Mr.Kuman

Making System Applction Conduct Electrics Peripheral

2007-07-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

\
Parallel port communications a lot of used in PC interface but usage of port public is to communicate with printer, modem, keyboard and displayed. Though communications function of parallel port can be used for controlling equipments of household electrics like lamp, fan and others. Hence important port parallel so central in the case of digital data communications, more than anything else at the moment, port parallel can be told becoming not good because its function have often replaced by USB ( Serial Universal Bus). This paper will explain software and hardware using function of parallel port, its application Control system peripheral of electrics able to be used in the case operation peripheral house electrics or building.

Software has been designed under Windows environment (32 bit) using Delphi version 7.0 from Borland International, Inc Software.

There are two kinds of two that is software and hardware. Software control system as controller extension between computer port and network relay, while to its it consist of network controlling interfaced to relay every apparatus/peripheral of electrics which later controlled by software which installation on computer. Testing data information and transmission with varying transmission speed have been done in this experiment, while examination of hardware done at truth evocation of poured into electrics current peripheral conducted software on computer.

For download this application, an see article and other component delphi click this link: Project Delphi With Parallel Port

Author & Coding
Dede Kurniadi
http://www.teknisoft.org

Batik Canting

2007-07-01T19:37:00.000-07:00

Ibu Hartati Ongkosutjahjo learned about the beauty of batik early in life, but she went on to use the designs to create something totally new. Her shop in Pondok Indah shows beautiful, quilted wall hangings and other unique items using the timeless designs of antique batik.
Batik Canting had its roots in Hartati's childhood. As a child she would visit her grandmother in Pekalongan who sold the distinctive brightly colored Pekalongan batik from her home. Relatives and friends from throughout Java often came to Hartati's home in Jakarta to sell batik through her mother. Throughout her childhood she saw her grandmother, mother and other relatives wearing batik for everyday clothing.

These friends and relatives instilled in Hartati a love of the fabric with their many discussions about batik. She gained a deep knowledge of the traditional patterns and motifs distinctive of both the Chinese-influenced designs of the northern coastal cities of Pekalongan and Cirebon, and also the traditional darker colors and centuries-old designs of the sultanates of Solo and Yogyakarta in southern Central Java. Everyday exposure to the beauty of batik was a part of her childhood education.
Years later, after enjoying a career as a civil engineer, Hartati established a business with friends which allowed her to express her fascination with batik through the creation of intricate wall hangings utilizing the antique batik patterns she grew to love in her childhood.

Batik Canting is born
Hartati, together with her artistically inclined husband Bapak Johanes and two colleagues, Lila Noerhayati and Kirono Arundatie - all of whom were also engineers, established Batik Canting in 1998. Each partner specializes in different home accessories, with Hartati creating the wall hangings. The creative synergy of their collaborative efforts has resulted in a truly beautiful one-of-a-kind home accessories shop.
Batik tulis designs are painstakingly created by hand with a canting, the pen-like applicator which is used to apply the wax to the cloth to create the intricate designs. The name, Batik Canting, was taken from the fact that they only use batik tulis in their creations.
Products offered by the talented foursome include one-of-a-kind wall hangings, tablecloths, runners, cushion covers, rugs, bedcovers, place mats, framed designs, purses and curtains. Fabric allowing, various items can be coordinated to create an overall look for any room in your home.
Some of the best selling items are one-of-a-kind wall hangings and mini-jackets, which are hung by wooden rods through the armholes. Made of old batik, the designs are quilted and various accessories are attached to complete the artistic creation. These accessories include other types of traditional fabrics, antique coins, semi-precious gemstones and hammered or molded brass ornaments. Batik Canting also sells the poles and wall fixtures to hang both the mini jackets and other wall hangings. The ends of the poles are decorated with hammered brass fittings and tassels can be purchased to hang at the ends for added effect.
Wall hangings range in price from Rp 500,000 to Rp 2,000,000, depending on the value of the batik, the size and intricacy of the piece and the accessories used.
Batik Canting products have gained distinction through international exhibits in Berlin and Japan and closer to home at Jakarta bazaars and exhibitions in foreign embassies and handicraft shows. You'll be able to view Batik Canting products at upcoming Christmas bazaars organized by expatriate women's groups in Jakarta.
How the wall hangings are made
Hartati's creative process focuses first on the concept around each individual piece. As her concept gains form, she looks at the design of the fabric she'll use and begins to plan her creation. Drawing the pattern on paper, she chooses the sections of the fabrics to utilize, selects accessories and assembles the piece. One of the biggest challenges is the difficult task of lining up the intricate patterns within the fabric so that the design achieves the artistic effect she is seeking.
All hangings utilize batik kain, a 2 1/4-meter length of fabric, which is traditionally worn as a skirt-like item of clothing. In the traditional Javanese women's clothing ensemble called kain kebaya, the batik kain is wrapped from the waist around the hips and legs, and worn with a traditional kebaya top.

The value of old batik far surpasses the newer batik designs in Hartati's mind. The colors are faded and the fabric is soft. The use of these old patterns is a special mission for Hartati, as she strives to build appreciation for older batik motifs.
Old batik fabric is becoming increasingly difficult to find and the search for the distinctive timeless beauty of the faded batik reaches far into Java to find quality fabrics in good condition. Hartati uses both the traditional muted colors of batik from Yogyakarta and Solo, as well as the more colorful motifs of the Pesisir batik, from the northern Java coastal towns of Cirebon and Pekalongan.
Wall hangings and mini-jackets are complemented by the creative use of natural materials including shells, dried fruit, grasses, fibers, leaves, bone, coconut shell, wood and fish teeth which all add to the overall designs in unusual ways. The more complicated the design, the more challenged Hartati is by its creation. She says she is constantly pushing herself with new medium, new styles and new patterns.
Can you make special orders? Requests for particular patterns would be almost impossible to fill due to the difficulties in obtaining quality fabrics in sufficient quantity. Thus, Hartati prefers to sell her existing creations and does not accept special orders.
The Batik Canting Shop
Batik Canting products are showcased in Hartati's home, which is a treat in itself to visit. She and her talented husband have adorned their eclectic southwest-style stucco home in the residential area of Pondok Indah with distinctively Indonesian artifacts, antique ceramic plates, skulls of indigenous deer, paintings and crafts.

The open patio at the rear of their home is the setting for the displays of exquisite wall hangings.
You'll be in for a truly special treat if you are allowed to see Hartati's own private collection of antique batik. She still cherishes the childhood memories of the special pagi-sore kain worn by her mother and grandmother. Lovingly preserved against the ravages of time, Hartati treasures these special heirlooms of her cultural heritage and her childhood in a batik trading family.
Batik Canting creations expand the uses and popularity of traditional textiles as their creators use their artistic genius to show us that batik can be so much more than just clothing.
by Danielle Surkatty
Photos by Jan Dekker
First published in Jakarta Kini, a publication of Indo Multi Media, December 2001

Batik Canting
Quilt and Patchwork
Jl. Niaga Hijau IX No. 24
Pondok Indah, Jakarta Selatan 12310
Tel. (62-21) 750-1783, 740-2651
Hp 0816-1829971
By appointment only
Copyrigth @ http://www.expat.or.id

Batik

2007-07-01T18:51:00.001-07:00

It would be impossible to visit or live in Indonesia and not be exposed to one of the country's most highly developed art forms, batik. On your first visit to a batik store or factory you will undoubtedly experience an overwhelming stimulation of the senses - due to the many colors, patterns and the actual smell of batik. Only through repeated visits and a bit of study will the types of designs and their origins become apparent.
The word batik is thought to be derived from the word 'ambatik' which translated means 'a cloth with little dots'. The suffix 'tik' means little dot, drop, point or to make dots. Batik may also originate from the Javanese word 'tritik' which describes a resist process for dying where the patterns are reserved on the textiles by tying and sewing areas prior to dying, similar to tie dye techniques. Another Javanese phase for the mystical experience of making batik is “mbatik manah” which means “drawing a batik design on the heart”.

A Brief History
Although experts disagree as to the precise origins of batik, samples of dye resistance patterns on cloth can be traced back 1,500 years ago to Egypt and the Middle East. Samples have also been found in Turkey, India, China, Japan and West Africa from past centuries. Although in these countries people were using the technique of dye resisting decoration, within the textile realm, none have developed batik to its present day art form as the highly developed intricate batik found on the island of Java in Indonesia.
Although there is mention of 'fabrics highly decorated' in Dutch transcripts from the 17th century, most scholars believe that the intricate Javanese batik designs would only have been possible after the importation of finely woven imported cloth, which was first imported to Indonesia from India around the 1800s and afterwards from Europe beginning in 1815. Textile patterns can be seen on stone statues that are carved on the walls of ancient Javanese temples such as Prambanan (AD 800), however there is no conclusive evidence that the cloth is batik. It could possibly be a pattern that was produced with weaving techniques and not dying. What is clear is that in the 19th century batik became highly developed and was well ingrained in Javanese cultural life.
Some experts feel that batik was originally reserved as an art form for Javanese royalty. Certainly it's royal nature was clear as certain patterns were reserved to be worn only by royalty from the Sultan's palace. Princesses and noble women may have provided the inspiration for the highly refined design sense evident in traditional patterns. It is highly unlikely though that they would be involved in any more than the first wax application. Most likely, the messy work of dyeing and subsequent waxings was left to court artisans who would work under their supervision.
Javanese royalty were known to be great patrons of the arts and provided the support necessary to develop many art forms, such as silver ornamentation, wayang kulit (leather puppets) and gamelan orchestras. In some cases the art forms overlap. The Javanese dalang (puppeteer) not only was responsible for the wayang puppets but was also an important source of batik patterns. Wayang puppets are usually made of goat skin, which is then perforated and painted to create the illusion of clothing on the puppet. Used puppets were often sold to eager ladies who used the puppets as guides for their batik patterns. They would blow charcoal through the holes that define the patterns of clothing on the puppets, in order to copy the intricate designs onto the cloth.
Other scholars disagree that batik was only reserved as an art form for royalty, as they also feel its use was prevalent with the rakyat, the people. It was regarded an important part of a young ladies accomplishment that she be capable of handling a canting (the pen-like instrument used to apply wax to the cloth) with a reasonable amount of skill, certainly as important as cookery and other housewifery arts to Central Javanese women.

Selection and Preparation of the Cloth

Natural materials such as cotton or silk are used for the cloth, so that it can absorb the wax that is applied in the dye resisting process. The fabrics must be of a high thread count (densely woven). It is important that cloth of high quality have this high thread count so that the intricate design qualities of batik can be maintained.
The cloth that is used for batik is washed and boiled in water many times prior to the application of wax so that all traces of starches, lime, chalk and other sizing materials are removed. Prior to the implementation of modern day techniques, the cloth would have been pounded with a wooden mallet or ironed to make it smooth and supple so it could best receive the wax design. With the finer machine-made cotton available today, the pounding or ironing processes can be omitted. Normally men did this step in the batik process.
Strict industry standards differentiate the different qualities of the cloth used today, which include Primissima (the best) and Prima. The cloth quality is often written on the edge of the design. A lesser quality cloth which is often used in Blaco.
Design Tools
Although the art form of batik is very intricate, the tools that are used are still very simple. The canting, believed to be a purely Javanese invention, is a small thin wall spouted copper container (sometimes called a wax pen) that is connected to a short bamboo handle. Normally it is approximately 11 cm. in length. The copper container is filled with melted wax and the artisan then uses the canting to draw the design on the cloth.
Canting have different sizes of spouts (numbered to correspond to the size) to achieve varied design effects. The spout can vary from 1 mm in diameter for very fine detailed work to wider spouts used to fill in large design areas. Dots and parallel lines may be drawn with canting that have up to 9 spouts. Sometimes a wad of cotton is fastened over the mouth of the canting or attached to a stick that acts as a brush to fill in very large areas.
For close-up pictures of canting.

Wajan
The wajan is the container that holds the melted wax. It looks like a small wok. Normally it is made of iron or earthenware. The wajan is placed on a small brick charcoal stove or a spirit burner called an 'anglo'. The wax is kept in a melted state while the artisan is applying the wax to the cloth.
Wax
Different kinds and qualities of wax are used in batik. Common waxes used for batik consist of a mixture of beeswax, used for its malleability, and paraffin, used for its friability. Resins can be added to increase adhesiveness and animal fats create greater liquidity.
The best waxes are from the Indonesian islands of Timor, Sumbawa and Sumatra; three types of petroleum-based paraffin (white, yellow and black) are used. The amounts mixed are measured in grams and vary according to the design. Wax recipes can be very closely guarded secrets. Varying colors of wax make it possible to disguise different parts of the pattern through the various dying stages. Larger areas of the pattern are filled in with wax that is cheaper quality and the higher quality wax is used on the more intricately detailed sections of the design.
The wax must be kept at the proper temperature. A wax that is too cool will clog the spout of the canting. A wax that is too hot will flow too quickly and be uncontrollable. The artisan will often blow into the spout of the canting before applying wax to the cloth in order to clear the canting of any obstructions.

Cap
Creating batik is a very time consuming craft. To meet growing demands and make the fabric more affordable to the masses, in the mid-19th century the . cap. (copper stamp - pronounced chop) was developed. This invention enabled a higher volume of batik production compared to the traditional method which entailed the tedious application of wax by hand with a canting.
Each cap is a copper block that makes up a design unit. Cap are made of 1.5 cm wide copper stripes that are bent into the shape of the design. Smaller pieces of wire are used for the dots. When complete, the pattern of copper strips is attached to the handle.
The cap must be precisely made. This is especially true if the pattern is to be stamped on both sides of the fabric. It is imperative that both sides of the cap are identical so that pattern will be consistent.
Sometimes cap are welded between two grids like pieces of copper that will make a base for the top and the bottom. The block is cut in half at the center so the pattern on each half is identical. Cap vary in size and shape depending on the pattern they are needed for. It is seldom that a cap will exceed 24 cm in diameter, as this would make the handling too difficult.
Men usually handle the application of wax using cap. A piece of cloth that involves a complicated design could require as many as ten sets of cap. The usage of cap, as opposed to canting, to apply the wax has reduced the amount of time to make a cloth.
Today, batik quality is defined by cap or tulis, the second meaning hand-drawn designs which use a canting, or kombinasi, a combination of the two techniques.
Dyes
Traditional colors for Central Javanese batik were made from natural ingredients and consisted primarily of beige, blue, brown and black.
The oldest color that was used in traditional batik making was blue. The color was made from the leaves of the Indigo plant. The leaves were mixed with molasses sugar and lime and left to stand overnight. Sometimes sap from the Tinggi tree was added to act as a fixing agent. Lighter blue was achieved by leaving the cloth in the dye bath for short periods of time. For darker colors, the cloth would be left in the dye bath for days and may have been submerged up to 8 - 10 times a day.
In traditional batik, the second color applied was a brown color called soga. The color could range from light yellow to a dark brown. The dye came from the bark of the Soga tree. Another color that was traditionally used was a dark red color called mengkuda. This dye was created from the leaves of the Morinda Citrifolia.
The final hue depended on how long the cloth was soaked in the dye bath and how often it was dipped. Skilled artisans can create many variations of these traditional colors. Aside from blue, green would be achieved by mixing blue with yellow; purple was obtained by mixing blue and red. The soga brown color mixed with indigo would produce a dark blue-black color.
Design Process
The outline of the pattern is blocked out onto the cloth, traditionally with charcoal or graphite. Traditional batik designs utilize patterns handed down over the generations. It is very seldom that an artisan is so skilled that he can work from memory and would not need to draw an outline of the pattern before applying the wax. Often designs are traced from stencils or patterns called pola. Another method of tracing a pattern onto a cloth is by laying the cloth on a glass table that is illuminated from below which casts a shadow of the pattern onto the cloth. The shadow is then traced with a pencil. In large batik factories today, men usually are in charge of drawing the patterns onto the cloth. Click here to see the step-by-step process of making batik.
Waxing
Once the design is drawn out onto the cloth it is then ready to be waxed. Wax is applied to the cloth over the areas of the design that the artisan wishes to remain the original color of the cloth. Normally this is white or cream.
Female workers sit on a low stool or on a mat to apply the wax with a canting. The fabric that they are working on is draped over light bamboo frames called gawangan to allow the freshly applied wax to cool and harden. The wax is heated in the wajan until it is of the desired consistency. The artisan then dips her canting into the wax to fill the bowl of the canting.
Artisans use the wax to retrace the pencil outline on the fabric. A small drop cloth is kept on the woman. s lap to protect her from hot dripping wax. The stem of the canting is held with the right hand in a horizontal position to prevent any accidental spillage, which greatly reduces the value of the final cloth. The left hand is placed behind the fabric for support. The spout does not touch the fabric, but it held just above the area the artisan is working on. To ensure the pattern is well defined, batik is waxed on both sides. True tulis batik is reversible, as the pattern should be identical on both sides.
The most experienced artisans normally do first waxings. Filling in of large areas may be entrusted to less experienced artisans. Mistakes are very difficult to correct. If wax is accidentally spilt on the cloth, the artisan will try to remove the unwanted wax by sponging it with hot water. Then a heated iron rod with a curved end is used to try and lift off the remaining wax. Spilled wax can never be completely removed so it is imperative that the artisans are very careful.
If the cap method is utilized, this procedure is normally done by men. The cap are dipped into melted wax. Just under the surface of the melted wax is a folded cloth approximately 30 centimeters square. When this cloth is saturated with wax it acts like a stamp pad. The cap is pressed into the fabric until the design side of the cap is coated with wax. The saturated cap is then stamped onto the fabric, leaving the design of the cap. This process is repeated until the entire cloth is covered. Often cap and canting methods are combined on the same piece of cloth.
Better quality batik may be waxed utilizing canting in one part of Indonesia and then sent to another part of Indonesia where the cap part of the process is completed. On better quality cap fabric great care is taken to match the pattern exactly. Lower grade batik is characterized by overlapping lines or lightened colored lines indicating the cap was not applied correctly.
Dyeing
After the initial wax has been applied, the fabric is ready for the first dye bath. Traditionally dying was done in earthenware tubs. Today most batik factories use large concrete vats. Above the vats are ropes with pulleys that the fabric is draped over after it has been dipped into the dye bath.
The waxed fabric is immersed in the dye bath of the first color. The amount of time it is left in the bath determines the hue of the color; darker colors require longer periods or numerous immersions. The fabric is then put into a cold water bath to harden the wax.
When the desired color has been achieved and the fabric has dried, wax is reapplied over the areas that the artisan wishes to maintain the first dye color or another color at a later stage in the dying process.
When an area that has been covered with wax previously needs to be exposed so that it can be dyed, the applied wax is scraped away with a small knife. The area is then sponged with hot water and resized with rice starch before it is re-immersed in the subsequent dye bath.
If a marble effect is desired, the wax is intentionally cracked before being placed in the dye bath. The dye seeps into the tiny cracks that create the fine lines that are characteristic of batik. Traditionally, cracks were a sign of inferior cloth especially on indigo color batik. On brown batik, however, the marble effect was accepted.
The number of colors in batik represents how many times it was immersed in the dye bath and how many times wax had to be applied and removed. A multicolored batik represents a lot more work that a single or two-color piece. Numerous dye processes are usually reflected in the price of the cloth. Nowadays, chemical dyes have pretty much replaced traditional dyes, so colors are endless and much more liberally used.
Special Treatments
Prada or Gold Cloth
For special occasions, batik was formerly decorated with gold lead or gold dust. This cloth is known as Prada cloth. Gold leaf was used in the Jogjakarta and Surakarta area. The Central Javanese used gold dust to decorate their Prada cloth. It was applied to the fabric using a handmade glue consisting of egg white or linseed oil and yellow earth. The gold would remain on the cloth even after it had been washed. The gold could follow the design of the cloth or could take on its own design. Older batiks could be given a new look by applying gold to them. Gold decorated cloth is still made today; however, gold paint has replaced gold dust and leaf.
Batik Designs
Although there are thousands of different batik designs, particular designs have traditionally been associated with traditional festivals and specific religious ceremonies. Previously, it was thought that certain cloth had mystical powers to ward off ill fortune, while other pieces could bring good luck.
Certain batik designs are reserved for brides and bridegrooms as well as their families. Other designs are reserved for the Sultan and his family or their attendants. A person's rank could be determined by the pattern of the batik he/she wore.
In general, there are two categories of batik design: geometric motifs (which tend to be the earlier designs) and free form designs, which are based on stylized patterns of natural forms or imitations of a woven texture. Nitik is the most famous design illustrating this effect.
Certain areas are known for a predominance of certain designs. Central Javanese designs are influenced by traditional patterns and colors. Batik from the north coast of Java, near Pekalongan and Cirebon, have been greatly influenced by Chinese culture and effect brighter colors and more intricate flower and cloud designs.
High fashion designs drawn on silk are very popular with wealthy Indonesians. These exceptionally high-quality pieces can take months to create and costs hundreds of dollars.
Kawung
Kawung is another very old design consisting of intersecting circles, known in Java since at least the thirteenth century. This design has appeared carved into the walls of many temples throughout Java such as Prambanan near Jogjakarta and Kediri in East Java. For many years, this pattern was reserved for the royal court of the Sultan of Jogjakarta. The circles are sometimes embellished inside with two or more small crosses or other ornaments such as intersecting lines or dots. It has been suggested that the ovals might represent flora such as the fruit of the kapok (silk cotton) tree or the aren (sugar palm).
Ceplok
Ceplok is a general name for a whole series of geometric designs based on squares, rhombs, circles, stars, etc. Although fundamentally geometric, ceplok can also represent abstractions and stylization of flowers, buds, seeds and even animals. Variations in color intensity can create illusions of depth and the overall effect is not unlike medallion patterns seen on Turkish tribal rugs. The Indonesian population is largely Muslim, a religion that forbids the portrayal of animal and human forms in a realistic manner. To get around this prohibition, the batik worker does not attempt to express this matter in a realistic form. A single element of the form is chosen and then that element is repeated again and again in the pattern.
Parang
Parang was once used exclusively by the royal courts of Central Java. It has several suggested meanings such as 'rugged rock', 'knife pattern' or 'broken blade'. The Parang design consists of slanting rows of thick knife-like segments running in parallel diagonal bands. Parang usually alternated with narrower bands in a darker contrasting color. These darker bands contain another design element, a line of lozenge-shaped motifs call mlinjon. There are many variations of this basic striped pattern with its elegant sweeping lines, with over forty parang designs recorded. The most famous is the 'Parang Rusak' which in its most classical form consisting of rows of softly folded parang. This motif also appears in media other than batik, including woodcarving and as ornamentation on gamelan musical instruments.
Washing Batik
Harsh chemical detergents, dryers and drying of fabrics in the sun may fade the colors in batik. Traditionally dyed batiks should be washed in soap for sensitive fabrics, such as Woolite, Silky or Halus. Fine batik in Indonesia is washed with the lerak fruit which can be purchased at most traditional markets. A bottled version of this detergent is also available at batik stores. Be sure to line dry batik in a shady area and not in direct sunlight.
Modern Batik
Modern batik, although having strong ties to traditional batik, utilizes linear treatment of leaves, flowers and birds. These batiks tend to be more dependent on the dictates of the designer rather than the stiff guidelines that have guided traditional craftsmen. This is also apparent in the use of color that modern designers use. Artisans are no longer dependent on traditional (natural) dyes, as chemical dyes can produce any color that they wish to achieve. Modern batik still utilizes canting and cap to create intricate designs.
Fashion designers such as Iwan Tirta have aggressively introduced batik into the world fashion scene. They have done much to promote the Indonesian art of batik dress, in its traditional and modern forms.
The horizon of batik is continuing to widen. While the design process has remained basically the same over the last century, the process shows great progress in recent decades. Traditionally, batik was sold in 2 1/4 meter lengths used for kain panjang or sarong in traditional dress. Now, not only is batik used as a material to clothe the human body, its uses also include furnishing fabrics, heavy canvas wall hangings, tablecloths and household accessories. Batik techniques are used by famous artists to create batik paintings which grace many homes and offices.
Fine quality handmade batik is very expensive and the production of such works is very limited. However, in a world that is dominated by machines there is an increasing interest in materials that have been handmade. Batik is one of these materials.
During your stay in Indonesia, take advantage of your time here to learn more about the fascinating world of batik. Have a batik dress or men's business shirt made for you by a seamstress or tailor. Visit batik factories in Jogjakarta, Surakarta or Pekalongan to see for yourself how the intricate process is conducted or ask questions of batik artisans giving demonstrations in stores such as Sarinah or Pasaraya in Jakarta. You will come away with sense of wonder over the time, effort and patience put into the creation of each batik cloth. You too may soon grow to love the distinctive waxy smell of batik and your batik acquisitions will provide many memories of your stay in Indonesia. Your support of the batik industry will also ensure that this art form grows to even greater peaks.

CopyRight@http://www.expat.or.id

Yogyakarta Calendar of Events

2007-06-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

* June 7th - July 7th
At 09.00 - 21.00
Yogyakarta Art Festival will be held for a whole month up to July featuring a various kinds of arts. Arts Exhibition that will be held at Vredeburg Fort, Yogyakarta.

* Saturday, June 14, 2007
At 20.00
Leather puppet show will be staged at Sasana Hinggil Dwi Abad, Alun-alun Selatan for all night from 09.00 pm - 05.00 am

* Monday - Sunday, June 5th - July 15th, 2007
Merti Code or Code Village Purification is a tradition held by villagers of Code Utara to show the gratefulness to God for the blessing of Code River that given to them. The climax of Merti Code is a parade carrying a sacred lances called Tombak Kyai Ranu Murti The ceremony also will perform traditional art and Gunungan which is carried out in the parade and scrambled by the villagers.

* Saturday, June 15, 2007
Pengetan 251 Tahun Nagari Ngayogyakarta is The 251th anniversary of Yogyakarta Sultanate Palace.
* Thursday, June 7, 14, 21, 28, 2007
At 20.00
Macapatan, a traditional Javanese folksongs performance accompanied by Javanese traditional music Gamelan will be held at Jarahnitra, Jl. Brigjend Katamso 23, Yogyakarta.

Yogyakarta, Jogja, Jogjakarta or Yogya?

2007-06-30T20:48:00.001-07:00

There are different names for Yogyakarta. Senior citizens call it Ngayogyakarta; people from East Java and Central Java name it Yogya or Yoja. Yogya is called Jogja in the slogan of Jogja Never Ending Asia. Recently, there is another name: Djokdja. All of the names refer to the same city. How could those various names for one city appear?

There are at least 3 development periods to be explained. The name Ngayogyakarta existed in 1755 when Mangkubumi Prince whose title was Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono I founded the Kingdom of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat. The kingdom that was built on the Bering Forest area was a realization of Giyanti Agreement done with Pakubuwono III from Surakarta.

It is unclear when the name Yogyakarta first existed, whether it is a contraction of the name Ngayogyakarto or because of other reasons. However, the name of Yogyakarta has been used formally since the independence of Indonesia. When it became the capital of Indonesia in 1949, this student city had been called Yogyakarta. Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX also used the name of Yogyakarta when he announced that this kingdom is part of Indonesian Republic.

Some other names such as Yogja, Jogja, Jogya and Yogya came afterwards. The variations may exist from different pronunciation of people from different parts of Indonesia. Interestingly, people will refer to the same area when they hear those different names.

For business purpose, the name of Jogja becomes more popular and it is used in the slogan Jogja Never Ending Asia. The slogan is intended to build the image of Yogyakarta as a tourism city having great natural and culture enchantments. The reason to choose the name 'Jogja' is that the pronunciation of the word is relatively easy for most people, including foreigners. Some institutions once replaced Yogyakarta with Jogjakarta.

YogYES.COM uses the name Djokdja in Tour de Djokdja rubric. This name was used during the Dutch colonial time. The proof was the presence of a hotel named Grand Hotel de Djokdja at the north end of Malioboro Street by that time. Now, the hotel is still in operation but the name changes to Inna Garuda. The name of 'Djokdja' is chosen to give an impression of an old city and to invite the readers to fill with nostalgia.

