Indonesia

Indonesia is an archipelago of thousands of islands strung along the equator between mainland Asia and Australia. It sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, and volcanoes such as Krakatoa and Merapi keep the soils of Java and Bali fertile. Sumatra and Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo, hold lowland rainforests where orangutans live, and the western half of New Guinea rises to the highest peaks between the Himalayas and the Andes. The Wallace Line, dividing Asian from Australian wildlife, runs between Bali and Lombok.

Srivijaya, a Buddhist trading kingdom in Sumatra, controlled the Strait of Malacca for centuries, and Majapahit, a Hindu empire in east Java, reached across much of the archipelago in the fourteenth century. Islam spread through the port towns from the thirteenth century. Dutch traders came for the nutmeg and cloves of Maluku, the original Spice Islands, and Dutch rule slowly widened over the whole archipelago. Independence, declared in August 1945, was recognised by the Netherlands in 1949.

The national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, means ‘unity in diversity’, and it fits a country of hundreds of ethnic groups and languages. Most Indonesians are Muslim, Bali keeps a Hindu culture of its own, and parts of the east are largely Christian. Batik, gamelan music and wayang shadow puppets come from Java, and the food runs from rendang to satay. The economy draws on palm oil, coal, nickel, rubber and coffee, on factories serving a vast home market, and on tourism.