The world's most volcanic country,
with the world's biggest Muslim population,
and the world's biggest lizards.
Those are just three of the things
that you are about to learn about Indonesia.
Indonesia is located in Southeast Asia straddling the equator.
It is known for being the world's fourth most populous country
with 255 million people.
It also has the biggest Muslim population of any country in the world.
If you thought that Muslim equals Arab,
then I'm sorry you're wrong, and Indonesia is the proof
with a total land area of 1,919,440 square km.
Indonesia is the 15th largest country in the world.
It is slightly bigger than Sudan and slightly smaller than Mexico.
But, you can see that Indonesia's land is more spread out,
because it's not all in one piece.
Indonesia is an archipelago consisting of an unbelievable 17,508 islands,
but only about 6,000 of those islands are inhabited.
The five main islands of Indonesia are Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Sulawesi,
the four of which are called the greater Sunda Islands,
as well as the island of New Guinea.
At the center of the archipelago is Java Island,
which is the most populous island in Indonesia
with 141 million people or 56.4% of the population.
That also makes Java the most populous island in the whole world.
By the way, if you've ever wondered why coffee is sometimes referred to as Java,
that's because coffee is one of Indonesia's biggest exports,
and Indonesia is one of the original sources of coffee to the Western world.
The island of Java is where the capital city of Jakarta is located.
It is a chaotic urban jungle of 10 million residents
and 30 million people in the urban area.
The traffic in Jakarta is an absolute madness
and it is probably the worst traffic in the world.
If you visit Jakarta I highly recommend
that you take your own private helicopter
With its land area of 128,300 square km,
Java is not the biggest island in Indonesia,
it is actually the fifth biggest.
The second most populous island in Indonesia is Sumatra with 50 million people.
And if we only include the islands that are completely inside Indonesia,
then it is the largest island in Indonesia.
Actually, the islands of Borneo and New Guinea
have more area inside Indonesia than Sumatra does,
but those islands are split between different countries and Indonesia.
And with a total land area of 473,605 square km,
Sumatra is the sixth biggest island in the world.
The third most populous island is Sulawesi,
with the total population of 18,455,058 people.
It is the fourth largest island in Indonesia
and the 11th largest in the world.
The fourth most populous island is Borneo
which is split between Indonesia and Malaysia as well as Brunei,
who has a little bit of territory in there, too.
The Indonesian side, called Kalimantan in Indonesia, has about 15 million people
Kalimantan is sadly the location of widespread illegal logging
that is destroying the environment there.
Orangutan are native to Kalimantan,
except that their habitat is being destroyed by logging and by development.
If we include both the Indonesian side and the Malaysian side,
then Borneo is the third largest island in the world.
The Indonesian side, Kalimantan, has a total land area of 544,150 square km,
and that is still bigger than the island of Sumatra
The island of New Guinea is the second largest island in the world,
but it is split between Indonesia to the west and Papua New Guinea to the east.
The total area of western New Guinea is 420,540 square km.
Western New Guinea is a remote and sparsely populated area,
with a population of just 4,366,869 people.
If we include the whole island of New Guinea,
then it is known for being the most linguistically diverse place on the planet,
where hundreds of languages are spoken,
some of which are only spoken by a few hundred people
in one or two villages.
Western New Guinea is also the site of Puncak Jaya,
the highest peak in all of Indonesia with a total height of 4884 meters.
There are two other groups of smaller islands in Indonesia,
namely the Maluku Islands and the lesser Sunda island.
The lesser Sunda Islands are where you can find Bali and Lombok,
the famous resort islands,
as well as the island of Flores and Komodo National Park,
where the Komodo dragon is found.
The Komodo dragon is the largest species of lizard in the whole world.
The archipelago is located near the edge of three major tectonic plates,
namely the Pacific, the Eurasian, and the Australian plates.
This results in frequent earthquakes and lots of volcanic activity,
there are more volcanoes in Indonesia
than in any other country in the world.