With various spellings and pronunciations, Yogyakarta is the only city with many variations of name. Jakarta only has one variation: Jayakarta, while Bali does not have any other name. Other tourism cities in the world such as Bangkok, Singapore, Cartagena, or Venice do not seem to have variations; neither metropolitan cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and London.

Now, you do not have to be confused when you find someone writing the name of Yogyakarta city as the way he spells it. When you browse in the Internet to find out more about this city, you would better use the name Yogyakarta as it is the most commonly used in writing. The second commonly used name is Jogja.

Text: Yunanto Wiji Utomo
Photo & Artistic: Singgih Dwi Cahyanto
Copyright © 2006 YogYES.COM

Coffee Shops in Yogyakarta, from Just Hanging Around to Seeing Indie Films

2007-06-30T20:47:00.001-07:00

A little caffeine in a cup of coffee is indeed the right companion to spend the evening or night, either in the loneliness or in a crowd. For the reason, enjoying coffee in the cafes in Yogyakarta should be an amusing tour agenda. While you enjoy such things, you can know Yogyakarta closer through the communities hanging around there.

There are some café concepts, ranging from the ones close to the early concept of a café to those adapting with cotemporary Yogyakarta culture. The coffee menus vary as well; there are classical espresso coffee and Indonesian typical coffees from Java, Aceh, and Toraja. In such cafes, the communities of artists, books lovers and cyber communities such as bloggers and gamers usually meet.

If you like reading and interact with other books lovers you can visit Deket Rumah Cafe that is located in Sagan and Coffee Break Cafe that is situated on Jalan Kaliurang. Various books on different themes, ranging from light reading such as comics to those containing philosophy themes are presented in those cafes in order to satisfy your lust for reading.

In Deket Rumah cafe, you can read literatures written by both local and foreign writers. You will find books written by legendary Indonesian writers such as Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana, Pramoedya Ananta Toer and N.H Dini and those written by Nobel winners such as Milan Kundera, Nawal el Sadaawi and Umberto Eco. Some books are even for rent with certain conditions.

If you want to enjoy your coffee while knowing Yogyakarta better through the works of its artists, you can visit Via-Via Cafe that is located in Prawirotaman, V-Art Gallery and Cafe located on Jalan Solo and Djendelo Cafe at the north end of Jalan Gejayan. Those cafes have multi functions as both the places where you can drink your coffee as well as the places to exhibit art works.

Some exhibitions are held there; for example the exhibition of Paintings of Fighters done in November 2006 in Via-Via Cafe. In Djendelo Cafe some painting exhibitions were also done. The same things were also done in V-Art Galery that also often play videos produced by Yogyakarta artists.

The easiness to surf in virtual world and to interact with the members of cyber communities is another offer given by Lor Kali Cafe that is located close to Selokan Mataran and Kedai Kopi on Jalan Gejayan. Through computer facilities connected to Internet network and hotspot facilities, you can surf in virtual world for free in Kedai Kopi.

If you like to use Internet network to play games, please visit Empire that is located at the north-end of Jalan Gejayan. This newly opened place has been the center for gamers in Yogyakarta. Besides, this place provides comfortable café that is suitable for you to get relaxed after you get tired of playing games.

Even though it does not name itself a coffee shop, Kinoki that is located on Jalan Suroto Kotabaru also provides various coffee menus and comfortable open space atmosphere. In addition to spoiling you with coffee, the place of which motto is 'neither a cinema nor a coffee shop' also functions as a place for Yogyakarta cinema artists to meet.

Everyday Kinoki presents interesting films, ranging from those winning film festivals to those indie films produced by young, talented Indonesian film producers. Furthermore, Kinoki sometimes functions as the place to perform short stories reading, poetry reading and light talks and even fashion show.

In general, those cafes in Yogyakarta open at 05:00p.m., but some of them open at the days. Kedai Kopi and Coffe Break open from 10:00a.m. to midnight. Kinoki and Djendelo Café, on the other hand, open from 05:00p.m. and play films at around 07:30 p.m.

Text: Yunanto Wiji Utomo
Photo: Sigit Nugroho
Copyright © 2006 YogYES.COM

Borobudur Sunrise, the Scenery of the Sunrise in Nirvana

2007-06-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

Admiring the grandeur of Borobudur at day and seeing details of each statue and stones with relief of the constructors is something that people from around the world are longing to do. However, not many people realize that Borobudur also has other unique view, namely the scenery of the beautiful rising sun that blows the statue of Buddha sitting cross-legged at the peak of the temple that was constructed in the ninth century.

If you never experience it before, trying to color the coming of the new life in the beginning of the year will become an unforgettable experience. The rising sun with its bright light will at least encourage you to live the life one year ahead, and for sure it becomes a remembrance that wisdom or nirvana symbolized by the peak of this temple is the main destination of your life.

In order to enjoy the scenery of the sunrise, you can stay at Manohara hotel in the complex of Borobudur temple since evening. Alternatively, you may join Borobudur Sunrise package offered by some tour agencies. Otherwise, you will not be able to enter the temple complex and you will miss the sunrise, since the entrance gate of this tourism object is only open at around 07:30a.m.

If you stay at Maonhara, you can start climbing Borobodur temple at any time to enjoy the sunrise. However, hotel management and some tour agencies usually lead you to go to the peak of Borobodur at 03:00 a.m. in order for you to have enough time to reach the peak on foot and you do not have to wait too long for the sunrise. The rise of the sun can usually be enjoyed at around 05:00a.m. It suggested that you wear your coat to expel the cold weather and to bring flashlight for lighting.

Once the sky in the east begins to shine, you are ready to see the movement of the sunrise. Once the reddish yellow light emerges, it means dawn has come in the peak of Borobudur symbolizing nirvana. Uniqueness of watching sunrise in Borobodur is that the sun seems to emerge in between two mountains, namely Merapi as one of the most active mountains in the world and Merbabu that is often said to be its twin.

When Merapi is active and the fog does not cover it, you will be able to see glowing magma pouring out of the mountain directing to the upper reaches of Krasak River. The bright red color of magma will look so bright in contrast with the dark sky. Last January 2006, tens of tourists enjoyed this view and during the increased activity of Merapi lately, you have the opportunity to enjoy it.

Another scenery that is not less interesting is the villages around Borobudur that you will see when looking down. Agriculture and culture that currently are living in those villages will help you imagine the condition of the villages around the temple during the construction of this temple. If thick fog covers your view, you can still see tall, green trees emerge from the surface of the fog. The movement of the rising sun can also be observed from the light intense blowing the Buddha statue. The higher the sun, the brighter the Buddha statue will look, changing its black color to bright gray. If you take quite good camera to take pictures, you can record the moment when the light of the sun begins to blow Buddha statue and make part of the statue brighter compared to other part.

When the sun begins to burn your skin, it signals that you should descend the temple. However, you need not worry, you can still walk around the villages around Borobudur temple that previously was only seen from the top. Some villages are determined to become tourism village. You can see the activities of people such as farming, producing potteries, sculpturing statues and others. Your presence in the villages at least brings hopes for local people currently that live more difficult life.

Text: Yunanto Wiji Utomo
Artistic: Agung Sulistiono Mabruron
Copyright © 2006 YogYES.COM

HOTEL MANOHARA
Borobudur Temple Tourism Complex
Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia
Phone: +62 293 788131, +62 293 788680
Fax: +62 293 788679
Shortcut URL:
http://www.yogyes.com/manohara

Boko Sunrise, Seeing Sunrise from the Top of Tugel Hill

2007-06-30T20:45:00.000-07:00

Many people have visited the Palace of Queen Boko that used to be called Abhayagiri Vihara, a palace that based on the meaning lies on the hill full of peacefulness. Nonetheless, few of them experience the comfort of walking from the palace location and trekking through Boko hill in the morning time and enjoy the sun rising in the east. YogYES invites you to enjoy it to celebrate the coming of the new dawn in the beginning of the year.

In order for you to enjoy it, you can register yourself as participant of Boko Trekking in the Temple Tourism Park. Once you register, you get a tour package of walking around Queen Boko Palace, enjoying dawn scenery at Andrawina Plaza (one of the palace halls), staying night in the tent and trekking Boko hill to see the sunrise and the complex of Boko Queen. It must be an interesting tour package in the year-end.

The most interesting journey is trekking that usually starts at 03:00a.m. in order later to enjoy the view of sunrise. It will be the right time to start the journey to enjoy the dawn in the beginning of the year because you must be busy with blowing trumpets in the previous hours to signal the arrival of the New Year. Make sure that you are physically ready to take the journey after staying out the night.

The path leading to Bukit Tugel, where you will see one of the most beautiful dawns is not too difficult, so you do not have to worry. Besides, tour agencies provide you with guides that will ease your first adventure to climb the hill. Nonetheless, some personal equipment such as field clothes, helmet, mountain shoes, flashlight and medicines must be prepared.

During the journey to Bukit Tugel, you cannot see natural view at the surroundings since it is still dark, but you can listen to melodious natural music. If you are sensitive, you can even notice the change of the natural music when dawn comes; the voice of earth insects and night birds that previously dominated is replaced with the crowing of cocks, the chirp of church birds and a little noise from the activities of local people.

The tiring journey to Bukit Tugel will end by dawn so that you can take a rest for a while to wait the rising of the sun. Sitting, while sipping coffee or tea brought from the camp and talk with your friends will be enjoyable. Discussing the plan for a year ahead in each one's life and opening oneself to certain inputs must be very valuable.

The admiring sky panorama will look while waiting for dawn. The night black color will be replaced by gradation of yellow to red. Gradually, the yellow color becomes more dominant signaling the sun has raised high. If the sun has fully decorated the morning, then the color of the sky that previously was black is changed to blue and is decorated with white cloud. If you take your camera, it will be interesting to record each of the change.

When the sun shines fully in the east, you can begin watching beautiful natural view around Bukit Tugel. Looking to the north, you will see Merapi Mountain that stands firmly with some form of white fumes from the peak. Still in the north, you can see the grandeur of Prambanan Temple as the most beautiful Hindu temple.

In other direction, you can see the view of Yogyakarta city, rice field and villages around the hill, some temples located in the lower place, and other interesting sceneries. You are also free to explore each corner of Bukit Tugel. Afterwards, you will leave for the camping area while enjoying the sceneries on both sides of the trek.

Text: Yunanto Wiji Utomo
Artistic: Agung Sulistiono Mabruron
Copyright © 2006 YogYES.COM

PAdang

2007-06-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

Padang (means field) is the capital and largest city of West Sumatra, Indonesia. It is located on the western coast of Sumatra at 0°57′0″S, 100°21′11″E. It has an area of 694.96 square kilometres (268.3 sq mi) and a population of over 750,000 people, mostly speakers of the Minangkabau language.

History
Padang circa 1795
Since the 16th century Padang has been a trade centre. During the 16th and 17th centuries pepper was cultivated and traded with India, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In 1663 the city came under the authority of the Dutch. The Dutch built a trading post here in 1680. The city came under British authority twice, the first time during the war between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands (1781-1784) and again when the United Kingdom managed the area for the Netherlands during the Napoleonic wars (1795-1815). Afterwards the city was transferred back to the Netherlands. Up to approximately 1780 the most important trade product was gold, originating from the gold mines in the region. When the mines where exhausted, the emphasis turned to other products such as coffee, salts and textiles.
At the time of independence the city had 50,000 or so inhabitants. Coffee was still inportant, but copra was also a major item produced by farmers in its hinterland. The population growth since then has been partly a result of growth in the area of the city, but largely is a result of the migration to major cities seen in so many developing nations.
In 1950 there had also been a development of the Ombilin coal field with Padang as its outlet. This is an indication of the colonization of Indonesia having been economic as well as political.
Besides locally grown coffee and copra, Padang was a key point in the trade of such items as rubber, tea, spices, cinchona bark, resin, tobacco and rattan.[1]
Administration
Padang is divided in 11 subdistricts (kecamatan): Bungus Teluk Kabung, Koto Tangah, Kuranji, Lubuk Begalung, Lubuk Kilangan, Nanggalo, Padang Barat, Padang Selatan, Padang Timur, Padang Utara, Pauh
Transport
The city is served by the newly-opened Minangkabau International Airport in Ketaping, Padang Pariaman. Padang's Teluk Bayur harbor is the largest and busiest harbor on the west coast of Sumatra.
Education
Andalas University is the oldest university in Indonesia outside of Java. It is located in Limau Manis, about 12 kilometres (7 mi) from the center of Padang. The other universities in Padang are Universitas Negeri Padang in Air Tawar, Bung Hatta University in Ulak Karang, Baiturrahmah University in Air Pacah, Universitas Putra Indonesia YPTK, Ekasakti University, Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Barat and Tamansiswa University.
Culture
Cuisine
The cuisine of the Minangkabau people is commonly called Padang cuisine, due to it being the capital and largest city of the region. Padang restaurants are common throughout the country and are famous for their spicy food and their unique way of serving it. Padang food is served in small portions of various dishes, in a way similar to tapas or mezedes, but constituting, with rice, a complete meal. In a Padang-style restaurant, the table will quickly be set with dozens of small dishes filled with highly-flavored foods such as curried fish, fried tempeh, stewed greens, chili eggplant, curried beef liver, fried chicken, and of course, sambals, the spicy sauces ubiquitous at Indonesian tables. Customers take - and pay for - only what they want from this array of dishes. The best known Padang dish is rendang, a spicy meat stew. Soto Padang (crispy beef in spicy soup) is local residents' breakfast favorite, meanwhile Sate (beef satay in curry sauce served with ketupat) is a treat in the evening.
Sport
Padang is the home town of the soccer team Semen Padang, with Haji Agus Salim Stadium being the home stadium of the club.

Tourism
Padang is a common transit point for surfers travelling to Batu Islands and Mentawai Islands, and for tourists visiting the West Sumatran highlands. Padang beach (known as Taplau or Tapi Lauik) which located from Samudra Street until Puruih, is well-known for its beautiful sunset and hundreds of food stalls. Bungus bay, to the south of Padang, is suitable for swimming and boating.
Adityawarman Museum specializes in the history and culture of the local Minangkabau ethic group, and the main exhibits are housed within a Rumah Gadang style building.

Borobudur

2007-06-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

Country Indonesia

Architect Gunadharma

Completion date circa AD 800
Style stupa and candi

Borobudur is a ninth century Buddhist Mahayana monument in Central Java, Indonesia. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.[1] A main dome is located at the center of the top platform, surrounded by seventy-two Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupa.
The monument is both a shrine to the Lord Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. The journey for pilgrims begins at the base of the monument and follows a path circumambulating the monument while ascending to the top through the three levels of Buddhist cosmology, namely, Kamadhatu (the world of desire); Rupadhatu (the world of forms); and Arupadhatu (the world of formless). During the journey, the monument guides the pilgrims through a system of stairways and corridors with 1,460 narrative relief panels on the wall and the balustrades.
Evidence suggests Borobudur was abandoned following the fourteenth century decline of Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms in Java, and the Javanese conversion to Islam.[2] It was rediscovered in 1814 by Sir Thomas Raffles, the British ruler of Java. Since then, Borobudur has been preserved through several restorations. The largest restoration project was undertaken between 1975 and 1982 by the Indonesian government and UNESCO, after which the monumen was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[3] Borobudur is still used for pilgrimage, where once a year Buddhist in Indonesia celebrate Vesak at the monument, and Borobudur is Indonesia's single most visited tourist attraction.[4][5][6]

Etymology
In Indonesian, temples are known as candi, or formerly chandi. The term is also used more loosely to describe any ancient structure, for example, gates and bathing structures. The origins of the name Borobudur are unclear,[7] although this is not uncommon as the original name of most candi is no longer known.[7] The name 'Borobudur' was first written in the Sir Thomas Raffles book on Java history.[8] Raffles wrote about the existence of a monument called borobudur, but there were no other older documents suggesting the same name.[7] The only written old Javanese manuscript hinting at the monument is Nagarakertagama, written by Mpu Prapanca in AD 1365, which mentions Budur as a Buddhist sanctuary. It is likely that it is associated with Borobudur, but the manuscript lacks any further information to make a definite identification.
The name 'Bore-Budur', and thus 'BoroBudur', is thought to have been written by Raffles in English grammar to mean the nearby village of Bore; most candi are named after a nearby village. If it followed Javanese language, the monument should have been named as BudurBoro. Raffles also suggested that Budur might correspond to the modern Javanese word Buda ('ancient') - i.e., 'ancient Boro'.[7] Another hypothesis is that 'Boro' was taken from an old Javanese term bhara ('honourable'), describing the monument as "The Honourable Buddha". Another interpretation comes from the Javanese word biara ('monastery'), which refers the monument as the 'monastery of Budur'.

Location
A number of Buddhist and Hindu temple compounds are located approximately 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Yogyakarta, on an elevated area between two twin volcanoes, Sundoro-Sumbing and Merbabu-Merapi, and the Progo river. According to local myth, the area known as Kedu Plain is a Javanese 'sacred' place and has been dubbed 'the garden of Java' due to its high agricultural fertility.[9] During the first restoration, it was discovered that three Buddhist temples in the region, Borobudur, Pawon and Mendut, are in one straight line position.[10] It might be accidental, but the temples' alignment is in conjunction with a native folk tale that a long time ago, there was a brick-paved road from Borobodur to Mendut with walls on both sides.
Unlike other temples, which are built on a flat surface, Borobudur was built on a bedrock hill, 265 m (869 ft) above sea level and 15 m (49 ft) above the floor of the dried-out paleolake.[11] The lake's existence was the subject of intense discussion among archaeologists in the twentieth century; Borobudur was thought to have been built on a lake shore or even floated on a lake. In 1931, a Dutch artist and a scholar of Hindu and Buddhist architecture, W.O.J. Nieuwenkamp, developed a theory that Kedu Plain was once a lake and Borobudur initially represented a lotus flower floating on the lake.[9] Lotus flowers are found in almost every Buddhist work of art, often serving as a throne for buddhas and base for stupas. The architecture of Borobudur itself suggests a lotus depiction, in which Buddha postures in Borobudur symbolize the Lotus Sutra, mostly found in many Mahayana Buddhism (a school of Buddhism widely spread in southeast and east Asia regions) texts. Three circular platforms on the top are also thought to represent a lotus leaf.[11] Nieuwenkamp's theory, however, was contested by many archaeologists because the natural environment surrounding the monument is a dry land.
Geologists, on the other hand, support Nieuwenkamp's view, pointing out clay sediments found near the site.[12] A study of stratigraphy, sediment and pollen samples conducted in 2000 supports the existence of a paleolake environment near Borobudur,[11] which corroborates the doubts had raised by archaeologists. The lake area, however, fluctuated with time; a study also proves that Borobudur was near the lake shore circa thirteenth and fourteenth century. River flows and volcanic activities shape the surrounding landscape, including the lake. One of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia, Mount Merapi, is in the direct vicinity of Borobudur and has been very active since the Pleistocene.[13]

History
Construction
Buddhist pilgrims meditate on the top platform.
There is no written record of who built Borobudur, or of its intended purpose.[14] The construction time is estimated by comparison between carved reliefs on the temple's hidden foot and the inscriptions commonly used in royal charters during the eight and ninth centuries. It is likely Borobudur was founded around AD 800.[14] This corresponds to the period between AD 760–830, the peak of the Sailendra dynasty in Central Java.[15], when it was under the influence of the Srivijayan Empire. The construction is estimated to have taken 75 years and was completed in 825, during the reign of Srivijayan Maharaja Samaratunga.[16][17]
There is confusion between Hindu and Buddhist rulers in Java around that time. The Sailendras are known as ardent followers of Lord Buddha, although stone inscriptions found at Sojomerto suggest they were Hindus.[16] It was during this time that many Hindu and Buddhist monuments were built on the plains and mountain around the Kedu Plain. The Buddhist monuments, including Borobudur, were erected around the same time as the Hindu Shiva Prambanan temple compound. In AD 732, king Sanjaya, the founder of the Sailendra dynasty, commissioned a Hindu Shiva lingga sanctuary to be built on the Ukir hill, only 10 km (6.2 miles) east of Borobudur. Sanjaya's immediate successor, Rakai Panangkaran, was associated with a Buddhist Kalasan temple, as shown in the Kalasan Charter dated AD 778. Anthropologists believe that religion in Java has never been a serious conflict.[18] It was possible for a Hindu king to patronize the establishment of a Buddhist monument; or for a Buddhist king to act likewise.[18] The official religion could take place without affecting the continuity of a dynasty and of cultural life.

Abandonment
Borobudur stupas overlooking a shadowy mountain of Java. For centuries, it has been deserted.
For centuries, Borobudur lay hidden under layers of volcanic ash and jungle growth. The facts behind the desertion of the monument remain a mystery. It is unknown until when the monument was still in active use and when it ceased to function as the pilgrimage center of Buddhism.
A general assumption is that the temples were disbanded when the population were converted to Islam in the fifteenth century.[19] Another theory is that a famine caused by a volcanic eruption (est. circa AD 1006) had forced local inhabitants to leave their lands and the monument.[11] The event was said to trigger the movement of Javanese power from the Kedu Plain area to the east of Java nearby the Brantas valley as early as AD 928.
However, the great monument was never completely removed from the local people's memory. Instead of glorifying story about the monument, the memory was then gradually shifted into a more superstitious beliefs associated with bad luck and misery. Two old Javanese manuscripts of the eighteenth century mention a case of bad luck associated with the monument. According to the Babad Tanah Jawi (or the History of Java), the monument was a fatal factor for a rebel who revolted against the king of Mataram in AD 1709.[2] The hill was besieged and the insurgents were defeated and sentenced to death by the king. In the Babad Mataram (or the History of the Mataram Kingdom), the monument was associated with the misfortune of the crown prince of the Yogyakarta Sultanate in AD 1757.[20] In spite of a restriction to visit the monument, he took what is written as the knight who was captured in a cage (a statue in one of the perforated stupas). As soon as he arrived at his palace, he died unexpectedly after a one-day illness.

Tourists in Borobudur.

Rediscovery
The first photograph by Isidore van Kinsbergen (1873) after the monument was cleared up.
Following the Anglo-Dutch Java War, Java was under British administration from 1811 to 1816. The appointed governor was Lieutenant Governor-General Thomas Stamford Raffles, who had a great interest in the history of Java. He collected Javan antiques and made notes through contacts with local inhabitants during his tour throughout the island. On an inspection tour to Semarang in 1814, he was informed about a big monument called Chandi Borobudur deep in a jungle near the village of Bumisegoro.[20] He was not able to make the discovery himself and he sent H.C. Cornellius, a Dutch engineer, to investigate.
In two months, Cornellius and his 200 men cut down trees, burned down vegetation and dug away the earth to reveal the monument. Due to the danger of collapse, he could not unearth all galleries. He reported his findings to Raffles including various drawings. Although the discovery is only mentioned by a few sentences, Raffles has been credited with the monument's recovery and bringing it to the world's attention.[8]
Hartmann, a Dutch administrator of the Kedu region, continued Cornellius' work and in 1835 the whole monument was finally unearthed. His interest in Borobudur was more personal rather than official. Hartmann did not, however, write any reports of his activities; in particular, the alleged story that he discovered the large statue of Buddha in the main stupa.[21] The main stupa is empty. In 1842, Hartmann investigated the main dome although what he discovered remains unknown. The Dutch East Indies government then commissioned a Dutch engineering official, F.C. Wilsen, who in 1853, reported a large Buddha statue the size of one hundred other Borobudur statues.
Besides making hundreds of relief sketches, Wilsen studied the monument itself, preparing three articles on it. The Dutch East Indies government, meanwhile, had appointed J.F.G. Brumund to make a detail study of the monument, which was completed in 1859. Brumund intended to publish an article supplemented by Wilsen's drawings. The colonial government, however, decided otherwise and Brumund subsequently refused to cooperate. The government then commissioned another scholar, C. Leemans, who compiled a monograph based on Brumund's and Wilsen's sources. In 1873, the first monograph of the detailed study of Borobudur was published, followed by its French translation a year later.[21] The first photograph of the monument was taken in 1873 by a Dutch-Flemish engraver, Isidore van Kinsbergen.[22]
Appreciation of the site developed slowly. Some reliefs and ornaments were routinely removed by thieves and souvenir hunters. In 1882, the chief inspector of cultural artefacts recommended that Borobudur be entirely disassembled with the reliefs placed in museums due to the unstable condition of the monument.[22] The government then appointed an archeologist, Groenveldt, to undertake a thorough investigation of the site and assess the actual condition of the monument. The report found that the fears over its condition were unjustified and recommended the monument be left intact.

