The Capital City

The nation’s capital, Jakarta, has a fascinating and significant history. It started as a small harbour town called Sunda Kelapa, but its founding dates back to the year 157 when it was named Jayakarta by Fatahillah of the neighbouring Sultanate of Banten.
The name Jayakarta means City of Great Victory but this was later changed to Batavia under the Dutch. Now as Jakarta, the centre of government, business and industry, it spreads over an area of more than 650 sq.km 1410 sq miles) and has a population of over eight million people.
Jakarta is the main gateway to Indonesia. It is a contrast of modern western architecture and traditional Indonesian culture. Its rapid growth into a metropolitan city reflects the economic, political, social and industrial development of the nation.
In recent years, Jakarta has expanded its facilities for visitors with multi-star luxury hotels, fine restaurants, exciting nightlife and modern shopping centres as well as tourist attractions such as Taman Mini Indonesia Indah {Beautiful Indonesia in Miniature Park), restored colonial period buildings, marine resorts in the Bay of Jakarta, and an extensive beach recreation complex.

The Culture and Art

Indonesia is rich in art and culture which are intertwined with religion and age-old traditions from the time of early migrants with Western thoughts brought by Portuguese traders and Dutch colonists.
Unlike some countries art forms in Indonesia are not only based on folklore, as many were developed in the courts of former kingdoms such as in Bali, where they are part of religious ceremonies. The famous dance dramas of Java and Bali are derived from Hindu mythology and often feature fragments from the Ramayana and Mahabharata Hindu epics.
The “Wayang kulit” (leather puppets) of Java is performed with leather puppets held by the puppeteer, who narates the story of one of the famous episodes of the Hindu epics, the Mahabharata or the Ramayana. It is performed against a white screen while a lantern in the background casts the shadows of the characters on the screen, visible from the other side where the spectators are seated.
Batik is also being produced in some other areas as in Bali where local designs are incorporated. Other provinces produce hand-woven cloths of gold and silver threads, silks or cottons with intricate designs. Painting are numerous all over the country, both traditional and contemporary, woodcarvings for ornamentation and furniture, silverwork and engraving form Yogyakarta and Sumatra, filgree from South Sulawesi and Bali with different styles of clay, sandstone and wood sculptures. These are but a few of the handicrafts found in Indonesia.

The Flora and Fauna

British naturalist A. R. Wallace (1823-1931) postulated an imaginary line (named after him Walace’s Line) as the dividing line between Asiatic and Australian fauna. It passes between Bali and Lombok islands between Kalimantan and Sulawesi, then continues south of the Philippines and north of Hawaii.
This theory probably explains the presence of species of fauna familiar to both Asia and Australia found in Indonesia. However, there are species indigenous to Indonesia, like the “orang utan” apes of Sumatra and Kalimantan, the giant “komodo” lizards which are the only ones of their kind in the world today roaming free on the island of Komodo; the one homed rhinoceros of Java, the wild “banteng” oxen, tigers and many other species which are now protected in wildlife reserves.
The flora of Indonesia ranges from the tiny orchid to the giant “Rafflesia” plant which has a bloom almost a metre (3.2 feet) in diameter the largest flower in the world and many other species of plant life which can be seen at the Bogor Botanical Gardens.

The Climate

Indonesia’s climate is definitely tropical. There is no Autumn or Winter and distinctive “dry” and “wet” seasons share the year. The East Monsoon, from June to September, brings dry weather while the West Monsoon, from December to March is moistureladen, bringing rain.


The Cuisine

The staple food of most of Indonesia is rice. On some of the islands in eastern Indonesia, staple food traditionally ranged from corn, sago, cassava to sweet potatoes, though this is changing as rice becomes more popular. From the surrounding seas as well as from fresh water fisheries fish is abundant and of great variety, such as lobsters, oysters, prawns and shrimps, squid, crab, etc. Fish features prominently in the diet as fresh, salted, dried, smoked or a paste. Coconut is found everywhere and besides being produced for cooking oil, its milk the juice from the white meat is an ingredient for many dishes.