There are even more in Indonesia than there are in Japan.
There are 127 active volcanoes in Indonesia,
and about 5 million Indonesian people live under the threat of eruption.
The most active volcanoes are Mount Kelud and Mount Merapi,
which have both erupted dozens of times over the centuries.
Mount Merapi last erupted in October of 2010,
but I personally climbed Mount Merapi in 2006,
and I could still see the remnants of the eruption in 2004.
I saw entire villages covered in ash from the eruption.
Indonesia is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire,
which is an area stretching around the edges of the Pacific Ocean,
where there are 452 volcanoes
and where the majority of major earthquakes in the world take place.
In 2004 a huge 9.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra,
and that resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of people,
both from the earthquake and from the tsunami that followed.
As tragic as that volcanic activity can be it does have a side benefit,
the minerals in the volcanic ash make the soil very fertile.
That results in a lot of vegetation and a lot of beautiful scenery.
Outside of the big cities,
the scenery in Indonesia is indeed absolutely amazing.
Taking a train journey across Java
just might be one of the highlights of your life.
Adding to that beautiful scenery is Indonesia's tropical climate,
the temperature stays relatively the same all year round,
generally hovering around 30 degrees,
and the amount of daylight per day doesn't really change depending on the season.
That makes it possible to grow crops all year round.
There are basically two distinct seasons,
the dry seasons from April to October,
and the rainy season from November to March,
and the level of humidity ranges from 70% to 90% depending on the season.
Indonesia is a majority Muslim country
with approximately 87% of the people being Muslim.
However, the country is officially secular and it is not governed according to Islam.
Approximately 10% of the population are Christians,
with 3% comprised of Hindus, Buddhists, and others.
Islam was first introduced to the archipelago in the 13th century
by traders who happen to be Muslim.
And Roman Catholicism was introduced to the archipelago by Portuguese traders.
And Protestant Christianity was introduced
by the Dutch during the Dutch colonial period.
Indonesia was unofficially a colony of the Netherlands
when it was controlled by the Dutch East India company,
starting from the Year 1602.
And when the Dutch East India company went bankrupt in the year 1800,
the colony they had created in Indonesia was taken over by the Netherlands,
and became officially a colony of the state.
And it remained a Dutch colony until 1949,
when Indonesia gained independence.
The Dutch left less cultural influence on Indonesia
than other colonial powers did in other countries.
Their interests in Indonesia were mainly economic,
and they didn't seek to make the Indonesian people behave like Dutch people.
But, some architecture and infrastructure from the Dutch period remains,
and law and education were highly influenced by the Dutch,
and there were also a lot of Dutch loanwords
that made their way into the Indonesian language.
The Indonesian language or Bahasa Indonesia
is the only official language of Indonesia.
It is used to unite the speakers of 740 different languages in Indonesia.
Yes, 740 languages, you heard correctly.
When Indonesia became independent in 1949,
Bahasa Indonesia was spoken as a native language by only 5% the population,
but nowadays it is spoken by about 17% of the population as their native language.
But, the majority of people speak a different regional language
as their native language and they learn Bahasa Indonesia.
It is the language of administration, of education,
of media and all of those things you would expect of an official language.
Bahasa Indonesia is a standardized form of Malay
and it is largely the same as the Malaysian language,
at least in its standard formal form.
The Indonesian flag consists of two horizontal rectangles,
the bottom one white and the top one red.
The white represents spirit and the red represents blood.
These are the two elements required in order to achieve independence.
The largest ethnic group in Indonesia are the Javanese
who make up 52% of the population,
but Indonesia is a very multicultural country with over 300 ethnic groups,
most of which speak their own unique language or dialect.
It's a country where you can experience a diverse range of cultures,
of landscapes, and of activities.
If you avoid the crazy urban jungle as much as you can,
then you can have a wonderful experience
that is unlike anything else.
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