Contemporary events
Following the major 1973 renovation funded by UNESCO,[23] Borobudur is once again used as a place of worship and pilgrimage. Once a year, during the full moon in May or June, Buddhists in Indonesia observe Vesak (Indonesian: Waisak) day commemorating the birth, death, and the time when Boddhisatva attained the highest wisdom to become Buddha. Vesak is an official national holiday in Indonesia[24] and the ceremony is centered at the three Buddhist temples by walking from Mendut to Pawon and ending at Borobudur.[25]
The monument is visited daily by tourists and is the single most visited tourist attractions in Indonesia. In 1974, 260,000 tourists of whom 36,000 were foreigners visited the monument.[5] The figure hiked into 2.5 million visitors annually (80% were domestic tourists) in the mid 1990s, before the country's economy crisis.[6] Tourism development, however, has been criticized for not including the local community on which occasional local conflict has arisen.[5] In 2003, residents and small businesses around Borobudur organized several meetings and poetry protests, objecting to a provincial government plan to build a three-story mall complex, dubbed 'Java World'.[26]
On 21 January 1985, nine stupas were badly damaged by nine bombs.[27] In 1991, a blind Muslim evangelist, Husein Ali Al Habsyie, was sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding a series of bombings in the mid 1980s including the temple attack.[28] Two other members of a right-wing extremist group that carried out the bombings were each sentenced to 20 years in 1986 and another man received a 13-year prison term. On 27 May 2006, an earthquake of 6.2 magnitude on Richter scale struck the south coast of Central Java. The event had caused severe damage around the region and casualties to the nearby city of Yogyakarta, but Borobudur, however, was intact.[29]

Architecture
Borobudur ground plan
Borobudur is built as a single large stupa, and when viewed from above takes the form of a giant tantric Buddhist mandala, simultaneously representing the Buddhist cosmology and the nature of mind.[30] The foundation is a square, approximately 118 metres (387 ft) on each side. It has nine platforms, of which the lower six are square and the upper three are circular. The upper platform features seventy-two small stupas surrounding one large central stupa. Each stupa is bell-shaped and pierced by numerous decorative openings. Statues of the Buddha sit inside the pierced enclosures.
Approximately 55,000 m³ (almost 2 million cubic feet) of stones were taken from neighbouring rivers to build the monument.[31] The stone was cut to size, transported to the site and laid without mortar. Knobs, indentations and dovetails were used to form joints between stones. Reliefs were created in-situ after the building had been completed. The monument is equipped with a good drainage system to cater for the area's high stormwater run-off. To avoid innundation, 100 spouts are provided at each corner with a unique carved gargoyles (makaras).
A carved spout (makaras) for water drainage.
Borobudur differs markedly with the general design of other structures built for this purpose. Instead of building on a flat surface, Borobudur is built on a natural hill. The building technique is, however, similar to other temples in Java. With no inner space as in other temples and its general design similar to the shape of pyramid, Borobudur was first thought more likely to have served as a stupa, instead of a temple (or candi in Indonesian).[31] A stupa is intended as a shrine for the Lord Buddha. Sometimes stupas were built only as devotional symbols of Buddhism. A temple, on the other hand, is used as a house of deity and have inner spaces for worship. The complexity, however, of the monument's meticulous design suggests it is in fact a temple. Congregational worship in Borobudur is performed by means of pilgrimage. Pilgrims were guided by the system of staircases and corridors ascending to the top platform. Each platform represents one stage of enlightment. The path that guides pilgrims was designed with the symbolism of sacred knowledge according to the Buddhism cosmology.[32]
Half cross-section with 4:6:9 height ratio for foot, body and head, respectively.
Little is known about the architect Gunadharma.[33] His name is actually recounted from Javanese legendary folk tales rather than written in old inscriptions. He was said to be one who "... bears the measuring rod, knows division and thinks himself composed of parts."[33] The basic unit measurement he used during the construction was called tala, defined as the length of a human face from the forehead's hairline to the tip of the chin or the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the middle finger when both fingers are stretched at their maximum distance.[34] The unit metrics is then obviously relative between persons, but the monument has exact measurements. A survey conducted in 1977 revealed frequent findings of a ratio of 4:6:9 around the monument. The architect had used the formula to lay out the precise dimensions of Borobudur.[34] The identical ratio formula was further found in the nearby Buddhist temples of Pawon and Mendhut. Archeologists conjectured the purpose of the ratio formula and the tala dimension has calendrical, astronomical and cosmological themes, as of the case in other Buddhist temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.[33]
A narrow corridor with reliefs on the wall.
The main vertical structure can be divided into three groups: base (or foot), body, and top, which resembles the three major division of a human body.[33] The base is a 123x123 m² square in size and 4 metres (13 ft) high of walls.[31] The body is composed of five square platforms each with diminishing heights. The first terrace is set back 7 metres (23 ft) from the edge of the base. The other terraces are set back by 2 metres (6.5 ft), leaving a narrow corridor at each stage. The top consists of 3 circular platforms, with each stage supporting a row of perforated stupas, arranged in concentric circles. There is one main dome at the center; the top of which is the highest point of the monument (35 metres or 115 ft above ground level). Access to the upper part is through stairways at the centre of each side with a number of gates, watched by a total of 32 lion statues. The main entrance is at the eastern side, the location of the first narrative reliefs. On the slopes of the hill, there are also stairways linking the monument to the low-lying plain.
The three monument's division symbolizes three stages of mental preparation towards the ultimate goal according to the Buddhism cosmology, namely Kamadhatu (the world of desires), Rupadhatu (the world of forms), and finally Arupadhatu (the formless world).[35] Kamadhatu is represented by the base, Rupadhatu by the five square platforms (the body), and Arupadhatu by the three circular platforms and the large topmost stupa. The architectural features between three stages have methaporical differences. For instance, square and detailed decorations in the Rupadhatu disappear into plainless circular platforms in the Arupadhatu to represent how the world of forms - where men are still attached with forms and names - changes into the world of the formless.[36]
In 1885, a hidden structure under the base was accidentally discovered.[37] The "hidden foot" contains reliefs, 160 of which are narrative describing the real Kamadhatu. The remaining reliefs are panels with short inscriptions that apparently describe instruction for the sculptors, illustrating the scene to be carved.[38] An encasement base hides the real base of which its functions remains a mystery. It was first thought that the real base had to be covered to prevent a disastrous subsidence of the monument through the hill.[38] There is another theory that the encasement base was added because the original hidden foot was incorrectly designed, according to Vastu Shastra, the Indian ancient book about architecture and town planning.[37] The encasement base, however, was built with detailed and meticulous design with aesthetics and religious compensation.
Reliefs
Narrative Panels Distribution[39]

section location story #panels
hidden foot wall Karmavibhangga 160
first gallery main wall Lalitavistara 120
Jataka/Avadana 120
balustrade Jataka/Avadana 372
Jataka/Avadana 128
second gallery main wall Gandavyuha 128
ballustrade Jataka/Avadana 100
third gallery main wall Gandavyuha 88
ballustrade Gandavyuha 88
fourth gallery main wall Gandavyuha 84
ballustrade Gandavyuha 72
Total 1,460
Borobudur contains approximately 2,670 individual bas reliefs (1,460 narrative and 1,212 decorative panels), which cover the façades and balustrades. The total relief surface is 2,500 m² and they are distributed at the hidden foot (Kamadhatu) and the five square platforms (Rupadhatu).[39]
The narrative panels, which tell the story of Sudhana and Manohara,[40] are grouped into 11 series encircled the monument with the total length of 3,000 metres (1.86 miles). The hidden foot contains the first series with 160 narrative panels and the remaining 10 series are distributed throughout walls and balustrades in four galleries starting from the eastern entrance stairway to the left. Narrative panels on the wall read from right to left, while on the balustrade read from left to right. This conforms with pradaksina, the ritual of circumambulation performed by pilgrims who move in a clockwise direction while keeping the sanctuary to their right.[41]
The hidden foot depicts the story of the karma law. The walls of the first gallery have two superimposed series of reliefs; each consists of 120 panels. The upper part depicts the biography of Buddha, while the lower part of the wall and also ballustrades in the first and the second galleries tell the story of Buddha's former lives.[39] The remaining panels are devoted to Sudhana's further wandering about his search; terminated by his attainment of the Perfect Wisdom.
The law of karma (Karmavibhangga)
The 160 hidden panels do not form a continuous story, but each panel provides one complete illustration of cause and effect.[39] There are depictions of blameworthy activities, from gossip to murder, with their corresponding punishments. There are also praiseworthy activities, that include charity and pilgrimage to sanctuaries, and their subsequent rewards. The pains of hell and the pleasure of heaven are also illustrated. There are scenes of daily life, complete with the full panorama of samsara (the endless cycle of birth and death).
The birth of Buddha (Lalitavistara)
One relief on a corridor wall.
See also: The birth of Buddha (Lalitavistara)
The story starts from the glorious descent of the Lord Buddha from the Tushita heaven, and ends with his first sermon in the Deer Park near Benares.[41] The relief shows the birth of Buddha as Prince Siddharta, son of King Suddhodana and Queen Maya of Kapilavastu (in present-day Nepal).
The story is preceded by 27 panels showing various preparations, in heavens and on earth, to welcome the final incarnation of Bodhisattva.[41] Before descending from Tushita heaven, Bodhisattva entrusted his crown to his successor, the future Buddha Maitreya. He descended on earth in the shape of white elephants with six tusks, penetrated to Queen Maya's right womb. Queen Maya had a dream of this event, which was interpreted that his son would become either a sovereign or a Buddha.
While Queen Maya felt that it was the time to give the birth, she went to the Lumbini park outside the Kapilavastu city. She stood under a plaksa tree, holding one branch with her right hand and she gave birth to a son, Prince Siddharta. The story on the panels continues until the prince became Buddha.
A detailed carved relief stone.
[edit] Prince Siddharta story (Jataka) and other legendary persons (Avadana)
Jatakas are stories about the Buddha before he was born as Prince Siddharta.[42] Avadanas are similar with jatakas, but the main figure is not Bodhisattva himself. The saintly deeds in avadanas are attributed to other legendary persons. Jatakas and avadanas are treated in one and the same series in the reliefs of Borobudur.
The first 20 lower panels in the first gallery on the wall depict the Sudhanakumaravadana or the saintly deeds of Prince Sudhanakumara. The first 135 upper panels in the same gallery on the balustrades are devoted to the 34 legends of the Jatakamala.[43] The remaining 237 panels depict stories from other sources, as do for the lower series and panels in the second gallery. Some jatakas stories are depicted twice, for example the story of King Sibhi.
[edit] Sudhana search of the Ultimate Truth (Gandavyuha)
Gandavyuha is a story about Sudhana's tireless wandering in search of the Highest Perfect Wisdom. It covers two galleries (third and fourth) and also half of the second gallery; comprising in total of 460 panels.[44] The principal figure of the story, the youth Sudhana, son of an extremely rich merchant, appears on the 16th panel. The preceding 15 panels form a prologue to the story of the miracles during Buddha's samadhi in the Garden of Jeta at Sravasti.
During his search, Sudhana visited no less than 30 teachers but none of them had satisfied him completely. He was then instructed by Manjusri to meet the monk Megasri, where he was given the first doctrine. Sudhana journey continues to meet in the following order Supratisthita, the physician Megha (Spirit of Knowledge), the banker Muktaka, the monk Saradhvaja, the upasika Asa (Spirit of Supreme Enlightment), Bhismottaranirghosa, the Brahmin Jayosmayatna, Princess Maitrayani, the monk Sudarsana, a boy called Indriyesvara, the upasika Prabhuta, the banker Ratnachuda, King Anala, the god Siva Mahadeva, Queen Maya, Bodhisattva Maitreya and then back to Manjusri. Each meeting has given Sudhana a specific doctrine, knowledge and wisdom. These meetings are shown in the third gallery.
After the last meeting with Manjusri, Sudhana went to the residence of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra; depicted in the fourth gallery. The entire series of the fourth gallery is devoted to the teaching of Samantabhadra. The narrative panels finally end with the Sudhana's achievement of the Supreme Knowledge and the Ultimate Truth.[45]

Buddha statues
A Buddha statue with the hand position of dharmachakra mudra (turning the Wheels of the Law).
Apart from the story of Buddhist cosmology carved in stones, Borobudur has many Buddha statues. The cross-legged Buddha statues are seated with lotus position. They are distributed on the five square platforms (the Rupadhatu level) and on the top platform (the Arupadhatu level).
The Buddha statues are in niches at the Rupadhatu level, arranged in rows on the outer sides of the balustrades. As platforms progressively diminish to the upper level, the number of Buddha statues are decreasing. The first balustrades have 104 niches, the second 104, the third 88, the fourth 72 and the fifth 64. In total, there are 432 Buddha status at the Rupadhatu level.[1] At the Arupadhatu level (or the three circular platforms), Buddha statues are placed inside perforated stupas. The first circular platform has 32 stupas, the second 24 and the third 16, that sum up to 72 stupas.[1] Of the total 504 Buddha statues, over 300 are mutilated (mostly headless) and 43 are completely missing.
A headless Buddha statue inside a stupa.
At glance, all Buddha statues are equal, but there is subtle difference between them in the mudras or the position of the hands. There are 5 groups of mudra: North, East, South, West and Zenith, which represent the five cardinal compass according to Mahayana. The first four balustrades have the first four mudras: North, East, South and West, of which Buddha statues that face one compass direction has the corresponding mudra. Buddha statues at the fifth balustrades and inside the 72 stupas on the top platform have the same mudra: Zenith. Each mudra represent one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas; each has its own symbolism.[46] They are Abhaya mudra for Amogashiddi (north), Vara mudra for Ratnasambhava (south), Dhyana mudra for Amitabha (west), Bhumisparsa mudra for Aksobhya (east) and Dharmachakra mudra for Vairochana (zenith).

Restoration
Borobudur attracted attention in 1885, when Yzerman, the Chairman of the Archaeological Society in Yogyakarta, made a discovery about the hidden foot.[37] Photographs that reveal reliefs on the hidden foot were made in 1890–1891.[47] The discovery has led the Dutch East Indies government to take a necessary step to safeguard the monument. In 1900, the government set up a commission consisted of three officials to assess the monument: Brandes, an art historian, Theodoor van Erp, a Dutch army engineer officer, and Van de Kamer, a construction engineer from the Department of Public Works.
In 1902, the commission submitted a threefold plan of proposal to the government. First, the immediate dangers should be avoided by resetting the corners, removing stones that endangers the adjacent parts, strengthening the first balustrades and restoring several niches, archways, stupas and the main dome. Second, fencing off the courtyards, providing proper maintenance and improving drainage by restoring floors and spouts. Third, all loose stones should be removed, cleared up the monument up to the first balustrades, removed disfigured stones and restored the main dome. The total cost was estimated at that time around 48,800 Dutch guilders.

A technique to improve Borobudur's drainage system during the 1973 restoration by embedding concrete and pvc pipe.
The restoration then was carried out between 1907–1911, using the principles of anastylosis and led by Theodor van Erp.[48] The first seven months of his restoration was excavating the grounds around the monument to find missing Buddha heads and panel stones. Van Erp dismantled and rebuilt the upper three circular platforms and stupas. Along the way, Van Erp discovered more things to improve the monument that he submitted another proposal that was agreed with the additional cost of 34,600 guilders. At first glance Borobudur had been restored to its old glory.
Due to the limited budget, the restoration had been primarily focused on cleaning the sculptures, but Van Erp did not solve the drainage problem. Within fifteen years, the gallery walls were sagging and the reliefs showed signs of new cracks and deterioration.[48] Van Erp used concrete from which alkali salts and calcium hydroxide are leached and transported into the rest of the construction. This has caused some problems that a further thorough renovation is urgently needed.
Small restorations have been performed since then, but not for a complete protection. In the late 1960s, the Indonesian government had requested a major renovation to protect the monument to the international community. In 1973, a master plan to restore Borobudur was created.[23] The Indonesian government and UNESCO then undertook the complete overhaul of the monument in a big restoration project between 1975–1982.[48] The foundation was stabilized and all 1,460 panels were cleaned. The restoration involved the dismantling of the five square platforms and improved the drainage by embedding water channels into the monument. Both impermeable and filter layers were added. This colossal project involved around 600 people to restore the monument and cost in total of US$ 6,901,243.[49] After the renovation was finished, UNESCO listed Borobudur as a World Heritage Site in 1991.[50]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Installing PHP and the Oracle 10g Instant Client for Linux and Windows

2007-06-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

Oracle 10g Instant Client (free download available) is the easiest way for PHP to connect to a remote Oracle database, requiring installation of only three libraries.

The Instant Client libraries used by PHP access Oracle's current API, called OCI8. (This C interface takes its name from being first introduced in Oracle8.) PHP Oracle 8 Functions can call Oracle 8.1.7, 9.x, or 10.x directly, or optional abstraction classes like PEAR MDB2 and ADOdb can be used for convenience.

The older PHP "oracle" extension can also be used with Instant Client but it calls a deprecated Oracle API. New development with this extension is not recommended by the PHP community or by Oracle.

To use Instant Client with PHP 4 or 5 on Apache, follow the steps below. (See this section for details about 5.1.2 and its refactored OCI8 extension.) An existing Oracle database is needed; Instant Client does not include one.

Typically the database will be on another machine. If the database is local then Oracle components will generally already be available and Instant Client is not required.

Software Requirements:
Software Notes
Oracle Instant Client Download the "Instant Client Package - Basic." On Linux, also download the "Instant Client Package - SDK."
Apache HTTPD Server The PHP community still recommends Apache 1.3
PHP - PHP Hypertext Processor Version 4.3 or later

Enabling the PHP OCI8 Extension on Windows

The Instant Client binaries complement PHP's prebuilt binaries for Windows.

1.

Download the PHP binary zip file (not the installer build) and Apache. Install them following Installation on Windows Systems in the PHP Manual. OTN's PHP Developer Center contains links to useful background material such as "Installing Oracle, PHP, and Apache on Windows 2000/XP," which covers installation of a traditional, full Oracle 10g footprint (which is not required with Instant Client).

Check that PHP is working before continuing. At this stage Oracle support is not enabled.
2.

Download the Instant Client Basic package for Windows from the Instant Client page on OTN. The zip file is about 30MB in size.
3.

Create a subdirectory (e.g., c:\instantclient10_1) and copy these libraries from the zip file:
* oraociei10.dll
* orannzsbb10.dll
* oci.dll

Collectively these three files are about 80MB in size.

To use PHP's older "oracle" extension (enabled with "extension=php_oracle.dll" in php.ini), copy ociw32.dll instead of oci.dll.
4.

Edit the environment and add c:\instantclient10_1 to PATH before any other Oracle directories.

For example, on Windows 2000, follow Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Environment Variables and edit PATH in the System variables list.

If a tnsnames.ora file is used to define Oracle Net service names, copy tnsnames.ora to c:\instantclient10_1 and set the user environment variable TNS_ADMIN to c:\instantclient10_1. A default service name can optionally be set in the user environment variable LOCAL.

Set necessary Oracle globalization language environment variables such as NLS_LANG. If nothing is set, a default local environment will be assumed. See An Overview on Globalizing Oracle PHP Applications for more details.

Unset unnecessary Oracle variables such as ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID.
5.

Edit php.ini and uncomment the OCI8 extension:

extension=php_oci8.dll

Set the extension_dir directive to the full PHP extension DLL path. In PHP 4 the DLLs are in the "extensions" sub-directory of the PHP software. In PHP 5 they are in "ext".
6.

Restart Apache.

To check the extension is configured, create a simple PHP script phpinfo.php where the web server can read it.

phpinfo();
?>

Load the script into a browser using an "http://" URL. The browser page should contain an "oci8" section saying "OCI8 Support enabled".
Enabling the PHP OCI8 Extension on Linux

To add Oracle connectivity on Linux, PHP needs to be recompiled.

The PHP Developer Center contains links to useful background material such as Installing Oracle, PHP, and Apache on Linux, which covers installation of a traditional, full Oracle 10g footprint (which is not required with Instant Client).

1. Download and install Apache. For example, to install it in your home directory:

cd apache_1.3.31
./configure --enable-module=so --prefix=$HOME/apache --with-port=8888
make
make install

Edit $HOME/apache/conf/httpd.conf and add:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

2. Download PHP and untar it.
3. Download the Basic and the SDK Instant Client packages from the Instant Client page on OTN. Collectively the two RPMs are about 30MB in size.
4. Install the RPMs as the root user.

rpm -Uvh oracle-instantclient-basic-10.1.0.3-1.i386.rpm
rpm -Uvh oracle-instantclient-devel-10.1.0.3-1.i386.rpm

The first RPM puts the Oracle libraries in /usr/lib/oracle/10.1.0.3/client/lib and the second creates headers in /usr/include/oracle/10.1.0.3/client
5. Backup and then apply this patch to PHP's ext/oci8/config.m4. The patch line numbers are based on PHP 4.3.9. This patch will not be necessary when PHP bug 31084 is fixed, most likely in PHP 4.3.11 and 5.0.4.

If you are using PHP 4.3.9 or 4.3.10 you can save the patch to a file, e.g. php_oci8ic_buildpatch, and install it using:

patch -u config.m4 php_oci8ic_buildpatch

The patch creates a new PHP configuration parameter: --with-oci8-instant-client[=DIR]. On Linux, by default, it uses the latest version of the Instant Client installed from the RPMs. A directory to the Oracle libraries can be specified to use a different version. In either case, the correct SDK headers will automatically be used.

The new parameter is mutally exclusive with the existing --with-oci8 parameter.

For reference: on non-Linux platforms, the Instant Client package is unzipped into a directory of your choice. The --with-oci8-instant-client parameter will need this directory explicitly specified; for example, --with-oci8-instant-client=/home/instantclient10_1. The Instant Client SDK should unzipped to the same directory as the basic package so the subdirectory of header files can be located by the revised configuration script.
6. Rebuild the "configure" script in the top-level PHP directory.

cd php-4.3.9
rm -rf autom4te.cache config.cache
./buildconf --force

7. Run configure with the new option. This example uses Apache installed in the home directory.

./configure \
--with-oci8-instant-client \
--prefix=$HOME/php --with-apxs=$HOME/apache/bin/apxs \
--enable-sigchild --with-config-file-path=$HOME/apache/conf

8. Rebuild PHP.

make
make install

9. Copy the PHP configuration to the location given by --with-config-file-path

cp php.ini-recommended $HOME/apache/conf/php.ini

10. Set LD_LIBRARY_PATH to /usr/lib/oracle/10.1.0.3/client/lib and restart Apache.

If a tnsnames.ora file is used to define Oracle Net service names, set TNS_ADMIN to the directory containing the file.

It is important to set all Oracle environment variables before starting Apache. A script helps do that:

#!/bin/sh

APACHEHOME=/home/apache

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/10.1.0.3/client/lib:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
TNS_ADMIN=/home
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH TNS_ADMIN

echo Starting Apache
$APACHEHOME/apachectl start

To confirm the extension is configured, create a simple PHP script phpinfo.php where the web server can read it.

phpinfo();
?>

Load the script into a browser using a URL similar to "http://localhost:8888//phpinfo.php". The browser page should contain an "oci8" section saying "OCI8 Support enabled".
Connecting to Oracle

Oracle connection information is passed to OCILogon() to create a connection. Tools linked with Instant Client are always "remote" from any database server and an Oracle Net connection identifier must be used along with a username and password. The connection information is likely to be well known for established Oracle databases. With new systems the information is given by the Oracle installation program when the database is set up. The installer should have configured Oracle Net and created a service name.

In new databases the demonstration schemas such as the HR user may need to be unlocked and given a password. This may also be done in SQL*Plus by connecting as the SYSTEM user and executing the statement:

ALTER USER username IDENTIFIED BY new_password ACCOUNT UNLOCK;

There are several ways to pass the connection information to PHP. This first example uses Oracle 10g's Easy Connect syntax to connect to the HR schema in the MYDB database service running on mymachine. No tnsnames.ora or other Oracle Network file is needed:

$c = OCILogon('hr', 'hr_password', '//mymachine.mydomain/MYDB');

See Oracle's Using the Easy Connect Naming Method documentation for the Easy Connect syntax.
Alternatively, if /home/tnsnames.ora contains:

MYDB =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = mymachine.mydomain)(PORT = 1521))
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVER = DEDICATED)
(SERVICE_NAME = MYDB)
)
)

and the TNS_ADMIN environment variable was set to /home (before starting Apache), then the connection string could be:

$c = OCILogon('hr', 'hr_password', 'MYDB');

If the environment variable LOCAL (on Windows) or TWO_TASK (on Linux) was set to MYDB then a connection to MYDB could also be made with:

$c = OCILogon('hr', 'hr_password');

Using Oracle

When the basic connection is working, try out a simple script, testoci.php. Modify the connection details to suit your database and load it in a browser. This example lists all tables owned by the user HR:

$conn = OCILogon("hr", "hr_password", '//mymachine.mydomain:port/MYDB);

$query = 'select table_name from user_tables';

$stid = OCIParse($conn, $query);
OCIExecute($stid, OCI_DEFAULT);
while ($succ = OCIFetchInto($stid, $row)) {
foreach ($row as $item) {
echo $item." ";
}
echo "
\n";
}

OCILogoff($conn);

?>

Troubleshooting

The Oracle PHP Troubleshooting FAQ contains helpful information on connecting to Oracle.

Oracle's SQL*Plus command line tool can be downloaded from the Instant Client page to help resolve environment and connection problems. Also see the SQL*Plus Instant Client Release Notes.

Check the environment used by SQL*Plus is the same as shown by phpinfo.php.

Windows Help

If the phpinfo.php script does not produce an "oci8" section saying "OCI8 Support enabled", verify that "extension=php_oci8.dll" is uncommented in php.ini.

If PATH is set incorrectly or the Oracle libraries cannot be found, starting Apache will give an alert: "The dynamic link library OCI.dll could not be found in the specified path." The Environment section of the phpinfo() page will show the values of PATH and the Oracle variables actually being used by PHP.

If php.ini's extension_dir directive is not correct, Apache startup will give an alert: "PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library php_oci8.dll."

Linux Help

Carefully check config.m4 was patched correctly. If "configure" fails, check the config.log file. Revert config.m4, remove caches files, run ./buildconf --force and configure, and verify that the problems are related to the changes made.

Make sure the timestamp on "configure" is current. Remove any cache files and rebuild it if necessary.

Set all required Oracle environment variables in the shell that starts Apache.

For PHP 5.1.2 and Later

The "re-factored" OCI8 extension introduces new syntax for Instant Client support. The re-factored extension was first included in PHP 5.1.2. It is also available from pecl.php.net/package/oci8 and pecl4win.php.net/ext.php/php_oci8.dll for earlier versions of PHP.

If you have installed the Instant Client RPMs as described in this Technical Note, configure PHP with:

./configure \
--with-oci8=instantclient,/usr/lib/oracle/10.1.0.3/client/lib \
--prefix=$HOME/php --with-apxs=$HOME/apache/bin/apxs \
--enable-sigchild --with-config-file-path=$HOME/apache/conf

If you are using the Instant Client Basic and SDK zip files then change the --with-oci8 option to the unzipped directory, e.g:

--with-oci8=instantclient,$HOME/instantclient10_1

To tell if you have the re-factored extension, check the output of phpinfo(). It will show seven directives with an "oci8." prefix. These are not present in the previous incarnation.

Conclusion

I hope this article has been helpful. Questions and suggestions can be posted on the OTN Instant Client or PHP forums.

By Author: Christopher Jones, Consulting Technical Staff, Oracle Corporation( http://www.oracle.com)
Updated: January 2006

Oracle Database 10g: The Top 20 Features for DBAs

2007-06-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

Join Oracle ACE Arup Nanda over the next 20 weeks as he presents his list of the top Oracle Database 10g features for database administrators
Download entire series as PDF
Read Release 2 addendum
Over the last 27 years, Oracle has made tremendous improvements in its core database product. Now, that product is not only the world's most reliable and performant database, but also part of a complete software infrastructure for enterprise computing. With each new release comes a sometimes dizzying display of new capabilities and features, sometimes leaving developers, IT managers, and even seasoned DBAs wondering which new features will benefit them most.
With the introduction of Oracle Database 10g, DBAs will have in their hands one of the most profound new releases ever from Oracle. So, DBAs who take the time to understand the proper application of new Oracle technology to their everyday jobs will enjoy many time-saving, and ultimately, money-saving new capabilities.
Oracle Database 10g offers many new tools that help DBAs work more efficiently (and perhaps more enjoyably), freeing them for more strategic, creative endeavors—not to mention their nights and weekends. Oracle Database 10g really is that big of a deal for DBAs.
Over the new 20 weeks, I will help you through the ins and outs of this powerful new release by presenting what I consider to be the top 20 new Oracle Database 10g features for database administration tasks. This list ranges from the rudimentary, such as setting a default tablespace for creating users, to the advanced, such as the new Automatic Storage Management feature.
In this series, I will provide brief, focused analyses of these interesting new tools and techniques. The goal is to outline the functions and benefits of the feature so that you can put it into action in your environment as quickly as possible.
I welcome your thoughts, comments, and questions about this series. Enjoy!
Begin the series now
Schedule
Week 1—Flashback Versions Query
Week 2—Rollback Monitoring
Week 3—Tablespace Management
Week 4—Oracle Data Pump
Week 5—Flashback Table
Week 6—Automatic Workload Repository
Week 7—SQL*Plus Rel 10.1
Week 8—Automatic Storage Management
Week 9—RMAN
Week 10—Auditing
Week 11—Wait Interface
Week 12—Materialized Views
Week 13—Enterprise Manager 10g
Week 14—Virtual Private Database
Week 15—Automatic Segment Management
Week 16—Transportable Tablespaces
Week 17—Automatic Shared Memory Management
Week 18—ADDM and SQL Tuning Advisor
Week 19—Scheduler
Week 20—Best of the Rest

Release 2 Features Addendum

by Arup Nanda

Five Steps to Effective Keyword Research

2007-06-28T19:46:00.000-07:00

There's no getting around it. Keyword research is a vitally important aspect of your search engine optimization campaign. If your site is targeting the wrong keywords, the search engines and your customers may never find you, resulting in lost dollars and meaningless rankings. By targeting the wrong keywords, you not only put valuable advertising dollars at risk, you are also throwing away all the time and energy you put into getting your site to rank for those terms to begin with. If you want to stay competitive, you can't afford to do that.

The keyword research process can be broken down into the following phases:

Phase 0 - Demolishing Misconceptions
Phase 1 – Creating the list and checking it twice
Phase 2 – Befriending the keyword research tool
Phase 3 – Finalizing your list
Phase 4 – Plan your Attack
Phase 5 - Rinse, Wash Repeat

Phase 0 - Demolishing Misconceptions

Over the years, we've had the opportunity to work with a wide array of wonderful clients. And as different and diverse as their sites and the individuals running them may have been, many had one thing in common: they were self-proclaimed keyword research mavens right out of the gate.

Or so they thought.

