Indonesia

Indonesia is unlike any other country on Earth. It is the largest archipelago in the world, a sweeping chain of islands that spans the distance from London to Baghdad, home to the fourth-largest population of any nation and to a diversity of land, life and culture that is almost impossible to grasp from a single map.

A nation of islands

Stretching across the equator between the Indian and Pacific oceans, and between the continents of Asia and Australia, Indonesia is made up of somewhere around 17,000 islands, of which more than seven thousand are uninhabited. Its territory reaches some 5,000 kilometres from west to east and crosses three time zones.

With a population of roughly 280 million people, Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world and home to the largest Muslim population of any nation. More than half of all Indonesians live on the single island of Java, the most densely populated large island on the planet, where the sprawling capital, Jakarta, ranks among the biggest cities anywhere. To ease the pressure on Java, the government has begun building a new capital, Nusantara, on the island of Borneo.

The national language is Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), a unifying tongue spoken across the islands alongside hundreds of regional languages, and the currency is the Indonesian rupiah (IDR).

The five great islands

Though the islands number in the thousands, five of them make up most of the land and population:

• Sumatra — the vast western island of rainforest, volcanoes, tigers and orangutans.
• Java — the political and economic heart, densely populated and crowned with active volcanoes.
• Kalimantan — the Indonesian portion of Borneo, the third-largest island on Earth, cloaked in jungle.
• Sulawesi — a strangely shaped, mountainous island famous for its unique wildlife and cultures.
• Papua — the western half of New Guinea, wild and remote, where you will also find Raja Ampat.

A land of fire

Indonesia sits squarely on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the great belt of geological activity that circles the ocean. The country has around 130 active volcanoes, more than any other nation, with the island of Java alone counting some fifty. These mountains are dangerous, but they are also the source of the extraordinarily fertile volcanic soils that have fed Indonesian civilisation for centuries.

The same forces shape the seas. Earthquakes are frequent, and the region has known devastating eruptions and tsunamis. Yet this restless geology is inseparable from Indonesia's beauty: the terraced rice fields, the steaming craters, the black-sand beaches and the deep, plankton-rich waters all trace back to the fire beneath.

Where the worlds divide

One of the most remarkable facts about Indonesia is written into its wildlife. An invisible boundary known as the Wallace Line, running between Bali and Lombok and between Borneo and Sulawesi, marks where Asian species give way to Australasian ones. To the west you find tigers, rhinos, elephants and orangutans; to the east, marsupials and birds of paradise. Between the two lies a transitional zone, Wallacea, with astonishing levels of species found nowhere else.

This is a country of orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra, of the giant Komodo dragons on their own small islands, and of reefs, in the far east especially, that rank among the richest on the planet.

A short history

Long before Europeans arrived, the islands were home to powerful kingdoms. The maritime empire of Srivijaya controlled trade across the seas from Sumatra, while the Hindu-Buddhist kingdom of Majapahit, based on Java, rose in the 13th and 14th centuries to dominate much of the archipelago. These eras left behind monuments such as the great temples of Borobudur and Prambanan in central Java.

The spice trade and the Dutch

It was spice that drew the world to these shores. Nutmeg, cloves and mace, grown almost nowhere else, were worth more than gold in medieval Europe, and the hunt for them brought first the Portuguese in the 16th century, then the Dutch. In 1602 the Netherlands chartered the Dutch East India Company, the VOC, often called the world's first multinational corporation, with the power to wage war, sign treaties and mint its own money.

The VOC seized control of the Spice Islands (the Moluccas), Java and Sumatra, weaving the archipelago into a global economy while imposing forced labour and harsh extraction. After the company went bankrupt and was dissolved in 1800, the Dutch state took over directly, governing the territory as the Dutch East Indies. In all, the Dutch presence lasted more than three centuries, one of the longest colonial regimes in Asia.

Independence and the modern nation

The Japanese occupation during the Second World War, from 1942 to 1945, shattered Dutch authority and fuelled a long-suppressed independence movement. Just days after Japan's surrender, on 17 August 1945, the nationalist leader Sukarno declared Indonesian independence and became the country's first president. After four years of guerrilla war and international pressure, the Netherlands finally recognised Indonesian sovereignty at the end of 1949.

The decades that followed were turbulent. A violent upheaval in 1965 brought General Suharto to power, ushering in three decades of authoritarian "New Order" rule marked by rapid modernisation but also repression. The Asian financial crisis of 1998 brought his government down and opened the era known as Reformasi, the reform that transformed Indonesia into the large, pluralistic democracy it is today.

Unity in diversity

Indonesia's national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, "unity in diversity", captures the country perfectly. There are hundreds of distinct ethnic groups, from the Javanese and Sundanese to the Batak, Balinese, Dayak and Papuans, and several hundred living languages. What holds this immense mosaic together is the shared Indonesian language and a strong sense of national identity forged through the struggle for independence.

Faith and belief

Religion runs deep. Islam is the faith of the majority, making Indonesia the most populous Muslim-majority country on Earth, but it is far from the whole picture. Christianity is widespread in the east, the island of Bali is famously Hindu with its tens of thousands of temples, and Buddhism and other beliefs are woven through the islands. The state philosophy, Pancasila, recognises this plurality and enshrines belief in one God alongside national unity and social justice.

Culture and the arts

Few countries can rival Indonesia's artistic heritage. The intricate wax-dyed fabric known as batik, the haunting bronze orchestras of the gamelan, and the shadow-puppet theatre of wayang are recognised around the world. Dance, carving, weaving and architecture vary enormously from island to island, shaped by centuries of Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic and indigenous influence.

The monuments tell the same story of layered history: the colossal ninth-century Buddhist temple of Borobudur and the soaring Hindu spires of Prambanan, both in central Java and both UNESCO World Heritage sites, stand among the greatest religious monuments in Asia.

A country you can taste

Indonesian cuisine is as varied as its islands, built on rice, fragrant spices, chilli, coconut and fresh seafood. In 2018 the country named five national dishes that capture its range: nasi goreng (fried rice), rendang (a rich, slow-cooked beef from Sumatra), sate (grilled skewers with peanut sauce), soto (aromatic soup) and gado-gado (a vegetable salad in peanut dressing). Street food is a way of life, and every region has its own specialities.

Climate and when to visit

Lying on the equator, Indonesia has a warm, tropical climate all year round, with high humidity and little change in temperature between seasons. Instead of summer and winter, the year is divided by the monsoon into a drier season and a wetter one, though the exact timing shifts from one part of this enormous country to another. Because the archipelago is so vast, conditions in Sumatra can differ greatly from those in Papua at the same moment, so it is always worth checking the season for the specific region you plan to visit.