa Dua Temple, Bali - Indonesian women take part in a procession to Nusa Dua temple in southern Bali, carrying offerings atop their heads. Southern Bali is also known for its beaches and five-star hotels.

Mount Penanggungan - In a sacred pool on the slopes of Java’s Mount Penanggungan, men bathe beside statues of Sri and Lakshmi, the consorts of the Hindu god Vishnu.

Coral Reef, Sulawesi - Scuba divers explore a coral reef off Manado Tua Island. The island nations of the tropical western Pacific cradle the richest coral life on the planet. The development of reefs owes much to oceanic volcanoes such as Manado Tua, near the northeastern tip of Sulawesi. The submerged slopes of the volcanoes give corals a toehold on which to grow.

Village Initiation - Young men in the Bali village of Tenganan take part in perang pandan, a traditional ritual.

Pura Ulun Danu Temple, Bali - The water temple of Pura Ulun Danu on Lake Bratan in Bali serves the faithful in the mountainous area near Bedugul.

Source: National Geographic & World Info Zone