One of the most common misconceptions about conducting keyword research for a search engine optimization campaign is the belief that you already know which terms a customer would use to find your site. You don't. Not without first doing some research anyway. You may know what your site is about and how you, the site owner, would find it, but it's difficult to predict how a paying customer would go about looking for it.

This is due to site owners evaluating their site through too narrow of a lens, causing them to come up with words that read like industry jargon, not viable keywords. Remember, your customer probably doesn't work in the same industry that you do. If they did, they wouldn't need you. When describing your site or product, break away from industry speak. Your customers aren't searching that way and if you center your site on these terms, they'll never find you.

Another misconception is that generic or "big dollar" terms are the most important for rankings, even if the term you're going after has nothing to do with your site. Imagine a women's clothing store trying to rank for the term "google". Sure, thousands of searchers probably type that word into their search bar daily, but they're not doing it looking for you. They're looking for Google. Being ranked number one for a term no one would associate with your site is a waste of time and money (and it may get you in trouble!). Your site may see a lot of traffic, but customers won't stick around.

Phase 1 – Creating the list and checking it twice

The initial idea of keyword research can be daunting. Trying to come up with the perfect combination of words to drive customers to your site, rev up your conversion rate and allow the engines to see you as an expert would easily give anyone a tension headache.

The trick is to start slowly.

The first step in this process is to create a list of potential keywords. Brainstorm all the words you think a customer would type into their search box when trying to find you. This includes thinking of phrases that are broad and targeted, buying and research-oriented, and single and multi-word. What is your site hoping to do or promote? Come up with enough words to cover all the services your site offers. Avoid overly generic terms like 'shoes' or 'clothes'. These words are incredibly difficult to rank for and won't drive qualified traffic to your site. Focus on words that are relevant, but not overly used.

If you need help brainstorming ideas, ask friends, colleagues or past customers for help. Sometimes they are able to see your site differently than the way you yourself see it. Also, don't be afraid to take a peek at your competitor's Meta Keyword tag. What words are they targeting? How can you expand on their keyword list to make yours better? It's okay to get a little sneaky here. All's fair in love and search engine rankings.

Phase 2 – Befriend the keyword research tool

Now that you have your list, your next step is to determine the activity for each of your proposed keywords. You want to narrow your list to only include highly attainable, sought-after phrases that will bring the most qualified traffic to your site.

In the early days of SEO, measuring the "popularity" of your search terms was done by performing a search for that phrase in one of the various engines and seeing how many results it turned up. As you can imagine, this was a tedious and ineffective method of keyword research. Luckily, times have changes and we now have tools to do the hard part for us.

By inputting your proposed keywords into a keyword research tool, you can quickly learn how many users are conducting searches for that term every day, how many of those searches actually converted, and other important analytical information. It may also tune you in to words you had previously forgotten or synonyms you weren't aware of.

There are lots of great tools out there to help you determine how much activity your keywords are receiving. Here's a few of our personal favorites:

Overture Keyword Selector Tool: Overture's Keyword Selector tools shows you how many searches have been conducted over the last month for a particular phrase and lists alternative search terms you may have forgotten about. Our only complaint with Overture is that they lump singular and plural word forms into one phrase. For example, "boots" and "boot" would appear under one category of "boot". This can sometimes cause problems.

Wordtracker: Wordtracker is a paid-use tool that lets you look up popular keyword phrases to determine their activity and popularity among competitors. Their top 1000 report lists the most frequently searched for terms, while their Competition Search option provides valuable information to determine the competitiveness of each phrase. This is very useful for figuring out how difficult it will be to rank for a given term. It may also highlight hidden gems that have low competition-rates, but high relevancy.

Trellian Keyword Discovery tool: This is a fee-based tool where users can ascertain the market share value for a given search term, see how many users search for it daily, identify common spellings and misspellings, and discover which terms are impacted by seasonal trends (mostly useful for PPC).

Google AdWords Keyword Tool: Google's keyword PPC tool doesn't provide actual search numbers for keywords. Instead, it displays a colored bar, giving users only an approximation. Still, it may be useful.

Google Suggest: Google Suggest is a great way to find synonyms and related word suggestions that may help you expand your original list.

Thesaurus.com: Again, another way to locate synonyms you may have forgotten.

If those don't tickle your fancy, we'd also suggest Bruce Clay's Check Traffic tool, which estimates the number of queries per day for that search term across the major search engines.

Keep in mind that you're not only checking to see if enough people are searching for a particular word, you're also trying to determine how competitive that phrase is in terms of rankings.

Understanding the competition tells you how much effort you will need to invest in order to rank well for that term. There are two things to pay attention to when making this decision: how many other sites are competing for the same word and how strong are those sites' rankings (i.e. how many other sites link to them, how many pages do they have indexed)? Basically, is that word or phrase even worth your time? If it's not, move on.

While you're testing your new terms, you may want to do a little housekeeping and test the activity for keywords your site is already targeting. Keep the ones that are converting and drop the losers.

Phase 3 – Finalizing your list

Now that you have your initial list of words and have tested their activity, it's time to narrow down the field and decide which terms will make it into your coveted final keyword list.

We recommend creating a spreadsheet or some other visual that will allow you to easily see each word's conversion rate, search volume and competition rate (as given to you by the tools mentioned above). These three figures will allow you to calculate how viable that term is for your site and will be a great aid as you try and narrow down your focus.

The first step in narrowing down your list is to go through and highlight the terms that most closely target the subject and theme of your web site. These are the terms you want to hold on to. Kill all words that are not relevant to your site or that you don't have sufficient content to support (unless you're willing to write some). You can't optimize for words that you don't have content for.

Create a mix of both broad and targeted keywords. You'll need both to rank well. Broad terms are important because they describe what your web site does; however, they won't increase the level of qualified traffic coming into your site.

For example, say you are a company that specializes in cowboy boots. It may be natural for your site to focus on the broad search terms "boots" and "cowboy boots". These words are important because they tell the search engines what you do and may increase your visitors, but the traffic you receive will be largely unqualified. Customers will arrive on your site still unsure of what kind of boots you sell. Do you offer traditional cowboy boots, stiletto cowboy boots, toddler cowboy boots, suede cowboy boots or women's cowboy boots? By only targeting broad terms, customers won't know what you offer until they land on your site.

Targeted terms are often easier to rank for and help bring qualified traffic. They also make you a subject matter expert to the search engines, since the targeted terms strengthen the theme created with the broader phrases. Sticking with our example, targeted terms for your cowboy boots site may be "men's cowboy boots", "blue suede cowboy boots", "extra-wide women's cowboy boots", etc. Broad search terms may bring you the higher levels of traffic, but it's targeted, buying-oriented terms like these that will maximize conversions.

Phase 4 – Plan your attack

So you made your list of about 10-20 highly focused keywords, now what do you do with them? You prepare them for launch!

Chances are, if you did your keyword research right, at least some of the words on your list already appear in your site content, but some of them may not. Start thinking about how many pages you'll need to create to support these new words, and how and where your keyword phrases will be used.

We typically recommend only going after three or four related keywords per page (five if you can balance them properly). Any more than that and you run the risk of diluting your page to the point where you rank for nothing. Make sure to naturally work the keywords into your content and avoid over-repetition that may be interpreted as spamming. Your content should never sound forced.

Your on-page content isn't the only place where you can insert keywords. Keywords should also be used in several other elements on your site:

* Title Tag
* Meta Description Tags
* Meta Keywords Tag
* Headings
* Alt text
* Anchor Text/ Navigational Links

You've spent a lot of time molding your keywords; make sure you use them in all the appropriate fields to get the maximum benefit.

Phase 5 - Rinse, Wash, Repeat.

Congratulations. Your initial keyword research process is behind you. You've created your list, checked it twice, made friends with the keyword research tools and are now off to go plan your attack. You're done, right?

Unfortunately, no. As your customer's and your site's needs change over time, so will your keywords. It's important to keep monitoring your keywords and make tweaks as necessary. Doing so will allow you to stay ahead of your competition and keep moving forward.
(by Lisa Barone, searchengineguide.com)

Oracle database

2007-06-28T19:28:00.001-07:00



Developer:	Oracle Corporation
Latest release:	10g Release 2 / 2005
OS:	Cross-platform
Genre:	RDBMS
License:	Proprietary
Website:	www.oracle.com

An Oracle database consists of a collection of data managed by an Oracle database management system. Popular usage also uses the term to refer to the Oracle DBMS software, but not necessarily to a specific database under its control.

One can refer to the Oracle database management system unambiguously as Oracle DBMS or (since it manages databases which have relational characteristics) as Oracle RDBMS.

Oracle Corporation blurs the distinctions^{[citation needed]} between:

data managed by an Oracle RDBMS
an Oracle database, and
the Oracle RDBMS software itself

when it refers nowadays to the Oracle RDBMS (the software it sells for the purpose of managing databases) as the Oracle Database. The distinction between the managed data (the database) and the software which manages the data (the DBMS / RDBMS) relies, in Oracle's marketing literature, on the capitalisation of the word database.

Oracle Corporation produces and markets the Oracle DBMS, which many database applications use extensively on many popular computing platforms.

Larry Ellison and his friends and former co-workers Bob Miner and Ed Oates - who had started a consultancy called Software Development Laboratories (SDL) - developed the original Oracle DBMS software. They called their finished product Oracle after the code name of a CIA-funded project they had worked on while previously employed by Ampex.

Physical and logical structuring

An Oracle database comprises at least one instance, along with data storage. An instance comprises a set of operating system processes and memory structures that interact with the storage. Typical processes include PMON (the process monitor) and SMON (the system monitor).

Users of Oracle databases refer to the server-side memory-structure as the SGA (System Global Area). The SGA typically holds cache information such as data-buffers, SQL commands and user information. In addition to storage, the database consists of online redo logs (which hold transactional history). Processes can in turn archive the online redo logs into archive logs (offline redo logs), which provide the basis (if necessary) for data recovery and for some forms of data replication.

The Oracle RDBMS stores data logically in the form of tablespaces and physically in the form of data files. Tablespaces can contain various types of segments, for example, Data Segments, Index Segments etc. Segments in turn comprise one or more extents. Extents comprise groups of contiguous data blocks. Data blocks form the basic units of data storage. At the physical level, data-files comprise one or more data blocks, where the blocksize can vary between data-files.

Oracle database management keeps track of its data storage with the help of information stored in the SYSTEM tablespace. The SYSTEM tablespace contains the data dictionary — and often (by default) indexes and clusters. (A data dictionary consists of a special collection of tables that contains information about all user-objects in the database). Since version 8i, the Oracle RDBMS also supports "locally managed" tablespaces which can store space management information in bitmaps in their own headers rather than in the SYSTEM tablespace (as happens with the default "dictionary-managed" tablespaces).

If the Oracle database administrator has instituted Oracle RAC (Real Application Clusters), then multiple instances, usually on different servers, attach to a central storage array. This scenario offers numerous advantages, most importantly performance, scalability and redundancy. However, support becomes more complex, and many sites do not use RAC. In version 10g, grid computing has introduced shared resources where an instance can use (for example) CPU resources from another node (computer) in the grid.

The Oracle DBMS can store and execute stored procedures and functions within itself. PL/SQL (Oracle Corporation's proprietary procedural extension to SQL), or the object-oriented language Java can invoke such code objects and/or provide the programming structures for writing them.

Schemas

Oracle database conventions refer to defined groups of ownership (generally associated with a "username") as schemas.

Most Oracle database installations traditionally come with a default schema called SCOTT. After the installation process has set up the sample tables, the user can log into the database with the username scott and the password tiger. (The name of the SCOTT schema originated with Bruce Scott, one of the first employees at Oracle (then Software Development Laboratories), who had a cat named Tiger.)

Other default schemas include:

SYS (essential core database structures and utilities)
SYSTEM (additional core database structures and utilities, and privileged account)
OUTLN (utilized to store metadata for stored outlines for query optimizer plan stability.
BI, IX, HR, OE, PM, and SH (expanded sample schemas containing more data and structures than the older SCOTT schema)

Tablespaces

Default tablespaces include:

SYSTEM (essential core database structures and utilities)
SYSAUX (extra/extended data to supplement the SYSTEM schema)
TEMP (temporary tablespace)
UNDOTBS1 (undo tablespace)
USERS (default users tablespace created by the Database Configuration Assistant - but replaceable by the DBA)

Memory architecture

System Global Area

Each Oracle instance uses a "System Global Area" or "SGA" — a "shared memory area" — to store its data and control information.

Each Oracle instance allocates itself an SGA when it starts and de-allocates it at shut-down time. The information in the SGA consists of the following elements, each of which has a fixed size, established at instance startup:

The database buffer cache: this stores the most recently used data blocks. These blocks can contain modified data not yet written to disk (sometimes known as dirty blocks), unmodified blocks, or blocks written to disk since modification (sometimes known as clean blocks). Because the buffer cache keeps blocks based on a most-recently-used algorithm, the most active buffers stay in memory to reduce I/O and to improve performance.

The redo log buffer: this stores redo entries — a log of changes made to the database. The instance writes redo log buffers to the redo log as quickly and efficiently as possible. The redo log aids in instance recovery in the event of a system failure.

The shared pool: this area of the SGA stores shared-memory structures such as shared SQL areas in the library cache and internal information in the data dictionary. An insufficient amount of memory allocated to the shared pool can cause performance degradation. The shared pool consists of the library cache and the data-dictionary cache.

Library cache

The library cache stores shared SQL, caching the parse tree and the execution plan for every unique SQL statement.

If multiple applications issue the same SQL statement, each application can access the shared SQL area: this reduces the amount of memory needed and reduces the processing-time used for parsing and execution planning.

Data-dictionary cache

The data dictionary comprises a set of tables and views that map the structure of the database.

Oracle stores information here about the logical and physical structure of the database. The data dictionary contains information such as the following:

User-information, such as user-privileges

Integrity constraints defined for tables in the database

Names and data-types of all columns in database tables

Information on space allocated and used for schema objects

The Oracle instance frequently accesses the data dictionary in order to parse SQL statements. The operation of Oracle depends on ready access to the data dictionary: performance bottlenecks in the data dictionary affect all Oracle users. Because of this, database administrators should make sure that the data-dictionary cache has sufficient capacity to cache this data. Without enough memory for the data-dictionary cache, users see a severe performance-degradation. Allocating sufficient memory to the shared pool where the data-dictionary cache resides precludes these particular performance-problems.

Program Global Area

The Program Global Area or PGA memory area contains data and control information for the Oracle server processes.

The size and content of the PGA depends on the Oracle server options installed. This area consists of the following components:

Stack space: the memory that holds the session's variables, arrays, and so on.

Session information: unless using the multithreaded server, the instance stores its session information in the PGA. (In a multithreaded server, the session information goes in the SGA.)

Private SQL area: an area in the PGA holding information such as bind-variables and runtime buffers.

History

Corporate and technical development

Larry Ellison founded Software Development Laboratories in 1977. In 1979 SDL changed its company-name to Relational Software, Inc. (RSI) and introduced its product Oracle V2 as an early commercially-available relational database system. The version did not support transactions, but implemented the basic SQL functionality of queries and joins. (RSI never released a version 1 - instead calling the first version version 2 as a marketing gimmick.)

In 1983, RSI in its turn changed its name, becoming known as Oracle Corporation to align itself more closely with its flagship product. The company released Oracle version 3, which it had re-written using the C programming language and which supported COMMIT and ROLLBACK functionality for transactions. Version 3 extended platform support from the existing Digital VAX/VMS systems to include Unix environments.

In 1984 Oracle Corporation released Oracle version 4, which supported read-consistency.

From 1985 the Oracle DBMS began supporting the client-server model, with networks becoming available in the mid-1980s. Oracle version 5.0 supported distributed queries.

In 1989 Oracle Corporation entered the application products market and developed its ERP product - Oracle Financials based on the Oracle relational database. Oracle RDBMS version 6 came out with support for PL/SQL, row-level locking and hot backups.

In 1992 Oracle version 7 appeared with support for referential integrity, stored procedures and triggers.

In 1997 Oracle Corporation released version 8, which supported object-oriented development and multimedia applications.

In 1999 Oracle8i came out, aiming to operate more in tune with the needs of the Internet (The i in the name stands for "Internet"). The Oracle 8i database incorporated a native Java virtual machine (JVM).

In 2001 Oracle9i appeared with 400 new features, including the ability to read and write XML documents. 9i also provided an option for Oracle RAC, or Real Application Clusters, a computer cluster database, as a replacement for the Oracle Parallel Server (OPS) option.

In 2003, Oracle Corporation released Oracle Database 10g. The g stands for "grid"; emphasizing a marketing thrust of presenting 10g as "grid-computing ready".

In 2005 Oracle Database 10.2.0.1 — also known as Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10gR2) — appeared.

Version-numbers

Other Oracle products may become confused with the Oracle RDBMS — these have historically followed their own release-numbering and naming conventions. As of the RDBMS 10g release, Oracle Corporation seems to have started to make an effort to standardize all current versions of its major products using the "10g" label, although some sources often refer to Oracle Applications Release 11i as Oracle 11i. Major database-related products and some of their versions include:

Oracle Application Server 10g (aka Oracle AS 10g) — a middleware product;
Oracle Applications Release 11i (aka Oracle e-Business Suite, Oracle Financials or Oracle 11i) — a suite of business applications;
Oracle Developer Suite 10g (9.0.4);
Oracle JDeveloper 10g — a Java integrated development environment;

Oracle's numbering conventions have confused many people; they warrant a brief explanation. Since version 7, Oracle's RDBMS release numbering has used the following codes:

Oracle7: 7.0.16 — 7.3.4
Oracle8 Database: 8.0.3 — 8.0.6
Oracle8i Database Release 1: 8.1.5.0 — 8.1.5.1
Oracle8i Database Release 2: 8.1.6.0 — 8.1.6.3
Oracle8i Database Release 3: 8.1.7.0 — 8.1.7.4
Oracle9i Database Release 1: 9.0.1.0 released May 2002

Codenamed "the last database"
9.0.1.5 (Latest current patchset as of December 2003)

Oracle9i Database Release 2: 9.2.0.7 — 9.2.0.8 (Latest current patchset as of April 2007)
Oracle Database 10g Release 1: 10.1.0.2 — 10.1.0.5 (Latest current patchset as of February 2006)
Oracle Database 10g Release 2: 10.2.0.1 — 10.2.0.3 (Latest current patchset as of November 2006)

As of 2006 Oracle Corporation has started to discuss the proposed next major version of its database, which it provisionally terms "Oracle database 11g beta".

The version-numbering syntax within each release follows the pattern: major.maintenance.application-server.component-specific.platform-specific.

For example, "10.2.0.1 for 64-bit Solaris" means: 10th major version of Oracle, maintenance level 2, Oracle Application Server (OracleAS) 0, level 1 for Solaris 64-bit.

The Oracle Administrator's Guide offers further information on Oracle release numbers. Oracle Corporation provides a table showing the latest patch-set release by major release, operating-system and hardware-architecture.

List of firsts

Oracle Corporation has provided:

the first commercially-available SQL-based database (1979)
the first database to support symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) (1983)
the first distributed database (1986)
the first database product tested to comply with the ANSI SQL standard (1993)
the first 64-bit database (1995)
the first web database (1997)
the first database to incorporate a native JRE (1998)
the first commercial RDBMS to become available on Linux (August 1999)^{[citation needed]}
the first database to support XML (1999)

Editions

Over and above the different versions of the Oracle database, Oracle Corporation subdivides its product into varying "editions" - apparently for marketing and licence-tracking reasons.

Standard Edition (SE) contains base database functionality. Oracle Corporation licenses this product on the basis of users or of processors, typically for servers running from one to four CPUs. If the number of CPUs exceeds 4 CPUs, the user must convert to an Enterprise license. SE has no memory limits, and can utilize clustering with Oracle RAC at no additional charge.
Enterprise Edition (EE) includes more features than the 'Standard Edition', especially in the areas of performance and security. Oracle Corporation licenses this product on the basis of users or of processors, typically for servers running 4 or more CPUs. EE has no memory limits, and can utilize clustering using Oracle RAC software.
Standard Edition One, introduced with Oracle 10g, has some additional feature-restrictions. Oracle Corporation markets it for use on systems with one or two CPUs. It has no memory limitations.
Express Edition ('Oracle Database XE'), introduced in 2005, offers Oracle 10g free to distribute on Windows and Linux platforms (with a footprint of only 150 MB and restricted to the use of a single CPU, a maximum of 4 GB of user data and 1 GB of memory). Support for this version comes exclusively through on-line forums and not through Oracle support.
Oracle Personal Edition provides the functionality of the "high end" Enterprise Edition but marketed to (and licensed for) single-user developers working on personal workstations.
Oracle Database Lite, intended to run on mobile devices. The database, partially located on the mobile device, can synchronize with a server-based installation.
TimesTen, a memory-resident database that has the ability to cache transactions and synchronize data with a centralized Oracle database server. It functions as a real-time infrastructure software product designed for low latency, high-volume data, event and transaction management
BerkeleyDB, high-performance, embedded database library

Host platforms

Prior to releasing Oracle9i, Oracle Corporation ported the database engine to a wide variety of platforms. More recently, Oracle Corporation has consolidated on a smaller range of operating-system platforms.

As of October 2006, Oracle Corporation supported the following operating systems and hardware-platforms for Oracle Database 10g:

Apple Mac OS X Server: PowerPC
HP HP-UX: PA-RISC, Itanium
HP Tru64 UNIX: Alpha
HP OpenVMS: Alpha, Itanium
IBM AIX5L: POWER
IBM z/OS: zSeries
Linux: x86, x86-64, PowerPC, zSeries, Itanium
Microsoft Windows: x86, x86-64, Itanium
Sun Solaris: SPARC, x86, x86-64

Related software

For links to some of Oracle Corporation's software which integrates with Oracle databases, see the Oracle Corporation category and the Oracle software category pages.

Database options

Oracle Corporation refers to some extensions to the core functionality of the Oracle database as "database options". As of 2006 such options include:

Advanced Security
Content database
Database Vault
Data Mining (ODM)
Label Security
Management Packs (various)
Oracle OLAP
Partitioning
Real Application Clusters (RAC)
Records database
Oracle Spatial
Oracle Warehouse Builder (in various forms and sub-options)

In most cases, using these options entails extra licensing costs.

Suites

In addition to its powerful RDBMS, Oracle has released several related suites of tools and applications.

Oracle Application Server, a J2EE-based application server, aids in developing and deploying applications which utilise Internet technologies and a browser.

Oracle Collaboration Suite contains messaging, groupware and collaboration applications.

Oracle Developer Suite contains software development tools, including JDeveloper.

Oracle E-Business Suite collects together applications for enterprise resource planning (including Oracle Financials), customer relationship management and human resources management (Oracle HR).

Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) used by database administrators (DBAs) to manage the DBMS, and recently in version 10g, a web-based rewrite of OEM called "Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control". Oracle Corporation has dubbed the super Enterprise Manager used to manage a grid of multiple DBMS and Application Servers as "Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control".

Database "features"

Apart from the clearly-defined database options, Oracle databases may include many semi-autonomous software sub-systems, which Oracle Corporation sometimes refers to as "features". Such "features" may include (for example):

Data Aggregation and Consolidation
Data Guard for high availability
Flashback for selective data recovery and reconstruction
Recovery Manager (rman) for database backup, restoration and recovery

See also the category "Oracle software" (linked below)

Standalone tools

Various tools address specific environments or specific market requirements.

Development of applications commonly takes place in Java (using Oracle JDeveloper) or through PL/SQL (using, for example, Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports). Oracle Corporation has started a drive toward 'wizard'-driven environments with a view to enabling non-programmers to produce simple data-driven applications.

Oracle SQL Developer, a free graphical tool for database development, allows developers to browse database objects, run SQL statements and SQL scripts, and edit and debug PL/SQL statements. It incorporates standard and customized reporting.

Getting started

Users new to Oracle who need to get databases up and running may check out the online documentation, the Oracle Technology Network site, and the comp.databases.oracle Usenet discussion group. The Oracle Technet site offers downloads of full-featured evaluation software. Users who have Oracle support contracts should turn to Oracle's Metalink web site (password required). Users can also check the Oracle FAQ site before posting questions to forums, mailing lists, etc. They can also log on to http://asktom.oracle.com to post questions to and get answers from Tom Kyte, the author of several Oracle books including Expert One-On-One Oracle (ISBN 1-59059-525-4).

The Oracle database has had a reputation among novice users as difficult to install on Linux systems. Oracle Corporation has packaged recent versions for several popular Linux distributions in an attempt to minimize installation challenges beyond the level of technical expertise required to install a database server.^{[citation needed]}

Oracle database in the market

Competition

In the market for relational databases, Oracle competes against commercial products such as IBM's DB2 UDB and Microsoft SQL Server. Oracle and IBM tend to battle for the mid-range market (especially on UNIX and Linux platforms), while Microsoft tends to compete in the low-end market (on Microsoft Windows platforms). However, since they share many of the same customers, Oracle and IBM tend to support each other's products in many middleware and application categories (for example, WebSphere, PeopleSoft, and Siebel Systems CRM), and IBM's hardware divisions work closely with Oracle on performance-optimizing server-technologies (for example, Linux on zSeries). The two companies have a relationship perhaps best described as "coopetition". Niche commercial competitors include Teradata (in data warehousing and business intelligence), Software AG's Adabas, Sybase, and IBM's Informix, among many others.

Increasingly, the Oracle database products compete against open-source relational databases, particularly PostgreSQL, Firebird, and MySQL. Oracle acquired Innobase, supplier of the InnoDB codebase to MySQL, in part to compete better in the open source market. Database products developed on the basis of the open-source model generally cost significantly less to acquire than Oracle databases. EnterpriseDB, based on PostgreSQL, has recently made inroads by proclaiming that its product delivers Oracle compatibility features at a much lower price.

Pricing

As of March 2006, the Enterprise Edition of the Oracle database sells at a list price of US$40,000 per machine-processor. Standard Edition comes cheaper - $15,000 per processor (it can run on up to 4 processors but has fewer features than Enterprise Edition — it lacks proper parallelization^{[citation needed]}, etc; but remains quite suitable for running medium-sized applications). Standard ONE edition sells even more cheaply - $5000 per processor (but limited to 2 CPUs). Standard Edition ONE sells on a per-seat basis, and costs $149 per user, with a 5-user minimum. Oracle Corporation usually sells the licenses with an extra 22% cost for support and upgrades (access to MetaLink - Oracle Corporation's support site) which customers need to renew annually.

Oracle Express Edition (Oracle XE), an addition to the Oracle database product family (beta version released in 2005, production version released in February 2006), offers a free version of the Oracle RDBMS, but one limited to 4 GB of user data and to 1 GB of RAM. XE will use no more than one CPU and lacks an internal JVM.

For exact pricing calculations see the Oracle price list, but telephoning a partner sales-representative can pay off because the prices can vary greatly depending on who does the buying. A good small-to-medium-sized technical Oracle Partner may have the resources to go to significant lengths to understand requirements, review architectures and make recommendations. This may help avoid the all-too-frequent case of technology-oversell.

As computers running Oracle often have eight or more processors, the software price can rise into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The total cost of ownership exceeds this, as Oracle databases usually require experienced and trained database administrators to do the set-up properly. Because of the product's large installed base and available training courses, Oracle specialists in some areas have become a more abundant resource than those for more exotic databases. Oracle frequently provides special training offers for database-administrators.

On Linux, Oracle's certified configurations include mostly commercial Linux distributions (RedHat Enterprise Linux 3 and 4, SuSE SLES8 and 9, Asianux) which can cost in a range from a few hundred to a few thousand USD per year (depending on processor-architecture and the support-package purchased). One can avoid paying for those distros by using free alternatives such as any RedHat Enterprise Linux clones (such as CentOS or White Box). Oracle can also run reliably on unsupported distributions, as installation instructions on this website suggest.

by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dayak people

2007-06-27T22:29:00.000-07:00

Dayak people

The Dayak IPA: [ˈdaɪ̯ək] (or Dyak) are the peoples indigenous to Borneo.^[3] It is a loose term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic subgroups, located principally in the interior of Borneo, each with its own dialect, customs, laws, territory and culture, although common distinguishing traits are readily identifiable. Dayaks are categorised as part of wider Austronesian-speaking populations in Asia. Dayak populations were originally animist, but many were converted to Christianity during European colonization, and to Islam more recently.^[4] Estimates for the Dayak population range from 2 to 4 million.^[1][2]

History

Common interpretations in modern anthropology agree that all indigenous peoples of South East Asia, including the Dayaks, are descendants of a larger more common Austronesian migration from Asia, regarded to have settled in the South East Asian Archipelago some 3001 years ago. The first populations spoke various languages and dialects now termed under the collective Austronesian Lingua, from which Dayak languages are traced. About 2450 years ago, metallurgy was introduced and subsequently became widespread.

The main ethnic groups of Dayaks are the Bakumpai and Dayak Bukit of South Kalimantan, The Ngajus, Baritos, Benuaqs of East Kalimantan the Kayan and Kenyah groups and their subtribes in Central Borneo and the Ibans, Embaloh (Maloh), Kayan, Kenyah, Penan, Kelabit, Lun Bawang and Taman populations in the Kapuas and Sarawak regions. Other populations include the Ahe, Jagoi, Selakau, Bidayuh, and Kutais.

The Dayak people of Borneo possess an indigenous account of their history, partly in writing and partly in common cultural customary practices. In addition, colonial historical accounts and reports of Dayak activity in Borneo detail carefully cultivated economic and political relationships with other communities as well as an ample body of research and study considering historical Dayak migrations. In particular, the Iban or the Sea Dayak exploits in the South China Seas are documented, owing to their ferocity and aggressive culture of war against sea dwelling groups and emerging Western trade interests in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Coastal populations in Borneo are largely Muslim in belief, however these groups (Ilanun, Melanau, Kadayan, Bakumpai, Bisayah) are generally considered to be Islamized Dayaks, native to Borneo, and governed by the relatively high cultural influences of the Majapahit Kingdoms and Islamic Sultanates, periodically covering South East Asian history.

Economy

Agriculture

Traditionally, Dayak agriculture was based on swidden rice cultivation. Agricultural Land in this sense was used and defined primarily in terms of hill rice farming, ladang (garden), and hutan (forest). Dayaks organised their labour in terms of traditionally based land holding groups which determined who owned rights to land and how it was to be used. The "green revolution" in the 1950s, spurred on the planting of new varieties of wetland rice amongst Dayak tribes.

The main dependence on subsistence and mid-scale agriculture by the Dayak has made this group active in this industry. The modern day rise in large scale monocrop plantations such as palm oil and bananas proposed for vast swathes of Dayak land held under customary rights, titles and claims in Malaysia and Indonesia, threaten the local political landscape in various regions in Borneo. Further problems continue to arise in part due to the shaping of the modern Malaysian and Indonesian nation state on the back of previous British and Dutch colonial political systems and western laws ओं land tenure. The conflict between the state and the Dayak natives on land laws and native customary rights will continue as long as the colonial model on land tenure is used to define relationships between the Dayak citizenry and the central authority of the state. Dayak cultivated land, interpreted by local customary law, is considered to be owned and held in right by the natives, and the concept ऑफ़ land ownership as thus, flows out of this central belief. This understanding of adat is based on the idea that land is used and held under native domain. Invariably, when European colonial rule was established in the Kalimantan Kingdoms, conflict over the subjugation of territory by a foreign authority erupted several times between the Dayaks and the respective colonial authorities.

The Dayak indigenous religion is Kaharingan, a form of animism which, for official purposes, is categorized as a form of Hinduism. The practice of Kaharingan differs from group to group, and for example in some religious customary practices, when a noble (kamang) dies, it is believed that the spirit ascends to a mountain where the spirits of past ancestors of the tribe reside.^[5] On particular religious occasions, the spirit is believed to descend to partake in celebration, a mark of honour and respect to past ancestries and blessings for a prosperous future.

Over the last two centuries, some Dayaks converted to Islam, abandoning certain cultural rites and practices, including the identity. Christianity was introduced by European missionaries in Borneo and may have been a deliberate policy by the colonial authorities to create a social bulwark against the spread of Islam.^{[citation needed]} Religious differences between Muslim and Christian natives of Borne

o has led, at various times, to communal tensions.^{[citation needed]} Relations, however, between both religious groups are generally good.

Muslim Dayaks have however retained their original identity and kept various customary practices consistent with their religion.

An example of common identity, over and above religious belief, is the Melanau group. Despite the small population, to the casual observer, the coastal dwelling Melanau of Sarawak, generally do not identify with one religion, as a number of them have Islamized and Christianised over a period of time. A few practise a distinct Dayak form of Kaharingan, known as Liko. Liko is the earliest surviving form of religious belief for the Melanau, predating the arrival of Islam and Christianity to Sarawak. The somewhat patchy religious divisions remain, however the common identity of the Melanau is held politi

cally and socially. Social cohesion amongst the Melanau, despite religious differences, is markedly tight.^{[citation needed]}

Society

Kinship in Dayak society is traced in both lines. Although, in Dayak Iban society, men and women

possess equal rights in status and property ownership, political office has strictly been the occupation of the traditional Iban Patriarch. Overall Dayak leadership in any given region, is marked by titles, a Penghulu for instance would have invested authority on behalf of a network of Tuai Rumah's, and so on to a Temenggung or Panglima. It must be noted that individual Dayak groups have their social and hierarchy systems defined internally, and these differ widely from Ibans to Ngajus and Benuaqs to Kayans.

The most salient feature of Dayak social organisation is the practice of Longhouse domicile. This is a structure supported by hardwood posts that can be hundreds of metres long, usually located along a terraced river bank. At one side is a long communal platform, from which the individual households can be reached. The Iban of the Kapuas and Sarawak have organised their Longhouse settlements in response to their migratory patterns. Iban Longhouses vary in size, from those slightly over 100 metres in length to large settlements over 500 metres in length. Longhouses have a door and apartment for every family living in the longhouse. For example, a Longhouse of 200 doors is equivalent to a settlement of 200 families.

Headhunting was an important part of Dayak culture, in particular to the Iban and Kenyah. There used to be a tradition of retaliation for old headhunts, which kept the practise alive. External interference by the reign of the Brooke Rajahs in Sarawak and the Dutch in their part of Borneo managed to break this tradition. In contrast with South American practices, not the shrunken head (the skin without the skull), but the skull was kept. The captured enemy heads were triumphally brought back to the settlement, received by the women, tied with rattan and hung in bundles from the ceiling of the longhouses. The skulls were placed over the hearths. But besides such massive raids, there were also individual retaliation attacks or they could be the result of chance encounters in the forest. Early Brooke Government reports describe Dayak Iban and Kenyah War parties with captured enemy heads. At various times, there have been massive coordinated raids in the interior, and throughout coastal Borneo, directed by the Raj during Brooke's reign in Sarawak. This may have given rise to the term, Sea Dayak, although, throughout the 19th Century, Sarawak Government raids and independent expeditions appeared to have been carried out as far as Brunei, Mindanao, East coast Malaya, Jawa and Celebes. Tandem diplomatic relations between the Sarawak Government (Brooke Rajah) and Britain (East India Company and the Royal Navy) acted as a pivot and a deterrence to the former's territorial ambitions, against the more passive Dutch colonial administration in the Kalimantan regions and client Sultanates.

Metal-working is elaborately used for making mandaus (machetes - 'parang' in Indonesian ). The blade is made of a softer iron, to prevent breakage, with a narrow strip of a harder iron wedged into a slot in the cutting edge for sharpness. The headhunting necessitated being able to draw the parang quickly. For this purpose, the mandau is fairly short, which also better serves the purpose of trailcutting in dense forest. It is holstered with the cutting edge facing upwards and at that side there is an upward protrusion on the handle, so it can be drawn very quickly with the side of the hand without having to reach over and grasp the handle first. The hand can then grasp the handle while it is being drawn. The combination of these three factors (short, cutting edge up and protrusion) makes for an extremely fast drawing-action. The ceremonial mandaus used for dances are as beautifully adorned with feathers as the dresses are. There are various terms to describe different types of Dayak blades. The Nyabor is the traditional Iban Scimitar, Parang Ilang is common to Kayan and Kenyah Swordsmiths, and Duku is a multipurpose farm tool and machete of sorts.

Politics

Dayaks in Indonesia and Malaysia have figured prominently in the politics of these countries. Organised Dayak political representation in the Indonesian State first appeared in Kalimantan during the Dutch Administration, in the form of the Dayak Unity Party (Parti Persatuan Dayak) in the 30s and 40s. Feudal Dayak Sultanates of Kutai, Banjar and Pontianak figured prominently prior to the rise of the Dutch Colonial rule.

Dayaks in Sarawak in this respect, compare very poorly with their organised brethren in Kalimantan due to in no part, the personal fiefdom that was the Brooke Rajah dominion and latently the pattern of their historical migrations from the Kalimantan Regions to the then pristine Rajang Basin. Political circumtances aside, the Dayaks in Kalimantan actively organised under various associations beginning with the Sarekat Dayak established in 1919, to the Parti Dayak in the 40s, and to the present day, where Dayaks occupy key positions in government.

In Sarawak, Dayak political activism had its roots in the SNAP (Sarawak National Party) and Pesaka during post independence construction in the 1960s. These parties shaped to a certain extent Dayak politics in the State, although never enjoying the real privileges and benefits of Chief Ministerial power relative to its large electorate.

Under Indonesia's transmigration programme, settlers from densely-populated Java and Madura were encouraged to settle in the Kalimantan provinces, but their presence was, and still is, resented by Dayaks, Banjars and local Malays . The large scale transmigration projects initiated by the Dutch and continued by the current national government, caused widespread breakdown in social and community cohesion during the late 20th Century. In 2001 the Indonesian government ended the gradual Javanese settlement of Kalimantan that began under Dutch rule in 1905.

From 1996 to 2003 there were systemic and violent attacks on Indonesian Madurese settlers, including mass executions of whole Madurese transmigrant communities . Inevitably, order was restored by the Indonesian Military but this was late in application.

References

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yogyakarta

2007-05-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

The Special Region of Yogyakarta (Indonesian: Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, or DIY), is a province of Indonesia on the island of Java. It is the only province in Indonesia that is still formally governed by a precolonial Sultanate, the Sultanate of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat. Yogyakarta is commonly pronounced and often spelled Jogjakarta (IPA /ʤogʤəkartə/).
The city of Yogyakarta is the capital of the province.
•
Geography
Yogyakarta is located in south-central Java. It is surrounded by the province of Central Java (Jawa Tengah) and the Indian Ocean in the south. The city is located at 7°47′S, 110°22′E.
The population of DIY in 2003 was approximately 3,000,000. The province of Yogyakarta has a total area of 3,185.80 km². Yogyakarta has the second-smallest area of the provinces in Indonesia, after the Jakarta Capital Region. However it has, along with adjacent areas in Central Java, some of the highest population densities of Java.

Administrative divisions
Yogyakarta province is subdivided into four regencies (kabupaten) and one city (kota):
• Bantul Regency (506.86 km²)
• Gunung Kidul Regency (1,485.36 km²)
• Kulon Progo Regency (586.27 km²)
• Sleman Regency (574.82 km²)
• Yogyakarta City (32.5 km²)

Yogyakarta city
Main article: Yogyakarta (city)
Located within the Yogyakarta province, Yogyakarta city is known as a center of classical Javanese fine art and culture such as batik, ballet, drama, music, poetry and puppet shows. It is also famous as a center for Indonesian higher education. At Yogyakarta's center is the kraton, or Sultan's palace. While the city sprawls in all directions from the kraton, the core of the modern city is to the north.
History
The Yogyakarta Sultanate, formally the Sultanate of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat, was formed in 1755 when the existing Sultanate of Mataram was divided by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in two under the Treaty of Giyanti. This treaty states that the Sultanate of Mataram was to be divided into the Sultanate of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat with Yogyakarta as the capital and Mangkubumi who became Sultan Hamengkubuwono I as its Sultan and the Sultanate of Surakarta Hadiningrat with Surakarta as the capital and Pakubuwono III who was the ruler of the Sultanate of Mataram as its Sultan. The Sultan Hamengkubuwono I spent the next 37 years building the new capital, with the Kraton as the centerpiece and the court at Surakarta as the blueprint model. By the time he died in 1792, his territory exceeded Surakarta's.
The ruler Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX (April 12, 1912 - 1988) held a degree from the Dutch Leiden University, and held for a time the largely ceremonial position of Vice-President of Indonesia, in recognition of his status, as well as Minister of Finance and Minister of Defense.
In support of Indonesia declaring independence from the Dutch and Japanese occupation, in September 5, 1945, Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX of Yogya and Sri Paku Alam VIII in Yogya declared their sultanates to be part of the Republic of Indonesia. In return for this unfailing support, a law was passed in 1950, in which Yogyakarta was granted the status of province Daerah Istimewa (Special Region Province), with special status that recognizes the power of the Sultan in his own region's domestic affairs. Hence Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX was appointed as the governor for life. During the Indonesian war of independence against the Dutch after World War II (1945-1950), the capital of the newly-declared Indonesian republic was temporarily moved to Yogyakarta when the Dutch reoccupied Jakarta from January 1946 until August 1950.
The current ruler of Yogyakarta is his son, Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, who holds a law degree from Universitas Gadjah Mada. Upon the elder sultan's death, the position of governor, according to the agreement with Indonesia, was to pass to his heir. However, the central government at that time insisted on an election. In 1998, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X was elected as governor by the provincial house of representatives (DPRD) of Yogyakarta, defying the will of the central government. He remains the only governor in Java without a military background: "I may be a sultan," he has been quoted in Asia Week as saying, "but is it not possible for me to also be a democrat?" [1]
See also List of Governors of Yogyakarta See also Yogyakarta Sultanate

2006 Earthquake
Main article: May 2006 Java earthquake
The province of Yogyakarta bore the brunt of a 6.3-magnitude earthquake on 27 May 2006 which killed 5,782 people and left some 36,299 persons injured. More than 135,000 houses are damaged, and 600,000 people are homeless [2]. The earthquake extensively damaged the local region of Bantul, and its surrounding hinterland. The most significant number of deaths occurred in this region.
The coincidence of the recent eruption of Mount Merapi, and the earthquake would not be lost on the older and more superstitious Javanese - as such natural phenonomena are given considerable import within their understanding of the spiritual aspect of such events.

Transportation
Yogyakarta is served by Adisucipto International Airport.

Sister relationships
Yogyakarta has signed a sister relationship agreement with Kyoto Prefecture, Japan,[3] and California, United States.[4]

See also
• List of Governors of Yogyakarta
• Universitas Gadjah Mada
• Mbah Maridjan

References
1. ^ (2003) Indonesia's Population: Ethnicity and Religion in a Changing Political Landscape. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
2. ^ "Indonesia lowers quake death toll", CNN, 2006-06-06. Retrieved on 2006-06-06.
3. ^ Kyoto prefecture List of Friendly and Sister City
4. ^ BILL NUMBER: SCR 23 CHAPTERED
5. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Department of Tourism, Post and Telecommunication Regional Office For Yogyakarta Special Region. (1997) Guide To Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: Department of Tourism, Post and Telecommunication.
• Ricklefs, M.C. (2001) A history of modern Indonesia since c.1200 (3rd ed.). Stanford: Stanford University Press. pp. 126-139, 269-271. ISBN 0-8047-4480-7
Further reading
• Ricklefs, M.C. (1974) Jogjakarta under Sultan Mangkubumi, 1749–1792: A history of the division of Java . London Oriental Series, vol. 30. London : Oxford University Press, (Revised Indonesian edition 2002)
• Soemanto, Bakdi (1992) Cerita Rakyat dari Yogyakarta Jakarta: Grasindo (In Indonesian)
• Soemardjan, S. (1962) Social Changes in Yogyakarta, Ithaca, N.Y. Cornelll University Press.
External links
• Official website
• Yogyakarta travel guide from Wikitravel
• Paul Spencer Sochaczewski, "The Sultan and the mermaid: a love story for the ages,"International Herald Tribune: interview with Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX

Toraja

2007-05-28T20:05:00.000-07:00

The Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 650,000, of which 450,000 still live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja").[1] Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").
The word toraja comes from the Bugis language's to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909.[3] Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colorful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.
Before the 20th century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism and were relatively untouched by the outside world. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by tourism developers and studied by anthropologists.[4] By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had evolved significantly, from its agricultural beginnings—in which social life and customs were outgrowths of the Aluk To Dolo—into a largely Christian society.[5]

Ethnic identity
The Torajan people had little notion of themselves as a distinct ethnic group before the 20th century. Before Dutch colonization and Christianization, Torajans, who lived in highland areas, identified with their villages and did not share a broad sense of identity. Although complexes of rituals created linkages between highland villages, there were variations in dialects, differences in social hierarchies, and an array of ritual practices in the Sulawesi highland region. "Toraja" (from the coastal languages' to, meaning people; and riaja, uplands) was first used as a lowlander expression for highlanders.[3] As a result, "Toraja" initially had more currency with outsiders—such as the Bugis and Makassarese, who constitute a majority of the lowland of Sulawesi—than with insiders. The Dutch missionaries' presence in the highlands gave rise to the Toraja ethnic consciousness in the Sa'dan Toraja region, and this shared identity grew with the rise of tourism in the Tana Toraja Regency.[4] Since then, South Sulawesi has four main ethnic groups—the Bugis (the majority, including shipbuilders and seafarers), the Makassarese (lowland traders and seafarers), the Mandarese (traders and fishermen), and the Toraja (highland rice cultivators).[6]

Location of Toraja (green) among Makassarese (yellow) and Bugis (red) on Sulawesi island.

History
From the 17th century, the Dutch established trade and political control on Sulawesi through the Dutch East Indies Company. Over two centuries, they ignored the mountainous area in the central Sulawesi, where Torajans lived, because access was difficult and it had little productive agricultural land. In the late 19th century, the Dutch became increasingly concerned about the spread of Islam in the south of Sulawesi, especially among the Makassarese and Bugis peoples. The Dutch saw the animist highlanders as potential Christians. In the 1920s, the Reformed Missionary Alliance of the Dutch Reformed Church began missionary work aided by the Dutch colonial government.[7] In addition to introducing Christianity, the Dutch abolished slavery and imposed local taxes. A line was drawn around the Sa'dan area and called Tana Toraja ("the land of Toraja"). Tana Toraja was first a subdivision of the Luwu kingdom that had claimed the area.[8] In 1946, the Dutch granted Tana Toraja a regentschap, and it was recognized in 1957 as one of the regencies of Indonesia.[7]
Early Dutch missionaries faced strong opposition among Torajans, especially among the elite, because the abolition of their profitable slave trade had angered them.[9] Some Torajans were forcibly relocated to the lowlands by the Dutch, where they could be more easily controlled. Taxes were kept high, undermining the wealth of the elites. Ultimately, the Dutch influence did not subdue Torajan culture, and only a few Torajans were converted.[10] In 1950, only 10% of the population had converted to Christianity.[9]
In the 1930s, Muslim lowlanders attacked the Torajans, resulting in widespread Christian conversion among those who sought to align themselves with the Dutch for political protection and to form a movement against the Bugis and Makassarese Muslims. Between 1951 and 1965 (following Indonesian independence), southern Sulawesi faced a turbulent period as the Darul Islam separatist movement fought for an Islamic state in Sulawesi. The 15 years of guerrilla warfare led to massive conversions to Christianity.[11]
Alignment with the Indonesian government, however, did not guarantee safety for the Torajans. In 1965, a presidential decree required every Indonesian citizen to belong to one of five officially recognized religions: Islam, Christianity (Protestantism and Catholicism), Hinduism, or Buddhism.[12] The Torajan religious belief (aluk) was not legally recognized, and the Torajans raised their voices against the law. To make aluk accord with the law, it had to be accepted as part of one of the official religions. In 1969, Aluk To Dolo ("the way of ancestors") was legalized as a sect of Agama Hindu Dharma, the official name of Hinduism in Indonesia.[7]

Society
There are three main types of affiliation in Toraja society: family, class and religion.

Family affiliation
A Toraja village
Family is the primary social and political grouping in Torajan society. Each village is one extended family, the seat of which is the tongkonan, a traditional Torajan house. Each tongkonan has a name, which becomes the name of the village. The familial dons maintain village unity. Marriage between distant cousins (fourth cousins and beyond) is a common practice that strengthens kinship. Toraja society prohibits marriage between close cousins (up to and including the third cousin)—except for nobles, to prevent the dispersal of property.[13] Kinship is actively reciprocal, meaning that the extended family helps each other farm, share buffalo rituals, and pay off debts.
Each person belongs to both the mother's and the father's families, the only bilateral family line in Indonesia.[14] Children, therefore, inherit household affiliation from both mother and father, including land and even family debts. Children's names are given on the basis of kinship, and are usually chosen after dead relatives. Names of aunts, uncles and cousins are commonly referred to in the names of mothers, fathers and siblings.
Before the start of the formal administration of Toraja villages by the Tana Toraja Regency, each Toraja village was autonomous. In a more complex situation, in which one Toraja family could not handle their problems alone, several villages formed a group; sometimes, villages would unite against other villages. Relationship between families was expressed through blood, marriage, and shared ancestral houses (tongkonan), practically signed by the exchange of buffalo and pigs on ritual occasions. Such exchanges did not only build political and cultural ties between families, but defined each person's place in a social hierarchy: who poured palm wine, who wrapped a corpse and prepared offerings, where each person could or could not sit, what dishes should be used or avoided, and even what piece of meat constituted one's share.[15]

Class affiliation
In early Toraja society, family relationships were tied closely to social class. There were three strata: nobles, commoners, and slaves; slavery was abolished in 1909 by the Dutch East Indies government. Class was inherited through the mother. It was taboo, therefore, to marry "down" with a woman of lower class. On the other hand, marrying a woman of higher class could improve the status of the next generation.
The nobility's condescending attitude toward the commoners is still maintained for reasons of family prestige.[5] Nobles, who were believed to be direct descendants of the descended person from heaven,[16] lived in tongkonans, while commoners lived in less lavish houses (bamboo shacks called banua). Slaves lived in small huts, which had to be built around their owner's tongkonan. Commoners might marry anyone, but nobles preferred to marry in-family to maintain their status. Sometimes nobles married Bugis or Makassarese nobles. Commoners and slaves were prohibited from having death feasts. Despite close kinship and status inheritance, there was a some social mobility, as marriage or change in wealth could affect an individual's status.[13] Wealth is counted by the ownership of water buffalos, which will be slaughtered during his/her funeral feast.
Slaves in Toraja society were family property. Sometimes Torajans decided to become slaves when they had a debt, pledging to work as payment. Slaves could be owned during wars, and slave trading was common. Slaves could buy their freedom, but their children still inherited slave status. Slaves were prohibited from wearing bronze and gold, carving their houses, eating from the same dishes as their owners, or having sex with free women—a crime punishable by death.

Religious affiliation
Toraja's indigenous belief system is polytheistic animism, called aluk, or "the way" (sometimes translated as "the law"). In the Toraja myth, the ancestors of Torajan people came down from heaven using stairs, which were then used by the Torajans as a communication medium with Puang Matua, the Creator.[17] The cosmos, according to aluk, is divided into the upper world (heaven), the world of man (earth), and the underworld.[9] At first, heaven and earth were married, then there was a darkness, a separation, and finally the light. Animals live in the underworld, which is represented by rectangular space enclosed by pillars; the earth is for mankind and the heaven world is located above, covered with a saddle-shaped roof. Other Toraja gods include Pong Banggai di Rante (god of Earth), Indo' Ongon-Ongon (a goddess who can cause earthquakes), Pong Lalondong (god of death), Indo' Belo Tumbang (goddess of medicine); there are many more.[18]
The authority, whose words and actions should be taken both in life (agriculture) and death (funerals), is called to minaa (an aluk priest). Aluk is not just a belief system; it is a combination of law, religion, and habit. Aluk governs social life, agricultural practices, and ancestral rituals. The details of aluk may vary from one village to another. One common law is the requirement that death and life rituals be separated. Torajans believe that performing death rituals might ruin their corpses if combined with life rituals.[19] The two rituals are equally important. During the Dutch missionary works, Christian Torajans were prohibited from attending or performing life rituals, but were allowed to perform death rituals.[10] Consequently, Toraja's death rituals are still practiced today, while life rituals have diminished.
Culture
Tongkonan
The tongkonan is the traditional Torajan house. It is an ancestral house standing high on wooden piles, covered on top with layered split bamboo roofs curving in sweeping arcs, incised with red, black, and yellow detailed wood carving ornaments at the exterior wall. The word "tongkonan" comes from the Toraja language's tongkon ("to sit").
Tongkonan is the center of Toraja social life. The rituals associated with tongkonan are important expressions of Toraja spiritual life, and therefore all family members are impelled to participate, because symbolically tongkonan represents links to their ancestors and to living and future kin.[15] According to Torajan myth, the first tongkonan was built in heaven on four poles, with a roof made of Indian cloth. When the first Torajan ancestor descended to earth, he imitated the house and held a large ceremony.[20]
The construction of a tongkonan is laborious work and is usually done with the help of the extended family. There are three types of tongkonan. The tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority, used as the "center of government". The tongkonan pekamberan belongs to the family members who have some authority in local traditions. Ordinary family members reside in the tongkonan batu. The exclusivity to the nobility of the tongkonan is diminishing as many Torajan commoners find lucrative employment in other parts of Indonesia. As they send back money to their families, they enable the construction of larger tongkonan.

Wood carvings
The Toraja language is only spoken; no writing system exists.[21] To express social and religious concepts, Torajans carve wood, calling it Pa'ssura (or "the writing"). Wood carvings are therefore Toraja's cultural manifestation.
Each carving receives a special name and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolize of some goodwill. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolize fertility. The left image shows an example of Toraja wood carving, consisting of 15 square panels. The center bottom panel represents buffalo or wealth, because they wish a lot of buffalos for their family. The center panel represents a knot and a box. It is a hope that all of their offspring will be happy and live in harmony, just like goods that are kept safe in a box. The top left and top right squares represent an aquatic animal, indicating the need for fast and hard work just like moving in the surface of water. It also represents the need for a certain skill to produce good results.
Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving (see table below), as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering.[21] Toraja's ornaments have been studied in ethnomathematics to reveal its mathematical structure, but Torajans make these arts only based on some approximations.[21] To create an ornament, bamboo sticks are used as a geometrical tool.

Funeral rites
A stone-carved burial site. Tau tau (effigies of the deceased) were put in the cave, facing down the land.
In Toraja society, the funeral ritual is the most elaborate and expensive event. The richer and more powerful an individual, the more expensive his or her funeral. In the aluk religion, only nobles have the right to have an extensive death feast.[23] The death feast of a nobleman is usually attended by thousands and lasts for several days. A ceremonial site, called rante, is usually prepared in a large area of grass field where shelters for audiences, rice barns, and other ceremonial funeral structures are specially made by the deceased family. Flute music, funeral chants, songs and poems, crying and wailing are traditional Toraja expression for grief with the exceptions of funerals for young children, and poor, low-status adults.[24]
The ceremony is often held weeks, months, or years after the death so that the deceased family can raise the significant funds needed to cover funeral expenses.[25] Torajans traditionally believe that death is not a sudden, abrupt event, but a gradual process toward Puya (the land of souls, or afterlife). During the waiting period, the body of the deceased is wrapped in several layers of cloth and kept under the tongkonan. The soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the village until the funeral ceremony is completed, after which it begins its journey to Puya.[26]

Another component of the ritual is the slaughter of water buffalo. The more powerful the person who died, the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast. Buffalo carcasses, including their heads, are usually lined on a field waiting for their owner, who is in the "sleeping stage". Torajans believe that the deceased will need the buffalo to make the journey, and that they will be quicker to arrive at Puya if they have many buffalo. Slaughtering tens of water buffalo and hundred of pigs using a machete becomes the peak of the elaborate death feast, along with dance, music and young boys who catch spurting blood in long bamboo tubes. Some of the slaughtered animals are given by guests as "gifts", which are carefully noted because they will be considered debts of the deceased family.[27]
There are three methods of burial: the coffin may be laid in a cave, in a carved stone grave, or hung on a cliff. It contains any possessions that the deceased will need in the afterlife. The wealthy are often buried in a stone grave carved out of the rocky cliff. The grave is usually expensive and takes a few months to complete. In some areas, a stone cave may be found that is large enough to accommodate a whole family. A wood-carved effigy, called tau tau, is usually placed in the cave facing down over the land.[28] The coffin of a deceased baby or child may be hung from ropes on a cliff face or from a tree. This hanging grave usually lasts for years, until the ropes rot and the coffin falls to the ground.

Dance and music
Torajans perform dances on several occasions, most often during their elaborate funeral ceremonies. They dance to express their grief, and to honour and even cheer the deceased person because he is going to have a long journey in the afterlife. First, a group of men form a circle and sing a monotonous chant throughout the night to honour the deceased (a ritual called Ma'badong),[27][6] and it is considered by many Torajans as the most important component of the funeral ceremony.[24] On the second funeral day, the Ma'randing warrior dance is performed to praise the courage of the deceased during life. Several men perform the dance with a sword, a large shield made from buffalo skin, a helmet with a buffalo horn, and other ornamentation. The Ma'randing dance precedes a procession in which the deceased is carried from a rice barn to the rante, the site of the funeral ceremony. During the funeral, elder women perform the Ma'katia dance while singing a poetic song and wearing a long feathered costume. The Ma'akatia dance is performed to remind the audience of the generosity and loyalty of the deceased person. After the bloody ceremony of buffalo and pig slaughter, a group of boys and girls clap their hands while performing a cheerful dance called Ma'dondan.
As in other agricultural societies, Torajans dance and sing during harvest time. The Ma'bugi dance celebrates the thanksgiving event, and the Ma'gandangi dance is performed while Torajans are pounding rice.[29] There are several war dances, such as the Manimbong dance performed by men, followed by the Ma'dandan dance performed by women. The aluk religion governs when and how Torajans dance. A dance called Ma'bua can be performed only once every 12 years. Ma'bua is a major Toraja ceremony in which priests wear a buffalo head and dance around a sacred tree.
A traditional musical instrument of the Toraja is a bamboo-made flute called Pa'suling (suling is an Indonesian word for flute). This six-holed flute (not unique to Toraja) is played at many dances, such as the thanksgiving dance Ma'bondensan, where the flute accompanies a group of shirtless, dancing men with long fingernails. Toraja has endemic musical instruments, such as the Pa'pelle (made from palm leaves) and the Pa'karombi (the Toraja version of a Jew's harp). The Pa'pelle is played during harvest time and at house inauguration ceremonies.[30]
Language
The ethnic Toraja language is dominant in Tana Toraja with the main language is the Sa'dan Toraja. Although the national Indonesian language is the official language and is spoken in the community,[1] all elementary schools in Tana Toraja teach Toraja language.
Language varieties of Toraja, including Kalumpang, Mamasa, Tae' , Talondo' , Toala' , and Toraja-Sa'dan, belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language from the Austronesian family.[31] At the outset, the isolated geographical nature of Tana Toraja formed many dialects between the Toraja languages themselves. After the formal administration of Tana Toraja, some Toraja dialects have been influenced by other languages through the transmigration program, introduced since the colonialism period, and it has been a major factor in the lingusitic variety of Toraja languages.[6]
A prominent attribute of Toraja language is the notion of grief. The importance of death ceremony in Toraja culture has characterized their languages to express intricate degrees of grief and mourning.[24] The Toraja language contains many terms referring sadness, longing, depression, and mental pain. It is a catharsis to give a clear notion about psychological and physical effect of loss, and sometimes to lessen the pain of grief itself
.
Economy
Prior to Suharto's "New Order" administration, the Torajan economy was based on agriculture, with cultivated wet rice in terraced fjords on mountain slopes, and supplemental cassava and maize crops. Much time and energy were devoted to raising water buffalo, pigs, and chickens, primarily for ceremonial sacrifices and consumption.[11] The only agricultural industry in Toraja was a Japanese coffee factory, Kopi Toraja.
With the commencement of the New Order in 1965, Indonesia's economy developed and opened to foreign investment. Multinational oil and mining companies opened new operations in Indonesia. Torajans, particularly younger ones, relocated to work for the foreign companies: to Kalimantan for timber and oil, to Papua for mining, and to the cities of Sulawesi and Java. The out-migration of Torajans was steady until 1985.[7]
The Torajan economy gradually shifted to tourism beginning in 1984. Between 1984 and 1997, many Torajans obtained their incomes from tourism, by working in hotels as tour guides or selling souvenirs. With the rise of political and economic instability in Indonesia in the late 1990s—including religious conflicts elsewhere on Sulawesi—tourism in Tana Toraja has declined dramatically.

Commercialization

A Torajan tomb in a high rocky cliff is one of the tourist attractions in Tana Toraja.
Before the 1970s, Toraja was almost unknown to Western tourism. In 1971, about 50 Europeans visited Tana Toraja. In 1972, at least 400 visitors attended the funeral ritual of Puang of Sangalla, the highest-ranking nobleman in Tana Toraja and the last pure-blood Toraja noble. The event was documented by National Geographic and broadcast in several European countries.[7] In 1976, about 12,000 tourists visited the regency and in 1981, Torajan sculpture was exhibited in major North American museums.[32] "The land of the heavenly kings of Tana Toraja", as written in the exhibition brochure, embraced the outside world.
In 1984, the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism declared Tana Toraja Regency the prima donna of South Sulawesi. Tana Toraja was heralded as "the second stop after Bali".[5] Tourism was increasing dramatically: by 1985, a total number of 150,000 foreigners had visited the Regency (in addition to 80,000 domestic tourists),[4] and the annual number of foreign visitors was recorded 40,000 in 1989.[7] Souvenir stands appeared in Rantepao, the cultural center of Toraja, roads were sealed at the most visited tourist sites, new hotels and tourist-oriented restaurants were opened, and an airstrip was opened in the Regency in 1981.[15]
Tourism developers have marketed Tana Toraja as an exotic adventure—an area rich in culture and off the beaten track. Western tourists expected to see stone-age villages and pagan funerals. Toraja is for tourists who have gone as far as Bali and are willing to see more of wild, "untouched" islands. However, they were more likely to see a Torajan wearing a hat and denim, living in a Christian society.[7] Tourists felt that the tongkonan and other Torajan rituals had been preconceived to make profits, and complained that the destination was too commercialized. This has resulted in several clashes between Torajans and tourism developers, whom Torajans see as outsiders.[4]
A clash between local Torajan leaders with the South Sulawesi provincial government (as a tourist developer) surfaced in 1985. The government designated 18 Toraja villages and burial sites as traditional tourist objects. Consequently zoning restrictions were applied for these areas, such that Torajans themselves were barred from changing their tongkonans and burial sites. The plan was opposed by some Toraja leaders, as they felt that their rituals and traditions were being determined by outsiders. As a result, in 1987, the Toraja village Kété Kesú and several other designated "tourist objects" closed their doors to tourists. This closure lasted only a few days, as the villagers found it too difficult to survive without the income from selling souvenirs.[4]
Tourism has also transformed Toraja society. Originally, there was a ritual which allowed commoners to marry nobles (puang) and thereby gain nobility for their children. However, tourist imageries have made Torajans concealing their social status. High status is not as esteemed in Tana Toraja as it once was. Many low-ranking citizens can declare themselves and their children nobles by gaining enough wealth through work outside the region, and then marrying a noble woman.[5]

References
1. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sumba

2007-05-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Sumba is an island in Indonesia, and is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands. It has an area of 11,153 km², and the population has been estimated as between 350,000 and 425,000. There is a dry season from May to November and a rainy season from December to April. Historically, this island exported sandalwood.
To the northwest of Sumba is Sumbawa, to the northeast, across the Sumba Strait (Selat Sumba), is Flores, to the east, across the Savu Sea, is Timor, and to the south, across part of the Indian Ocean, is Australia. It is in the province of East Nusa Tenggara. The largest town on the island is Waingapu, with a population of about 10,700.
Before colonization, Sumba was inhabited by several small ethnolinguistic groups, some of which may have had tributary relations to the Majapahit Empire. In 1522 the first ships from Europe arrived, and by 1866 Sumba belonged to the Dutch East Indies, although the island did not come under real Dutch administration until the twentieth century.
The Sumbanese people speak a variety of closely related Austronesian languages, and have a mixture of Malay and Melanesian ancestry. Twenty-five to thirty percent of the population practises the animist Marapu religion. The remainder are Christian, a majority being Dutch Calvinist, but a substantial minority being Roman Catholic. A small number of Sunni Muslims can be found along the coastal areas.

References
1. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

External links
• (Indonesian) Anahumba portal
• Sumba deciduous forests (World Wildlife Fund)
• Sumba Foundation
• Textiles of Sumba
• Detailed map

Sumatra

2007-05-25T20:04:00.000-07:00

Sumatra (also spelled Sumatera) is the sixth largest island in the world (approximately 470,000 km²) and is the largest island entirely in Indonesia (two larger islands, Borneo and New Guinea, are partially in Indonesia).
History
An ancient name for Sumatra was Swarna Dwipa, (Sanskrit for Isle of Gold), apparently based on the fact that mines in the Sumatran highlands were exporting gold from fairly early times.
With its location in the India-China sea trade route, several trading towns flourished, especially in the eastern coast, and were influenced by Indian religions. The most notable of these were the Srivijaya and the Samudra. Srivijaya was a Buddhist monarchy centered in what is now Palembang. Dominating the region through trade and conquest throughout the 7th–9th century, the kingdom helped spread the Malay culture throughout Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, and western Borneo. The empire was thalassocratic, a maritime power that extended its influence from island to island.
Srivijaya influence waned in the 11th century. The island was then subject to conquests from Javanese kingdoms, first Singhasari and subsequently Majapahit. At the same time, Islam made its way to Sumatra, spreading through contacts with Arabs and Indian traders.
By the late 13th century, the monarch of Samudra kingdom (now in Aceh) had converted to Islam. Ibn Battuta, who visited the kingdom during his journey, pronounced the kingdom "Sumatra", hence the name of the island. Samudra was succeeded by the powerful Aceh Sultanate, which survived to the 20th century. With the coming of the Dutch, the many Sumatran princely states gradually fell under their control. Aceh, in the north, was the major obstacle, as the Dutch were involved in the long and costly Aceh War (1870-1905).
On December 26, 2004, the western coast and islands of Sumatra, particularly Aceh province, were devastated by a nearly 15 meter high tsunami following the 9.2-magnitude Indian Ocean earthquake. The death toll surpassed 170,000 in Indonesia alone, primarily in Aceh.
In 2005 there was an 8.7 magnitude aftershock of the previous earthquake in December 2004. See 2005 Sumatran Earthquake. In addition to the subduction megathrust earthquake off the west coast, Sunda arc, the Great Sumatran Fault, a transform fault, runs the entire length of the island. The pressure on this fault increased dramatically after the December 2004 earthquake, and seismologists are afraid an earthquake is going to occur soon. The fault ends directly below the devastated city of Banda Aceh.
Administration

Political map of Sumatra (old map because Riau Islands Province is not yet shown)
The administrative regions of Sumatra (or the smaller islands nearby) are:
• Aceh - capital: Banda Aceh
• Bangka-Belitung - capital: Pangkalpinang
• Bengkulu - capital: Bengkulu
• Jambi - capital: Jambi
• Lampung - capital: Bandar Lampung
• Riau - capital: Pekanbaru
• Riau Islands - capital: Tanjung Pinang
• West Sumatra (Sumatera Barat) - capital: Padang
• South Sumatra (Sumatera Selatan) - capital: Palembang
• North Sumatra (Sumatera Utara) - capital: Medan

Geography

Geographic map of Sumatra
The longest axis of the island runs approximately northwest - southeast, crossing the equator near the center. The interior of the island is dominated by two geographical regions: the Barisan Mountains in the west and swampy plains in the east.
To the southeast is Java, separated by the Sunda Strait. To the north is the Malay Peninsula, separated by the Straits of Malacca. To the east is Borneo, across the Karimata Strait. West of the island is the Indian Ocean.
The backbone of the island is the Barisan mountains chain. The volcanic activity of this region endowed the region with fertile land and beautiful sceneries, for instance around the Lake Toba. It also contains deposits of coal and gold.
To the east, big rivers carry silt from the mountain, forming the vast lowland interspersed by swamps. Even if mostly unsuitable for farming, the area is currently of great economic importance for Indonesia. It produces oil from both above and below the soil—palm oil and petroleum.
Most of Sumatra used to be covered by tropical rainforest, but economic development coupled with corruption and illegal logging has severely threatened its existence. Conservation areas have not been spared from destruction, either.
The island is the world's 8th highest island, although only the third highest in the Indonesian archipelago.
See also: Islands of Indonesia and Riau islands

Flora and fauna

Rafflesia arnoldii
The island is home to a host of species including: Sumatran Pine, Rafflesia arnoldii (world's largest individual flower), Titan arum (world's tallest and largest inflorescence flower), Sumatran Tiger, Sumatran Orangutan, Sumatran Rhinoceros, Sumatran Elephant, Sumatran Striped Rabbit, Malayan Tapir, Malayan Sun Bear, Bornean Clouded Leopard, and many birds and butterflies.
The major threats to Sumatran forest are the pulp and paper industry and expansion of palm oil plantations.
The island includes more than 10 National Parks, including 3 which are listed as the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra World Heritage Site—Gunung Leuser National Park, Kerinci Seblat National Park and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park.
See also: List of national parks of Indonesia
Demographics

Minangkabau women carrying platters of food to a ceremony
Sumatra is not very densely populated, about 96 people per km²—more than 45 million people in total. It is nonetheless the fourth most populous island in the world. The most populous regions includes most of North Sumatra and central highlands in West Sumatra, while the major urban centers are Medan and Palembang.
The people composed of many different ethnic groups, speaking 52 different languages. Most of these groups, however, share many similar traditions and the different tongues are closely related. Malay-speaking people dominate the eastern coast, while people in the southern and central interior speak languages related to Malay, such as the Lampung and Minangkabau people. The highland of northern Sumatra is inhabited by the Bataks, while the northernmost coast is dominated by Acehs. Ethnic Chinese minorities are also present in urban centers.
A majority of people in Sumatra are Muslims (90%). Most central Bataks, meanwhile, are Protestant Christians—a religion introduced by the Dutch. The rest follow Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, and Chinese traditional beliefs.

See also
• Music of Sumatra

References
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
External links
• Sumatra travel guide from Wikitravel
• http://www.nature-conservation.or.id/sumatra/

Sulawesi

2007-05-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

Sulawesi
Sulawesi (formerly more commonly known as Celebes, IPA: [ˈsɛlɛbiz] a Portuguese-originated form of the name) is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia lying between Kalimantan and Maluku.

Etymology
The Portuguese were the first to refer to Sulawesi as 'Celebes' however the origins of this name are unclear. One suggestion is the Bugis word si-lebih for 'more islands' - a reference to its shape suggesting it was more than one island. The modern name 'Sulawesi' possibly comes from the words sula ('island') and besi ('iron') thought to be reference to the rich Lake Matano iron deposits.

History
The settlement of South Sulawesi by modern humans is dated to c. 1500 BC. Following Bellwood's model of a southward migration of Austronesian-speaking farmers (AN), radiocarbon dates from caves in Maros suggest a date in the mid-second millennium B.C. for the arrival of an AN group from east Borneo speaking a Proto-South Sulawesi language (PSS). Initial settlement was probably around the mouth of the Sa'dan river, on the northwest coast of the peninsula, although the south coast has also been suggested.[1] Subsequent migrations across the mountainous landscape resulted in the geographical isolation of PSS speakers and the evolution of their languages into the eight families of the South Sulawesi language group.[2] If each group can be said to have a homeland, that of the Bugis – today the most numerous group – was around lakes Témpé and Sidénréng in the Walennaé depression. Here for some 2,000 years lived the linguistic group that would become the modern Bugis; the archaic name, which is preserved in the languages of other Indonesian groups, was Ugiq. Despite the fact that today they are closely linked with the Makasar, their closest linguistic neighbors are the Toraja.
Pre-1200 CE Bugis society would have been organized into petty chiefdoms, which would have both warred and, in times of peace, exchanged wives with each other. Personal security would have been negligible, head-hunting an established cultural practice, and crocodiles and malaria a common source of mortality. The political economy would have been a mixture of hunting and gathering and swidden or shifting agriculture. Speculative planting of wet rice would have taken place along the margins of the lakes.
Starting in the 13th century, access to prestige trade goods and to sources of iron started to alter long-standing cultural patterns, and to permit ambitious individuals to build larger political units. It is not known why these two ingredients appeared together; one was perhaps the product of the other. By 1400, a number of nascent agricultural principalities had arisen in the western Cenrana valley, as well as on the south coast and on the east coast near modern Parepare.[3]
The first Europeans to visit the island (which they believed an archipelago due to its contorted shape) were Portuguese sailors in 1525, sent from the Moluccas in search of gold, which the islands had the reputation of producing.[4] From 1669, the Dutch East India Company had a presence at Makassar, and in 1905 the entire island became part of the Dutch state colony of the Netherlands East Indies until Japanese occupation in World War II. Sulawesi was incoporated in the independent 'Republic of Indonesia' during the Indonesian National Revolution from 1945 to 1950.

Geography
Sulawesi is the world's eleventh-largest island, covering an area of 174,600 km². The island is surrounded by Borneo to the west, by the Philippines to the north, by Maluku to the east, and by Flores and Timor to the south. It has a distinctive shape, dominated by four large peninsulas: the Semenanjung Minahassa; the East Peninsula; the South Peninsula; and the South-east Peninsula. The central part of the island is ruggedly mountainous, such that the island's peninsulas have traditionally been remote from each other, with better connections by sea than by road.
The island is subdivided into six provinces: Gorontalo, West Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, and North Sulawesi. West Sulawesi is a new province, created in 2004 from part of South Sulawesi. The largest cities on the island are Makassar, on the southwestern coast of the island, and Manado, on the northern tip.

Flora and fauna

Nomorhamphus liemi female in an aquarium; there are at least 19 species of Nomorhamphus, most of which are only found on Sulawesi.
Sulawesi straddles Wallace's Line meaning that it has a mix of both Asian and Austronesian species. However, the majority of Sulawesi's wildlife belongs to the Australasia region. 2,290 km² of the island is devoted to Lore Lindu National Park.
There are 127 known mammalian species in Sulawesi. A large percentage of these mammals, 62% (79 species) are endemic, meaning that they are found nowhere else in Indonesia or the world. The largest native mammal in Sulawesi is the dwarf buffalo, locally known as the anoa. By contrast, because many birds can fly between islands, Sulawesian bird species tend to be found on other nearby islands as well, such as Borneo; only 34% of Sulawesi's birds are found nowhere else. The most important among these last is the maleo, a bird that spends most of its time on the ground. It has undergone an observed very rapid decline.
Sulawesi also has several endemic species of freshwater fish, such as those in the genus Nomorhamphus, a species flock of livebearing freshwater halfbeaks containing at least 19 distinct species, most of which are only found on Sulawesi.[5] [6]

Population
Demographics
The 2000 census population of the provinces of Sulawesi was 14,946,488, about 7.25% of Indonesia's total population.[7] The largest city is Makassar.

Culture
The people of Sulawesi are famous for their dedication to their diverse art abilities, which include pottery, weaving, and dancing. Their pottery was originally made specifically for the purpose of storing rice and water, but when the Dutch arrived, it became useful for commercial exporting and sale, and was noted for its extensive detail. The Sulawesian people also excel at intricate weaving, and repeat the same pattern at least once in every project they do. Although the women are predominantely weavers, both genders dance. The male dance is rigid, mechanical and robotic, while the female's dances are fluid and smooth. They combine these aspects to tell a story.[citation needed]
Religious faiths
Islam is the majority religion in Sulawesi. The conversion of the lowlands of the south western peninsula (South Sulawesi) to Islam occurred in the early 17th century. The kingdom of Luwu in the Gulf of Bone was the first to accept Islam in February 1605; the Makasar kingdom of Goa-Talloq, centered on the modern-day city of Makassar, followed suit in September.[8] However, the Gorontalo and the Mongondow peoples of the northern peninsula largely converted to Islam only in the 19th Century. Most Muslims are Sunnis. Muslims can be found in all parts of Sulawesi.
Though Islam is the religion of the majority of Sulawesi's people, large regions of the island observe other religions as well.
Christians form a substantial minority. According to the demographer Toby Alice Volkman, 17% of Sulawesi's population is Protestant and 2% is Roman Catholic. Christians are concentrated on the tip of the northern peninsula around the city of Manado, which is inhabited by the Minahasa, a predominantly Protestant people, and the northernmost Sangihe and Talaud islands. The famous Toraja people of Tana Toraja in Central Sulawesi have largely converted to Christianity since Indonesia's independence. There are also substantial numbers of Christians around Lake Poso in Central Sulawesi and among the Pamona speaking peoples of Central Sulawesi. There has also been growth in the Christian population of the Banggai Islands and the Eastern Peninsula in Central Sulawesi, traditionally thought of as Muslim areas (which in the past were controlled by Muslim sultanates in Tidore and Ternate). Christians can be found in every major Sulawesi city.
Though most people identify themselves as Muslims or Christians, they often subscribe to local beliefs and deities as well. It is not unusual (and fully accepted) for Muslims and Christians to make offerings to local gods, goddesses, and spirits.
Smaller communities of Buddhists and Hindus are also found on Sulawesi, usually among the Chinese, Balinese and Indian communities.

Religious conflict
Flag of the Sulawesi separatist movement
Sulawesi has been plagued by Muslim-Christian violence in recent years. The most serious violence occurred between 1998 and 2001 on the once peaceful island. Over 1,000 people were killed in violence, riots, and ethnic cleansing that ripped through Central Sulawesi.[9] The violence pitted the island's Muslims against Christians (and vice versa). A peace accord was not agreed to until 2001.
The Malino peace accord did not eradicate the violence. In the following years, tension and systematic attacks persisted.[10] In 2003, 13 Christian villagers were killed in the Poso District by unknown masked gunmen. And in 2005 three Christian schoolgirls were beheaded in Poso by Islamic militants. A message next to one of the heads allegedly read: "A life for a life. A head for a head".[11]
Riots erupted again in September 2006 in Christian dominated areas of Central Sulawesi, as well as other part of Indonesia, after the execution by firing squad of Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marinus Riwu, three Catholics convicted of leading Christian militias during the violence of the early 2000s. Their supporters claimed that Muslims who participated in the violence received very light sentences and that none were sentenced to death, and that the government used a double standard.[citation needed] The violence appeared to be aimed at government authorities, not Muslims.[citation needed]
References
1. ^ Bulbeck, F.D. 1992. 'A tale of two kingdoms; The historical archaeology of Gowa and Tallok, South Sulawesi, Indonesia.' Ph.D thesis, The Australian National University.
2. ^ http://web.mac.com/ian.caldwell/iWeb/SulSel1/Languages.html
3. ^ Caldwell, I.A. 1988. 'South Sulawesi A.D. 1300–1600; Ten Bugis texts.' Ph.D thesis, The Australian National University; Bougas, W. 1998. 'Bantayan; An early Makassarese kingdom 1200 -1600 AD. Archipel 55: 83-123; Caldwell, I. and W.A. Bougas 2004. 'The early history of Binamu and Bangkala, South Sulawesi.' Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 64: 456-510; Druce, S. 2005. 'The lands west of the lake; The history of Ajattappareng, South Sulawesi, AD 1200 to 1600.' Ph.D thesis, The University of Hull.
4. ^ Crawfurd, J. 1856. A descriptive dictionary of the Indian islands and adjacent countries. London: Bradbury & Evans.
5. ^ The Systematic Review of the Fish Genus Nomorhamphus - Louie, Kristina, research paper, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, 1993
6. ^ Valid Species of the Genus Nomorhamphus (database entry from fishbase.org)
7. ^ Brief Analysis - A. Total Population (from the 2000 Population Census, Indonesia)
8. ^ Noorduyn, J. 1956. 'De Islamisering van Makasar.' Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 112: 247-66; Caldwell, I. 1995. 'Power, state and society in pre-Islamic South Sulawesi.' Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 151: 394-421
9. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3681938.stm Equator - Programme 2 - Asia - BBC News, Sunday September 17 2006, requires JavaScript enabled
10. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3812737.stm
11. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6473897.stm; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6127378.stm
12. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
External links
• Sulawesi travel guide from Wikitravel

Surabaya

2007-05-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

Surabaya (formerly Soerabaja) is Indonesia's second-largest city, and the capital of the province of East Java. It is located on the northern shore of eastern Java at the mouth of the Mas River and at the side of the Madura Strait.
The city is one of the busiest ports in the country. Its principal exports include sugar, tobacco and coffee. It has a large shipyard, and numerous specialized naval schools.

Etymology
Surabaya is commonly said to derive its name from the words sura or suro (shark) and baya or boyo (crocodile), two creatures which, in a local myth, fight each other in order to gain the title of "the strongest and most powerful animal in the area according to Jayabaya (1200 M) prophecy. This prophecy tells about big fighting between giant white shark and giant white crocodile in seizing the city upstream. Now the two animals are used as the city's logo, the two facing each other while circling the city's monument, the Tugu Pahlawan (Heroes' monument). This folk etymology, though embraced enthusiastically by city leaders, is somewhat dubious. Alternate derivations proliferate: e.g. from the Javanese sura ing baya, meaning "bravely facing danger". Some people consider this Jayabaya prophecy as a big war between Surabaya native people and invaders in 1945, while another story is about two heroes that fought each other in order to be the king of the city. The two heroes were Sura and Baya.

History

In the fifteenth and sixteenth century, Surabaya was a sultanate and a major political and military power in eastern Java. It entered a conflict with, and was later captured by, the more powerful Sultanate of Mataram in 1625 under Sultan Agung. It was one of Mataram's fiercest campaigns, in which they had to conquer Surabaya's allies, Sukadana and Madura and to lay siege to the city before capturing it. With this conquest, Mataram then controlled almost the whole of Java, with the exception of the Sultanate of Banten and the Dutch settlement of Batavia.
The expanding East Indies Companies took the city over from a weakened Mataram in November 1743. Surabaya became a major trading center under the Dutch colonial government, and hosted the largest naval base in the colony.
In 1917 a revolt occurred amongst the soldiers and sailors of Surabaya, led by the Indies Social Democratic Association. The revolt was firmly crushed and the insurgents given harsh sentences.
During World War II Surabaya was captured by the Japanese in 1942, until the Allies bombed it in 1944. After that it was seized by Indonesian nationalists. However, the young nation was soon put into conflict with the Allied-backed Dutch who tried to retake their colony. The Battle of Surabaya was one of the most important battles of the Indonesian revolution. It was started after British Brigadier General Mallaby was killed in a car explosion in October 30, 1945 near Jembatan Merah (the "Red Bridge"). The Allies gave an ultimatum to the Indonesian freedom fighters inside the city to surrender, but this was refused. The ensuing battle took place on 10 November, nowadays celebrated as Heroes' Day (Hari Pahlawan).
The city was then re-occupied by the Dutch in 1947. Because of prolonged international pressure, the Dutch agreed to transfer sovereignty of its colony in August 1949. Surabaya was ultimately incorporated into Indonesia in December 1949 and rebuilt.

The city

As the main seaport and commercial center in the eastern region of Indonesia, Surabaya has become one of the largest cities in Southeast Asia. Today, Surabaya's population is around three million, and the surrounding metropolitan area houses at least 5 million. The areas surrounding Surabaya include Lamongan to the northwest, Gresik to the west, Bangkalan to the northeast, Sidoarjo to the south, and Mojokerto and Jombang to the southwest.
Currently, the Indonesian government is building the Suramadu Bridge between Surabaya and the island of Madura; when completed, it will be the longest bridge in the country. Madura is currently accessible by a ferry service that operates regularly from Surabaya's port, Tanjung Perak (which literally means: "Silver Cape" in Indonesian).
Surabaya is home to the Eastern Armada, one of two in the Indonesian Navy. Its strong maritime heritage is also reflected with the Submarine Monument, a real retired Russian submarine, called Pasopati, that was converted into a museum ship in the city centre.
Flooding is common in many areas of the city during the rainy season, mostly caused by clogged sewers and inept bureaucracy. The fact that Surabaya is located in a river delta and has a flat and relatively low elevation doesn't help the matter either.
Surabaya is the location of the only synagogue in Indonesia, although it is currently inactive.[1] [2]
Surabaya's zoo, opened in 1916, was the first in the world to have successfully bred orangutans in captivity.
Other points of interest include:
• Grand Mosque of Surabaya, the largest mosque in East Java
• Cheng Ho Mosque, the first mosque in Indonesia built with a Chinese style architecture
• Jales Veva Jaya Mahe Monument, a large, admiral-like statue which commemorates the Indonesian Navy
• Mpu Tantular Museum, has a large collection of ancient Javanese artifacts

Transport
The city is served by Juanda International Airport. The Airport is located in Sidoarjo Region, not in Surabaya City.

Demographics
Surabaya is the second most populous city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. The city is highly urbanized, due to the many industries located in the city, and as a result, there is also a large slum area. As the main education centre, Surabaya has been the home for many students from around Indonesia, thus they have created their own community. Also, Surabaya is the main commercial regionally, hence many outsiders live in Surabaya.

Ethnicity
Most of its population are of Javanese descent. Notable minorities include Balinese, Madurese from nearby Madura Island and Chinese Indonesians.

Language
Most citizens speak a unique dialect of Javanese called Surabayan. This dialect is noted for equality and directness in speech. The usage of register is less strict than the Central Javan dialect. The Surabaya dialect is actively promoted in local media, such as in local TV shows, radio and traditional dramas called Loedroek. The Madurese language influences the Surabayan dialect of Javanese spoken in the streets.

Religion
Islam is the main religion in Surabaya. Other religions including Christian, Catholic, Hindu and Buddhism.

Education
Surabaya has several major universities and other institutions with religious or technical specialties. One of them is Airlangga University (Unair), the oldest and largest public university in eastern Java, with eleven departments in a variety of fields, including an especially well-regarded medical school and psychology department
The Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember is one of the country's most selective technology institutions, and is well-known for its robotics, mechanical engineering, and marine engineering programs.
As one of the Indonesian military's major naval ports, Surabaya is the site of the national Naval Military Academy.

Sister relationships
Surabaya has sister relationships with a number of towns worldwide:
• Seattle, U.S., since 1992
• Kochi, Japan
• Mashhad, Iran

References
1. ^ The Synagogue of Surabaya, Indonesia
•

Jakarta

2007-05-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

Jakarta (also Djakarta or DKI Jakarta), formerly known as Sunda Kelapa, Jayakarta and Batavia is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Located on the northwest coast of the island of Java, it has an area of 661.52 km² and a population of 8,792,000 (2004).[2] Jakarta was founded almost 500 years ago and currently is the eleventh largest city and metropolitan area and ninth most densely populated city in the world with 44,283 people per sq mile.[3] Its metropolitan area is called Jabotabek and contains more than 23 million people, and is part of an even larger Jakarta-Bandung megalopolis.
Jakarta is served by the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Since 2004, Jakarta, under the governance of Sutiyoso, has built a new transportation system, which is known as "TransJakarta" or "Busway" and in 2007, Jakarta will establish its newest transportation system, the Jakarta Monorail. Jakarta also is the location of the Jakarta Stock Exchange and the National Monument.
•
History

Dutch Batavia in the 17th Century, built in what is now North Jakarta
The earliest recorded mention of Jakarta is as a port of origin that can be traced to a Hindu settlement as early as the 4th century. By the 14th century, it was a major port for the Hindu kingdom of Sunda. The first European fleet, four Portuguese ships from Malacca, arrived in 1513 . Batzaush had been conquered by Alfonso d'Albuquerque in 1511 when the Portuguese were looking for spices and especially pepper.
The relationship between the Kingdom of Sunda and Portugal intensified when another Portuguese named Enrique Leme visited Sunda in 1522 with the intention of giving a present. He was well-received and as a result, the Portuguese gained rights to build a warehouse and expand their fort in Sunda Kelapa (the name of the location at the time). The Sundanese regarded this as a consolidation of their position against the raging Muslim troops from the rising power of the Sultanate of Demak in Central Java.[4]
In 1527, Muslim troops coming from Cirebon and Demak attacked the Kingdom of Sunda under the leadership of Fatahillah. The king was expecting the Portuguese to come and help them hold Fatahillah's army because of an agreement that had been in place between Sunda and the Portuguese. However, Fatahillah's army succeeded in conquering the city on June 22, 1557, and Fatahillah changed the name of "Sunda Kelapa" to "Jayakarta" ("Great Deed" or "Complete Victory").[4]

The Castle of Batavia, seen from West Kali Besar by Andries Beeckman circa 1656-58
The followers of the Sultan of Banten (the location of Jayakarta), Prince Jayawikarta, was also very involved in the history of Jakarta. In 1596, many Dutch ships arrived in Jayakarta with the intention of trading spices, more or less the same as that of the Portuguese. In 1602, the British East India Company's first voyage, commanded by Sir James Lancaster, arrived in Aceh and sailed on to Bantam where he was allowed to build trading post which becomes the centre of British trade in Indonesia until 1682.[5] In this case, the Prince took the Dutch arrival seriously as the Dutch had constructed many military buildings. Prince Jayawikarta apparently also had a connection with the English and allowed them to build houses directly across from the Dutch buildings in 1615 . When relations between Prince Jayawikarta and the Dutch later deteriorated, his soldiers attacked the Dutch fortress which covered two main buildings, Nassau and Mauritus. But even with the help of 15 ships from the English, Prince Jayakarta's army wasn't able to defeat the Dutch, for Jan Pieterszoon Coen (J.P. Coen) came to Jayakarta just in time, drove away the English ships and burned the English trading post.

Batavia c.1870
Things then changed for the Prince, when the Sultan of Banten sent his soldiers and summoned Prince Jayawikarta to establish a close relationship with the English without an approval of the Banten authorities. The relationships between both Prince Jayawikarta and the English with the Banten government then became worse and resulted in the Prince's decision to move to Tanara, a small place in Banten, until his death. This assisted the Dutch in their efforts to establish a closer relationship with Banten. The Dutch had by then changed the name to "Batavia", which remained until 1942.[4]
Administration
Officially, Jakarta is not a city but a province with special status as the capital of Indonesia. It is administered much as any other Indonesian province. For example, Jakarta has a governor (instead of a mayor), and is divided into several sub-regions with their own administrative systems. Jakarta, as a province, is divided into five cities (kota) (formerly municipality (kotamadya)) each headed by a mayor and one regency (kabupaten) headed by a regent. List of cities of Jakarta:
• Central Jakarta (Jakarta Pusat)
• East Jakarta (Jakarta Timur)
• North Jakarta (Jakarta Utara)
• South Jakarta (Jakarta Selatan)
• West Jakarta (Jakarta Barat)
The only regency of Jakarta is:
• Thousand Islands (Kepulauan Seribu), formerly a subdistrict of North Jakarta.
•
Culture

National Museum of Indonesia
As the economic and political capital of Indonesia, Jakarta attracts many foreign as well as domestic immigrants. As a result, Jakarta has a decidedly cosmopolitan flavor and a diverse culture. Many of the immigrants are from the other parts of Java, bringing along a mixture of dialects of the Javanese and Sundanese languages, as well as their traditional foods and customs. The Betawi (Orang Betawi, or "people of Batavia") is a term used to describe the descendants of the people living around Batavia from around the 18th century. The Betawi people are mostly descended from various Southeast Asian ethnic groups brought or attracted to Batavia to meet labour needs, and include people from various parts of Indonesia. The language and culture of these immigrants are distinct from those of the Sundanese or Javanese. There has also been a Chinese community in Jakarta for centuries. Officially they make up 6% of the Jakarta population, though this number may be under reported.[6]
Jakarta has several performance centers, such as the Senayan center. Traditional music is often found at high-class hotels, including wayang and gamelan performances. As the largest Indonesian city, Jakarta has lured much regional talent to relocate in hope of finding a greater audience and more opportunities for success.
The concentration of wealth and political influence in the city means that it has much more noticeable foreign influence on its landscape and culture, an effect illustrated by the presence in the city of many major international fast-food chains, for example.

Transportation

Central Jakarta main road.
There are railways throughout Jakarta; however, they are inadequate in providing transportation for the citizens of Jakarta. In peak hours, the number of passengers simply exceeds the capacity. The railroad tracks connect Jakarta to its neighboring cities: Depok and Bogor to the south, Tangerang and Serpong to the west, and Bekasi, Karawang, and Cikampek to the east. The major rail stations are Gambir, Jatinegara, Pasar Senen, Manggarai, Tanah Abang and Jakarta Kota.
The busway takes less than half an hour to traverse a route which would normally take more than an hour during peak hours. Construction of the 2nd and 3rd corridor routes of the busway was completed in 2006, serving the route from Pulogadung to Kalideres. The busway serving the route from Blok M to Jakarta Kota has been operational since January 2004.

Jakarta traffic
Despite the presence of many wide roads, Jakarta suffers from congestion due to heavy traffic, especially in the central business district. To reduce traffic jams, some major roads in Jakarta have a 'three in one' rule during rush hours, first introduced in 1992, prohibiting less than three passengers per car on certain roads. In 2005, this rule covered the Gatot Subroto Road.
This has presented an economic opportunity in that if there are only two people in the car, a "joki" (meaning "jockey") will offer to sit in the car as it travels through the restricted area. This currently costs around Rp5000, and there are many jockeys at every entry point to the restricted area.

To reduce traffic congestion, a new TransJakarta bus system was introduced.
Jakarta's roads are notorious for indisciplined driver behavior; the rules of the road are broken with impunity and police bribery is commonplace. The painted lines on the road are regarded as mere suggestions as vehicles often travel four or five abreast on a typical two-lane road and it is not uncommon to encounter a vehicle traveling the wrong direction in a given traffic flow. Furthermore, in recent years the number of motorcycles on the streets has been growing almost exponentially, ensuring many a problem due to ill-disciplined motorcyclists. The vast sea of small, 100-200cc motorcycles, many of which have 2-stroke motors, create much of the traffic, noise and air pollution that plague Jakarta.
An outer ring road is now being constructed and is partly operational from Cilincing-Cakung-Pasar Rebo-Pondok Pinang-Daan Mogot-Cengkareng. A toll road connects Jakarta to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in the north of Jakarta. Also connected via toll road is the port of Merak and Tangerang to the west and Bekasi, Cibitung and Karawang, Purwakarta and Bandung to the east.
Two lines of the Jakarta Monorail are under construction: the green line serving Semanggi-Casablanca Road-Kuningan-Semanggi and the blue line serving Kampung Melayu-Casablanca Road-Tanah Abang-Roxy. In addition, there are plans for a two-line subway (MRT) system, with a north-south line between Kota and Lebak Bulus, with connections to both monorail lines; and an east-west line, which will connect with the north-south line at the Sawah Besar station. The current project, which began in 2005, has been halted due to a lack of funds and its future remains uncertain.
On 6 June 2007, the city administration started to introduce the Waterway, anew river boat service along the Ciliwung river.[7] The move aims to reduce the traffic snarls in Jakarta. The two boat service, each with a capacity of 28 passengers travels 1.7 kilometres along the West Flood Canal between Halimun in South Jakarta and Karet in Central Jakarta.[8]
There are currently two airports serving Jakarta; They are Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK) and Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport (HLP).
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport is used for both private and commercial airliners connecting Jakarta with other Indonesian cities. It is also Indonesia's main international gateway. The airport is divided into 3 separate terminals. Terminal 1 serves all domestic airliners except Garuda Indonesia. Terminal 2 serves all foreign carriers and Garuda Indonesia (both domestic and international routes). Terminal 3 serves solely for hajj pilgrimage flights. Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport serves mostly private and presidential flights.

Motorised bajaj
Cycle rickshaws, called becak, provide local transportation in the back streets of some parts of the city. From the early 1940s to 1991 they were a common form of local transportation in the city. In 1966, an estimated 160,000 rickshaws were operating in the city; as much as fifteen percent of Jakarta's total workforce was engaged in rickshaw driving. In 1971, rickshaws were banned from major roads, and shortly thereafter the government attempted a total ban, which substantially reduced their numbers but did not eliminate them. An especially aggressive campaign to eliminate them finally succeeded in 1990 and 1991, but during the economic crisis of 1998, some returned amid less effective government attempts to control them.[9] The only place left in Jakarta where riding becak is permitted is the amusement park Taman Impian Jaya Ancol. The cycle rickshaw (becak) is now back in very low density numbers in Jakarta, but looks dramatically different than the old ones. Now they look almost like a cart with cycle in the back without the paintings and artwork of the old becaks.

Education

Museum Arsip (Archive Museum), one of the museums in Jakarta.
Jakarta is the home of many universities, the oldest of which is the private-owned Universitas Nasional (UNAS)[10], much of which has now relocated to Pasar Minggu. There are also many other private universities in Jakarta. As the largest city and the capital, Jakarta houses a large number of students from various parts of Indonesia, many of whom reside in dormitories or home-stay residences. Similarly to other large cities in developing Asian countries, there is a large number of professional schools teaching a wide range of subjects from Mandarin, English and computer skills to music and dance.[citation needed] For basic education, there are a variety of primary and secondary schools, tagged with public (national), private (national plus) and international schools.

Jakarta skyline taken from the top of Monas.
Sports
Jakarta is home of several soccer clubs. The most popular of them is Persija, which regularly plays its matches in the Lebak Bulus Stadium. The biggest stadium in Jakarta is the Bung Karno Stadium with a capacity of 100,000 seats[11]. For basketball, the Kelapa Gading Sport Mall in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, with a capacity of 7,000 seats, is the home arena of the Indonesian national basketball team. Many international basketball matches are played in this stadium. The Senayan sports complex is comprised of several sport venues, which include the Bung Karno soccer stadium, Madya Stadium, Istora Senayan, a shooting range, a tennis court and a golf driving range. The Senayan complex was built in 1959 to accommodate the Asian Games in 1962.

Media
Newspapers
Jakarta has several daily newspaper such as Bisnis Indonesia, The Jakarta Post, Indo Pos , Seputar Indonesia, Kompas, Media Indonesia, Republika, Pos Kota, Warta Kota, and Suara Pembaruan.
Television
Government television: TVRI.
Private national television: TPI, RCTI, Metro TV, Indosiar, StarANTV, SCTV, Trans TV, Lativi, Trans 7, and Global TV.
Local television: Jak-TV, O-Channel, and Space-Toon.
Cable television: Indovision, ASTRO, TelkomVision, Kabelvision
Radio
Main article: List of radio stations in Jakarta
Problems

A trash dump in Bantar Gebang, Bekasi
Like many big cities in developing countries, Jakarta suffers from major urbanization problems. The population has risen sharply from 1.2 million in 1960 to 8.8 million in 2004, counting only its legal residents. The population of greater Jakarta is estimated at 23 million, making it the fourth largest urban area in the world. The rapid population growth has outgrown the government's ability to provide basic needs for its residents. As the third biggest economy in Indonesia, Jakarta has attracted a large number of visitors. The population during weekends is almost double that of weekdays, due to the influx of residents residing in other areas of Jabotabek. Because of government's inability to provide adequate transportation for its large population, Jakarta also suffers from severe traffic jams that occur almost every day. Air pollution and garbage management is also a severe problem.
During the wet season, Jakarta suffers from flooding due to clogged sewage pipes and waterways. Deforestation due to rapid urbanization on the highland areas south of Jakarta near Bogor and Depok has also contributed to the floods. Among the worst flooding ever occurred in late 1996[12][13] when approximately 65% of Jakarta's total area was flooded[citation needed]. In the floods of 2 February 2007[14], losses from infrastructure damage and state revenue were at least 5.2 trillion rupiah (572 million dollars) and at least 85 people were killed [15] and about 350,000 people forced from their homes. [16]. Approximately 70% of Jakarta's total area was flooded[17][18]
Sister relationships
Jakarta has sister relationships with a number of towns and regions worldwide:
• Beijing, China
• Berlin, Germany
• Istanbul, Turkey
• Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
• Los Angeles, United States
• State of New South Wales, Australia
• Paris, France
• Rotterdam, the Netherlands
• Seoul, South Korea
• Tokyo, Japan
References
1. ^ (2003) Indonesia's Population: Ethnicity and Religion in a Changing Political Landscape. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
2. ^ Region and Population - Jakartaku
3. ^ International Density Rank
4. ^ a b c History of Jakarta
5. ^ Ricklefs, M.C. (1993). A History of Modern Indonesia Since c.1300, 2nd Edition. London: MacMillan, p.29. ISBN 0-333-57689-6.
6. ^ "Chinese diaspora: Indonesia" - BBC
7. ^ Jakarta begins river boat service.
8. ^ Jakarta gets its first klong taxis.
9. ^ Azuma, Yoshifumi (2003). Urban peasants: beca drivers in Jakarta. Jakarta: Pustaka Sinar Harapan.
10. ^ http://www.unas.ac.id:1949/sejarah.do
11. ^ http://www.fussballtempel.net/afc/IDN.html
12. ^ http://www.asiaviews.org/?content=153499ym32dddw4&headline=20070215014241
13. ^ http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-6YPCN6?OpenDocument
14. ^ http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aEZkmZ6LCTrM
15. ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/indonesiaweatherfloods;_ylt=Au4qmNPoAyVq_HQ.qLCeyB3aHXcA
16. ^ Disease fears as floods ravage Jakarta
17. ^ http://hadip.wordpress.com/2007/02/10/jakarta-flood-feb-2007/
18. ^ http://photo.ruditheunis.com/component/option,com_zoom/Itemid,4/catid,22/
19. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also
• Jakarta riots of May 1998
• List of Governors of Jakarta
• Jakarta Old Town
• Lubang Buaya
• List of metropolitan areas by population
• About Jakarta

Flores

2007-05-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

Flores
Flores (Portuguese for "flowers") is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, an island arc with an estimated area of 14,300 km² extending east from the Java island of Indonesia. The population is estimated to be around 1.5 million [1], and the largest town is Maumere.
Flores is located east of Sumbawa and Komodo and west of Lembata and the Alor Archipelago. To the southeast is Timor. To the south, across the Sumba strait, is Sumba and to the north, beyond the Flores Sea, is Sulawesi.
Administration
Flores is part of the East Nusa Tenggara province. The island is split into six regencies (local government districts); from west to east these are: West Manggarai, Central Manggarai, Ngada, Ende, Sikka and Flores Timur.

Geography

Wawo Muda Volcano, which erupted in 2001
Flores has several active and dormant volcanoes, including Kelimutu, Egon, Ilimuda, Leroboleng, and Lewotobi (see the full list).

Flora and fauna
The west coast of Flores is one of the few places, aside from the island of Komodo itself, where the Komodo dragon can be found in the wild. The Flores Giant Rat is also endemic to the Island.
In September 2003, at Liang Bua Cave in western Flores, paleoanthropologists discovered skeletons of a previously unknown hominid species. Homo floresiensis, affectionately termed hobbits after the small characters in the Lord of the Rings, appear to be miniaturized versions of Homo erectus standing about one metre tall. They may have existed until as recently as 11,000 BC. Local reports of elf-like people, the Ebu Gogo, or the Orang Pendek of Sumatra, have caused speculation that Flores man may have survived into the historical period, or even to the present. The discovery has been published in the October 28, 2004, issue of Nature magazine and the April 2005 issue of the National Geographic Magazine.[2] However, on August 21, 2006, the National Geographic Newsletter published an article reporting that several scientists now believe that the remains discovered in 2004 were not of a different species but were pygmies. Flores was also a habitat of the extinct Stegodon dwarf elephant until approximately 18,000 years ago. It also was the habitat of species of giant rodents. It is speculated by scientists that limited resources drove the few species that lived upon the island to gigantism and dwarfism. [3]

Culture

Some Fishing Boats on Flores
There are many languages spoken on the island of Flores, all of them belonging to the Austronesian family. In the centre of the island in the districts of Ngada and Ende there is what is variously called the Central Flores Dialect Chain or the Central Flores Linkage. Within this area there are slight linguistic differences in almost every village. At least six separate languages are identifiable. These are from west to east: Ngadha, Nage, Keo, Ende, Lio and Palu'e, which is spoken on the island with the same name of the north coast of Flores. Locals would probably also add So'a and Bajawa to this list, which anthropologists have labeled dialects of Ngadha.
Portuguese traders and missionaries came to Flores in the 16th century, mainly to Larantuka and Sikka. Their influence is still discernible in Sikka's language and culture.
Flores is almost entirely Catholic and represents one of the "religious borders" created by the Catholic expansion in the Pacific and the spread of Islam from the west across Indonesia. In other places in Indonesia, such as in the Malukus and Sulawesi, the divide is more rigid and has been the source of bloody sectarian clashes.

Tourism

Bena Village
The most famous tourist attraction in Flores is Kelimutu; three coloured lakes in the district of Ende. These coloured lakes change colours on a regular basis. The latest colours (late 2004) were said to be turquoise, brown and black.
There is good snorkelling and diving on several locations along the north coast of Flores, most notably Maumere and Riung. However, due to the destructive practice of local fishermen using bombs to fish, and locals selling shells to tourists, combined with the after effects of a devastating tsunami in 1992, the reefs have slowly been destroyed.
Labuanbajo (on the western tip of Flores) is a town often used by tourists, from where they can visit Komodo and Rinca. Labuanbajo also attracts scuba divers, as whale sharks inhabit the waters around Labuanbajo.
Tourists can visit Luba and Bena villages to see traditional houses in Flores. Larantuka, on the isle's eastern end, is known for its Holy Week festivals.

References
1. ^ "Trapping Komodo Dragons for Conservation" National Geographic - 28 Jan 2003
2. ^ Flores Special, Nature
3. ^ "Hobbits" Were Pygmy Ancestors, Not New Species, Study Says National Geographic - 21 Aug 2006
4. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bali

2007-05-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

Bali is an Indonesian island located at 8°25′23″S, 115°14′55″ECoordinates: 8°25′23″S, 115°14′55″E, the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 33 provinces with the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the south of the island. The island is home to the vast majority of Indonesia's small Hindu minority. It is also the largest tourist destination in the country and is renowned for its highly developed arts, including dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking and music.

History
Bali has been inhabited since early prehistoric times firstly by descendants of a prehistoric race who migrated through mainland Asia to the Indonesian archipelago, thought to have first settled in Bali around 3000 BC.[citation needed] Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the island's west.
The end of the prehistoric period in Indonesia was marked by the arrival of Hindu people from India around 100 BC as determined by Brahmi inscriptions on potsherds. The name Balidwipa has been discovered from various inscriptions, including the Blanjong charter issued by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 913 AD and mentioning Walidwipa. It was during this time that the complex irrigation system subak was developed to grow rice. Some religious and cultural traditions still in existence today can be traced back to this period. The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. When the empire declined, there was an exodus of intellectuals, artists, priests and musicians from Java to Bali in the 15th century.
The First European contact with Bali is thought to have been when Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived in 1597, though a Portuguese ship had foundered off the Bukit Peninsula as early as 1585.[citation needed] Dutch rule over Bali came later, was more aggressively fought for, and they were never ultimately able to establish themselves as they had in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.
In the 1840s, a presence in Bali was established, first in the island's north, by playing various distrustful Balinese realms against each other. The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults first against the Sanur region and then Denpasar. The Balinese were hopelessly overwhelmed in number and armament, but rather than face the humiliation of surrender, they mounted a final defensive but suicidal assault, or puputan. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 4,000 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. Afterwards the Dutch governors were able to exercise little influence over the island, and local control over religion and culture generally remained intact.
Japan occupied Bali during World War II during which time a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. Following Japan's Pacific surrender in August 1945, the Dutch promptly returned to Indonesia, including Bali, immediately to reinstate their pre-war colonial administration. This was resisted by the Balinese rebels now using Japanese weapons.
On 20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga was fought in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, 29 years old, finally rallied his forces in east Bali at Marga Rana, where they made a suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely wiped out, breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance. In 1946 the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the newly-proclaimed Republic of East Indonesia, a rival state to the Republic of Indonesia which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Bali was included in the ‘’Republic of the United States of Indonesia’’ when the Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on Dec. 29, 1949. In 1950 Bali officially renounced the Dutch union and legally became a province within the Republic of Indonesia.
The 1963 eruption of Mount Agung killed thousands, created economic havoc and forced many displaced Balinese to be transmigrated to other parts of Indonesia.
In 1965, after a failed coup d'etat in Jakarta against the national government of Indonesia, Bali, along with other regions of Indonesia most notably Java, was the scene of widespread killings of (often falsely-accused) members and sympathizers of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) by right-wing General Soeharto-sponsored militias. Possibly more than 100,000 Balinese were killed although the exact numbers are unknown to date and the events remain legally unclosed.[2] Many unmarked but well known mass graves of victims are located around the island[citation needed].
On October 12, 2002, a car bomb attack in the tourist resort of Kuta killed 202 people, largely foreign tourists and injured a further 209. Further bombings occurred three years later in Kuta and nearby Jimbaran Bay.

Geography
Bali lies 3.2 km east of Java and approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km wide and 112 km north to south (95 by 69 miles, respectively), with a surface area of 5,632 km². The highest point is Mount Agung at 3,142 m (10,308 feet) high, an active volcano that last erupted in March 1963. Mountains cover centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Mount Batur (1,717 m) is also still active. About 30,000 years ago it experienced a catastrophic eruption — one of the largest known volcanic events on Earth.
In the south the land descends to form an alluvial plain, watered by shallow rivers, drier in the dry season and overflowing during periods of heavy rain.
The principal cities are the northern port of Singaraja, the former colonial capital of Bali, and the present provincial capital and largest city, Denpasar, near the southern coast. The town of Ubud (north of Denpasar), with its art market, museums and galleries, is arguably the cultural center of Bali.
There are major coastal roads and roads that cross the island mainly north-south. Due to the mountainous terrain in the island's center, the roads tend to follow the crests of the ridges across the mountains. There are no railway lines.
The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west black sand. The beach town of Padangbai in the south east has both: the main beach and the secret beach have white sand and the south beach and the blue lagoon have much darker sand. Pasut Beach, near Ho River and Pura Segara, is a quiet beach 14 km southwest of Tabanan. The Ho River is navigable by small sampan. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, this is not yet a tourist area.

Administrative divisions
The province is divided into 8 regencies (kabupaten) and 1 city (kota):
• Badung
• Bangli
• Buleleng
• Denpasar (city)
• Gianyar
• Jembrana
• Karangasem
• Klungkung
• Tabanan
•
Economy
Three decades ago, the Balinese economy was largely agriculture based both in terms of output and employment. Tourism is now the largest single industry and Bali is as a result one of Indonesia’s wealthiest regions. The economy, however, has suffered significantly as a result of the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005.
Although in terms of output, tourism is the economy’s largest industry, agriculture is still the island’s biggest employer[citation needed], most notably rice cultivation. Crops grown in smaller amounts include fruit, vegetables and other cash and subsisitence crops.[citation needed] A significant number of Balinese are also fishermen. Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce batik and ikat cloth and clothing, wooden carvings, stone carvings and silverware.
Although significant tourism exists in the north, centre and east of the island, the tourist industry is overwhelmingly focused in the south. The main tourist locations are the town of Kuta (with its beach), and its outer suburbs (which were once independent townships) of Legian and Seminyak, Sanur, Jimbaran, Ubud, and the newer development of Nusa Dua. The Ngurah Rai International Airport is located near Jimbaran, on the isthmus joining the southernmost part of the island to the main part of the island. Another increasingly important source of income for Bali is what is called "Congress Tourism" from the frequent international conferences held on the island, especially after the terrorist bombings of 2002; ostensibly to resurrect Bali's damaged tourism industry as well as its tarnished image.

Demographics
The population of Bali is 3,151,000 (as of 2005).
Religion
Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, about 93% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. Minority religions include Islam (5.7%), Christianity (1.4%), and Buddhism (0.6%). These official statistical figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.

Language
Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and like most Indonesians, the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual. There are several indigenous Balinese languages, but most Balinese can also use the most widely spoken option: modern common Balinese. The usage of different Balinese languages was traditionally determined by the Balinese caste system and by clan membership, but this tradition is diminishing.
English is a common third language (and the primary foreign language) of many Balinese, owing to the requirements of the large tourism industry. Japanese is a prominent language on the island, learned by its inhabitants and used on signs.[citation needed] Staff working in Bali's tourist centres are often, by necessity, multilingual to some degree, speaking as many as 8 or 9 different languages to an often surprising level of competence.
Culture

Ogoh-ogoh monster at Kuta
Bali is famous for many forms of art, including painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts. Balinese gamelan music is highly developed and varied. The dances portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, and kecak (the monkey dance).
National education programs, mass media and tourism continue to change Balinese culture. Immigration from other parts of Indonesia, especially Java, is changing the ethnic composition of Bali's population.
The Hindu new year, Nyepi, is celebrated in the spring by a day of silence. On this day everyone stays at home and tourists are encouraged to remain in their hotels. On the preceding day large, colorful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits. Other festivals throughout the year are specified by the Balinese pawukon calendrical system.
Further reading
• Grant, Gaia (2002). A Patch of Paradise: A Women's Search for a Real Life on Bali. Sydney: Bantam Books. ISBN 1-86325-360-2.
• Helmi, Rio; Walker, Barbara (1995). Bali Style. London: Times Editions Pte Ltd. ISBN 0-500-23714-X.
• Lansing, J. Stephen (1983). Perfect Order: Recognizing Complexity in Bali (Princeton Studies in Complexity). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691027277.
• Lansing, J. Stephen (1983). The Three Worlds of Bali. Praeger Publishers. ISBN 003063816X.
• McPhee, Colin (2003). A House in Bali. Periplus Editions, Singapore, 2000 (first published in 1947 by Victor Gollancz Ltd., London). ISBN 0-7864-1572-X.
• Shavit, David (2003). Bali and the tourist industry : a history, 1906-1942. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co.. ISBN 962-593-629-7.
• Vickers, Adrian (1994). Travelling to Bali: Four Hundred Years of Journeys. Oxford University Press. ISBN 967-65-3081-6.
• Whitten, T; Soeriaatmadja, R. E., Suraya A. A. (1996). The Ecology of Java and Bali. Hong Kong: Periplus Editions Ltd.
• Wijaya, M. (2002). Architecture of Bali: A source book of traditional and modern forms. Archipelago Press, Singapore. ISBN 981-4068-25-X.
References
1. ^ (2003) Indonesia's Population: Ethnicity and Religion in a Changing Political Landscape. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
2. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
3.
4. ^ 'Bali', in Robert Cribb, ed., The Indonesian killings of 1965-1966: studies from Java and Bali (Clayton, Vic.: Monash University Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash Papers on Southeast Asia no 21, 1990), pp. 241-248
• Miguel Covarrubias, Island of Bali, 1946. ISBN 962-593-060-4

See also
• Balinese people
• Tourism in Indonesia

Borneo

2007-05-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

Borneo is the third largest island in the world. It has an area of 743,330 km² (287,000 square miles), and is located at the centre of the Malay archipelago and Indonesia. Borneo is considered to be part of the geographic region of Southeast Asia. Administratively, this island is divided between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
Borneo is only a Western reference; the term is rarely used locally. The name Borneo was only given by the Dutch during their colonial period. In Indonesia, the island is always referred to as Kalimantan while in Malaysia the northern section is referred to as East Malaysia (as opposed to Western reference of Malaysian Borneo).
Geography
Borneo is surrounded by the South China Sea to the north and northwest, the Sulu Sea to the northeast, the Celebes Sea and the Makassar Strait to the east, and the Java Sea and Karimata Strait to the south.
To the west of Borneo are the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. To the south is Java. To the east is the island of Sulawesi (Celebes). To the northeast is the Philippines.
Borneo's highest point is Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia, with an elevation of 4,095 m (13,435 ft) above sea level. This makes it the world's third highest island.
The largest river systems are the Kapuas River, with approximately 1,143 km the longest river in Indonesia, the Rajang River in Sarawak with some 563 km the longest river in Malaysia, the Barito River about 880 km long and the Mahakam River about 980 km long.
Administration
Borneo is the only island in the world containing parts of three separate countries. Borneo is divided administratively into:
• The Indonesian provinces of East, South, West and Central Kalimantan
• The Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak (the Federal Territory of Labuan is located on nearshore islands of Borneo, but not on the island of Borneo itself)
• The independent sultanate of Brunei Darussalam (main part and eastern exclave of Temburong)
History
A large portion of northern Borneo was controlled by the Malay Brunei Sultanate Empire during its golden age from the 15th to 17th centuries, after the fall of the Malacca Sultanate [1] in Southeast Asia. However, the northern part of Borneo was partially controlled by the Malay Sulu Sultanate (1473–1899) and subsequently the British North Borneo Company [2] gained control of both the Sulu sultanate and the Brunei sultanate's domains in what is now Sabah. The company also exerted control on inland territories that were controlled by the numerous tribes and weren't subject to either sultanate. The territories controlled by the Brunei Sultanate in the west of the island were gradually taken under control by the British Brooke dynasty. [3]
In the 15th century, Majapahit expedition came to Borneo. Princess Junjung Buih, the queen of the Hindu kingdom of Negara Dipa (situated in Candi Agung area of Amuntai) married a Javanese prince, Prince Suryanata, and together they ruled the kingdom which is a tributary to the Majapahit Empire (1365). In this way, it became a part of Nusantara. Along the way, the power of Negara Dipa weakened and was replaced by the new court of Negara Daha. When Prince Samudra (Prince Suriansyah) of Negara Daha converted to Islam and formed the Islamic kingdom of Banjar, it inherited some of the areas previously owned by the Hindu kingdom of Negara Daha.
By the 18th century, the area from Sambas to Berau was tributaries to the Banjar Kingdom, but this eventually shrunk to the size of what is now South Kalimantan as a result to agreements with the Dutch. In the Karang Intan Agreement during the reign of Prince Nata Dilaga (Susuhunan Nata Alam)(1808-1825), the Banjar Kingdom gave up its territories to the Dutch Indies which included Bulungan, Kutai, Pasir, Pagatan and Kotawaringin. Other territories given up to the Dutch Indies were Landak, Sambas, Sintang and Sukadana.
In the early 19th century, British and Dutch governments signed the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 to exchange trading ports under their controls and assert spheres of influences, in which indirectly set apart the two parts of Borneo into British and Dutch controlled areas. China has had historical trading links with the inhabitants of the island. Some of the Chinese beads and wares found their way deep into the interior of Borneo.
Moreover in the 19th century, the dutch admitted the founding of district kingdoms with native leaders who were under the power of the dutch (Indirect Bestuur). The dutch assign a resident to head their rule over Kalimantan. List of the residents and governors of Kalimantan:
1. C.A. Kroesen (1898), resident
2. C.J. Van Kempen (1924), resident
3. J. De Haan (1924-1929), resident
4. R. Koppenel (1929-1931), resident
5. W.G. Morggeustrom (1933-1937), resident
6. Dr. A. Haga (1938-1942), governor
7. Pangeran Musa Ardi Kesuma (1942-1945), Ridzie
8. Ir. Pangeran Muhammad Noor (1945), governor
Since 1938, Dutch-Borneo (Kalimantan) was one administrative territory under a governor (Governor Haga) whose seat was in Banjarmasin. In 1957 following the independence of Indonesia, Kalimantan was divided into 3 provinces which is South Kalimantan, East Kalimantan and West Kalimantan. The province of Central Kalimantan separated from South Kalimantan to have their own territory in 1958.
During the Second World War, Japanese forces gained control of Borneo (1941–45). They decimated many local populations and Malay intellectuals, including the elimination of the Malay Sultanate of Sambas in Kalimantan [4]. Borneo was the main site of the confrontation between Indonesia and Malaysia between 1962 and 1966, as well as the communist revolts to gain control of the whole area. In recent times, the Philippines claimed that the Malaysian state of Sabah in north Borneo is within their territorial rights based on the Sulanate of Sulu's leasing agreement with the North Borneo Company and had made several confrontational claims against Malaysia. Several other territorial claims were resolved at The Hague international courts.
Ecology

Nepenthes villosa, a species of pitcher plant endemic to Kinabalu National Park, Borneo.
Borneo is very rich in biodiversity compared to many other areas (MacKinnon et al. 1998). There are about 15,000 species of flowering plants with 3,000 species of trees (267 species are dipterocarps), 221 species of terrestrial mammals and 420 species of resident birds in Borneo (MacKinnon et al. 1998). It is also the centre of evolution and radiation of many endemic species of plants and animals. The remaining Borneo rainforest is the only natural habitat for the endangered Bornean Orangutan. It is also an important refuge for many endemic forest species, and the Asian Elephant, the Sumatran Rhinoceros and the Bornean Clouded Leopard.

Mount Kinabalu, a major center of biodiversity in Borneo.
The World Wildlife Fund divides the island into seven distinct ecoregions. The Borneo lowland rain forests cover most of the island, with an area of 427,500 km². Other lowland ecoregions are the Borneo peat swamp forests, the Kerangas or Sundaland heath forests, the Southwest Borneo freshwater swamp forests, and the Sunda Shelf mangroves. The Borneo montane rain forests lie in the central highlands of the island, above the 1000 meter elevation. The highest elevations of Mount Kinabalu are home to the Kinabalu montane alpine meadows, an alpine shrubland notable for its numerous endemic species, including many orchids.
The island historically had extensive rainforest cover, but the area is shrinking rapidly due to heavy logging for the needs of the Malaysian plywood industry. One half of the annual tropical timber acquisition of the whole world comes from Borneo. Furthermore, palm oil plantations are rapidly encroaching on the last remnants of primary rainforest. The rainforest was also greatly destroyed due to the forest fires in 1997 to 1998 which were started by people and coincided with an exceptional drought season of El Niño. During the great fire, hotspots could be seen on satellite images and a haze was created that affected Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
In order to combat overpopulation in Java, the Indonesian government started a massive transmigration (transmigrasi) of poor farmers and landless peasants into Borneo in the 70's and 80's, to farm the logged areas, albeit with little success as the fertility of the land has been removed with the trees and what soil remains is washed away in tropical downpours.

Ethnic and biological diversity
Satellite image of the island of Borneo on August 19, 2002, showing smoke from burning peat swamp forests.
There are over 30 ethnic groups living in Borneo, making the population of this island one of the most variegated of human social groups. The native ethnic groups are Austronesians and their languages belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language family. Some ethnicities encompass only between 30-100 individuals and are threatened with extinction in terms of culture, language, traditional ecological knowledge, traditional skills, ethnomusic and local knowledge yet to be documented by anthropologists. Ancestral knowledge of ethnobotany [5] and ethnozoology [6] is said to be useful in new drug discoveries (for example, bintangor plant for AIDS) or as future alternative food sources (such as sago starch for lactic acid production and sago maggots as a protein source).
Certain indigenous people (such as the Kayan, Kenyah, Punan Bah and Penan) living on the island have been struggling for decades for their right to preserve their environment from loggers and transmigrant settlers and colonists. Land reform is needed for future development in the face of rapid economic changes.
The type of rainforests found in Borneo include the high diversity mixed dipterocarp forest, the rare peat swamp forests and heath forest.
Researchers scouring swamps in the heart of Borneo island have discovered a venomous species of snake that can change its skin color. Scientists named their find the Kapuas mud snake, and speculated it might only occur in the Kapuas River drainage system.
World Wildlife Fund has stated that 361 animal and plant species have been discovered in Borneo since 1996, underscoring its unparalleled biodiversity. [7]
Furthering the unparalleled biodiversity of the island of Borneo, in the 18 month period from July 2005 until December 2006, another 52 new species were found.

References
• Ghazally Ismail et al. (eds.) Scientific Journey Through Borneo Series. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan. 1996-2001.
• Gudgeon, L. W. W. British North Borneo. Adam and Charles Black, London. (An early well-illustrated book on "British North Borneo", now known as Sabah.) 1913.
• MacKinnon K, Hatta G, Halim H, Mangalik A. The ecology of Kalimantan. Oxford University Press, London. 1998.
• K M Wong & C L Chan. "Mt Kinabalu: Borneo's Magic Mountain." Natural History Publication, Kota Kinabalu. 1998.
• David Macdonald. Expedition to Borneo.
• Dennis Lau. Borneo: A Photographic Journey.
• Stephen Holley. White Headhunter in Borneo.
• Robert Young Pelton Borneo.
• From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lombok

2007-05-11T23:34:00.000-07:00

Lombok (1990 pop. 2,403,025) is an island in West Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia. It is part of the chain of the Lesser Sunda Islands, with the Lombok Strait separating it from Bali to the west and the Alas Strait between it and Sumbawa to the east. It is roughly circular, with a "tail" to the southwest, about 70 km across and a total area of about 4,725 km² (1,825 sq mi). The administrative capital and largest city on the island is Mataram.
Lombok means Chilli In the local Sasak Language, or Cabe (Chilli) in the universal national Indonesia languange (Bahasa Indonesian).
History
The Dutch first visited Lombok in 1674 and settled the eastern part of the island, leaving the western half to be ruled by a Hindu dynasty from Bali. The Sasaks chafed under Balinese rule, and a revolt in 1891 ended in 1894 with the annexation of the entire island to the Netherlands East Indies.

Geography and demographics

Gunung Rinjani
The Lombok Strait marks the passage of the biogeographical division between the fauna of the Indomalayan ecozone and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia that is known as the Wallace Line, for Alfred Russel Wallace, who first remarked upon the distinction between these two major biomes.
The island's topography is dominated by the centrally-located stratovolcano Mount Rinjani, which rises to 3,726 m (12,224 ft), making it the third-largest in Indonesia. The most recent eruption of Rinjani was in June-July, 1994. The volcano, and its sacred crater lake, are protected by a National Park established in 1997. The southern part of the island is a fertile plain where corn, rice, coffee, tobacco, and cotton are grown.
The island's inhabitants are 85% Sasak (a people, closely related to the Balinese, but mostly practising Islam), 10-15% Balinese, with the small remainder being Chinese, Arab, Javanese, and Sumbawanese.

Economy and politics

Gili Meno West Coast
Lombok has much in common with nearby Bali, but less well-known and less-visited by foreigners. It has been working to increase its visibility to tourists in recent years, promoting itself as an "unspoiled Bali". The most-developed center of tourism is Senggigi, spread in a 10-kilometer strip along the coastal road north of Mataram, while backpackers congregate in the Gili Islands off the west coast. Other popular tourist destinations include Kuta (distinctly different from Kuta, Bali) where surfing is considered some of the best in the world by leading surfing magazines. The Kuta area is also famous for its beautiful, untouched beaches.
While the area may be considered economically depressed by First World standards, the island is fertile, has sufficient rainfall in most areas for agriculture, and possesses a variety of climate zones. Consequently, food in abundant quantity and variety is available inexpensively at local farmer's markets. A family of 4 can eat rice, vegetables, and fruit for as little as US$0.50. Even though a family income may be as small as US$1.00 per day from fishing or farming, many families are able to live a happy and productive live on astonishingly small incomes.
In early 2000 thousands fled from religious and ethnic violence that swept over the island, and tensions remain. Some travel websites warn that tourists sometimes provoke anger in this economically depressed region. This warning lacks credibility, since all of Lombok has had a long history of welcoming visitors to the island. Both the government and many of the residents recognize that tourism and the services required by tourists is Lombok's highest source of income. Further proof of the island's hospitality is show by the fact that tourists are virtually never seriously injured by any interaction with the local population. There is also a refugee camp on the island, costs paid for by Australia, which holds mostly Hazara Afghans who have tried to enter Australia by boat.
References
This article does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
Any material not supported by sources may be challenged and removed at any time.
This article has been tagged since October 2006
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

History of Indonesia

2007-03-11T18:50:00.000-07:00

Indonesia is an archipelagic country of 17,508 islands (6,000 inhabited) stretching along the equator in South East Asia. The area is populated by peoples of various migrations, creating a diversity of cultures, ethnicities, and languages. These diverse peoples have been influenced to varying degrees by trade and contact with the civilizations of the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia; and later influenced by Europe through Portuguese and Dutch colonialists. From the early seventeenth century, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) sort to control lucrative Indonesian trade through military and political domination. In 1800, VOC interests in Indonesia were nationalised into the Dutch East Indies. It was not until 1914 however, that Dutch rule and hegemony had been extended across all parts of what is now modern day Indonesia, at a time when indigenous Indonesian nationalism was first emerging as a political force.
The outbreak of World War II saw Indonesia put in the middle of warfare between the Dutch and Imperial Japan. The defeat of the Dutch saw them driven out and replaced with Japanese occupation forces, but the weakening of these two world powers provided an opening for Indonesian Nationalists, led by Sukarno, and other independence movements to launch an armed conflict. After a brief time, during which the Dutch sought to re-colonize the country, the Indonesian Nationalists won recognition for the newly formed Republic of Indonesia. In doing so, it was among the first Third World nations to gain its independence after World War II.
Soon after gaining independence, Indonesia was fashioned as a unitary state with its government in Jakarta. The administration of Indonesia's founding President, Sukarno, was weakened by internal conflict between the Indonesian Army and the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), General Suharto took power in 1966. His authoritarian administration, the New Order, lasted 32 years and was marked by strong central government and rapid industrialisation, but widespread allegations of corruption and misuse of power. Following popular demonstrations and failing political support, Suharto resigned as president, beginning the present period of Indonesian history, known as the Reformasi era.
Prehistory

The skull of H. floresiensis.
Geologically the area of modern Indonesia appeared sometime around the Pleistocene period, when it was still linked with the Asian mainland. The archipelago formed during the thaw after the latest ice age. Fossilized remains of Homo erectus, popularly known as the "Java Man", suggest the Indonesian archipelago was inhabited two million to 500,000 years ago.[1] Recent discoveries on the island of Flores were dubbed "Flores Man" (Homo floresiensis), a miniature hominoid that grew only three feet tall, although whether this is a separate species is in dispute. Nevertheless, Flores Man seems to have shared some islands with Java Man until only 10,000 years ago, when they became extinct.
Austronesian people, who form the majority of the modern population, migrated to South East Asia from Taiwan. They arrived in Indonesia around 2000 BCE, and confined the native Melanesian peoples to the far eastern regions as they expanded.[2] Ideal agricultural conditions, and the mastering of wet-field rice cultivation as early as the eighth century BCE,[3] allowed villages, towns, and small kingdoms to flourish by the first century CE.
Early history
Indian scholars wrote about the Dvipantara or Jawa Dwipa Hindu kingdom in Java and Sumatra around 200 BC.
The earliest archeological record from the present era is from the Ujung Kulon National Park, West Java, where an early Hindu archeological relic of a Ganesha statue from the 1st century AD was found on the summit of Mount Raksa in Panaitan Island.
There is also archeological evidence of a kingdom in Tatar Sunda / Sunda Territory (West Java) dating from the 2nd century, and according to Dr Tony Djubiantono, the head of Bandung Archeology Agency, Jiwa Temple in Batujaya, Karawang, Java was also built around this time.
Three rough plinths dating from the beginning of the fourth century are found in Kutai, East Kalimantan, near Mahakam River. The plinths bear an inscription in the Pallava script of India reading "A gift to the Brahmin priests". In addition, the "Batu Tulis" monument (a huge black boulder) near Bogor, West Java, dates from around 450. On this monument, King Purnavarna inscribed his name and made an imprint of his footprints, as well as his elephant's footprints. The accompanying inscription reads, "Here are the footprints of King Purnavarna, the heroic conqueror of the world". This inscription is in Sanskrit and is still clear after 1500 years.
Pre-colonial civilizations
A number of Hindu and Buddhist states flourished and declined across Indonesia. By the time of the European Renaissance, the two largest islands in what is now Indonesia, Java and Sumatra had already seen over a millennium of civilization and two major empires.
The political history of Indonesia during the fourteenth and fifteen centuries is not well known due to scarcity of evidence. Two major states dominated this period; Majapahit in East Java, the greatest of the pre-Islamic Indonesian states, and Malacca on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, arguably the greatest of the Muslim trading empires.[4]

Kingdom of Mataram
Main article: Kingdom of Mataram

Shown here is a 1100-year-old Siva temple in Java, Indonesia. Prambanan temple complex is one of the largest Hindu temples in south-east Asia.
Mataram was an Indianized kingdom based in Central Java (the area surrounding modern-day Yogyakarta) between the 8th and 10th centuries. The centre of the kingdom was moved from Central Java to East Java by Mpu Sindok. The move may have been caused by an eruption of the volcano Mount Merapi, or a power struggle.
The first king of Mataram was Sanjaya, who drove the Sailendras from Java and left inscriptions in stone. The monumental Hindu temple of Prambanan in the vicinity of Yogyakarta was built by Daksa. Dharmawangsa ordered the translation of the Mahabharata into Old Javanese in 996.
The kingdom collapsed into chaos at the end of Dharmawangsa's reign under military pressure from Srivijaya. Airlangga, a son of Udayana of Bali and a relative of Dharmawangsa re-established the kingdom (including Bali) under the name of Kahuripan.
Srivijaya Empire
Main article: Srivijaya
Srivijaya (-sri meaning glitters or radiant, -jaya meaning success or excellence) was an ancient Malay kingdom on the island of Sumatra which influenced much of the Malay Archipelago. Records of its beginning are scarce, and estimates are from the 200s to the 500s. It ceased to exist around the year 1400.
Around 500 the roots of Srivijaya developed around present-day Palembang, and around the year 600 Chinese records mention two kingdoms on Sumatra based at Jambi and Palembang, as well as three kingdoms on Java.
Srivijaya was centered in the coastal trading center of present day Palembang. The empire was a thalassocracy and did not extend its influence far beyond the coastal areas of the islands of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was organised in three main zones — the estuarine capital region centred on Palembang, the Musi River basin which served as hinterland, and rival esturarine zones capable of formng rival power centres. The capital zone was administered directly by the ruler. The hinterland zone remained under its own local datus or chiefs who were organized into a network of allegiance to the maharaja. Force was the dominant element in the empire's relations with rival river systems such as the Batang Hari river basin centred on Jambi. The ruling lineage intermarried with and allied with the Sailendras of Central Java.
Although historical records and archaeological evidence are scarce, it appears that by the seventh century, Srivijaya established suzerainty over large areas of Sumatra, western Java, and much of the Malay Peninsula. Dominating the Malacca and Sunda straits, Srivijaya controlled both the Spice Route traffic and local trade, charging a toll on passing ships, and remained a formidable sea power until the thirteenth century. This spread the Malay culture throughout Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, and western Borneo.
A stronghold of Vajrayana Buddhism, Srivijaya attracted pilgrims and scholars from other parts of Asia. These included the Chinese monk Yijing, who made several lengthy visits to Sumatra on his way to study at Nalanda in India in 671 and 695, and the eleventh-century Buddhist scholar Atisha, who played a major role in the development of Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet. Travellers to these islands mentioned that gold coinage was in use on the coasts, but not inland.
In 1068, Rajendra Chola, the Chola king of Tamil Nadu, conquered Kedah from Srivijaya. The Cholas continued a series of raids and conquests throughout what is now Indonesia and Malaysia for the next 20 years. Although the Chola invasion was ultimately unsuccessful, it gravely weakened the Srivijayan hegemony and enabled the formation of regional kingdoms based, like Kediri, on intensive agriculture rather than coastal and long distance trade.
Srivijaya influence waned by the 11th century. The island was in frequent conflict with the Javanese kingdoms, first Singhasari and then Majapahit. Islam eventually made its way to the Aceh region of Sumatra, spreading its influence through contacts with Arabs and Indian traders. By the late 13th century, the kingdom of Pasai (in northern Sumatra) converted to Islam. At the same time Srivijaya was briefly a tributary of the Khmer empire and later the Sukhothai kingdom. The last inscription dates to 1374, in a crown prince, Ananggavarman, is mentioned.
By 1414 Parameswara, the last prince of Srivijaya converted to Islam, and founded the Sultanate of Malacca on the Malay peninsula.
Singhasari and the Majapahit Empire
Main article: Singhasari
Main article: Majapahit Empire
Two empires would originate in Eastern Java, and would drive Srivijaya and assume its territory: the Singhasari and the Majapahit. Singhasari was a kingdom located in east Java between 1222 and 1292. The Majapahit Empire would emerge later, and ruled much of the southern Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, and Bali from about 1293 to around 1500.
The founder of the Majapahit Empire, Kertarajasa, was the son-in-law of the ruler of the Singhasari kingdom, also based in Java. After Singhasari drove Srivijaya out of Java altogether in 1290, the rising power of Singhasari came to the attention of Kublai Khan in China and he sent emissaries demanding tribute. Kertanagara, ruler of the Singhasari kingdom, refused to pay tribute and the Khan sent a punitive expedition which arrived off the coast of Java in 1293. By that time, a rebel from Kediri, Jayakatwang, had killed Kertanagara. The Majapahit founder allied himself with the Mongols against Jayakatwang and, once the Singhasari kingdom was destroyed, turned and forced his Mongol allies to withdraw in confusion.
Gajah Mada, an ambitious Majapahit prime minister and regent from 1331 to 1364, extended the empire's rule to the surrounding islands. A few years after Gajah Madah's death, the Majapahit navy captured Palembang, putting an end to the Srivijayan kingdom. Although the Majapahit rulers extended their power over other islands and destroyed neighboring kingdoms, their focus seems to have been on controlling and gaining a larger share of the commercial trade that passed through the archipelago. About the time Majapahit was founded, Muslim traders and proselytizers began entering the area.
After peaking the 1300s, Majapahit power began to decline with a war over succession that started in 1401 and went on for four years. Majapahit found itself unable to control the rising power of the Sultanate of Malacca. Dates for the end of the Majapahit Empire range from 1478 to 1520. A large number of courtiers, artisans, priests, and members of the royalty moved east to the island of Bali at the end of Majapahit's existence.
The spread of Islam
Main article: The spread of Islam in Indonesia (1200 to 1600)
Islam was first established in Indonesia sometime during the 12th century and, through assimilation, supplanted Hinduism by the end of the 16th century in Java and Sumatra. Only Bali retained a Hindu majority. In the eastern archipelago, both Christian and Islamic missionaries were active in the 16th and 17th centuries, and, currently, there are large communities of both religions on these islands. The spread of Islam was driven by increasing trade links outside of the archipelago; in general, traders and the royalty of major kingdoms were the first to adopt the new religion. Dominant kingdoms included Mataram in Central Java, and the sultanates of Ternate and Tidore in the Maluku Islands to the east. Although it is known that the spread of Islam began in the west of the archipelago, the fragmentary evidence does not suggest a rolling wave of conversion through adjacent areas; rather, it suggests the process was complicated and slow.[5]
[Sultanate of Mataram
Main article: Sultanate of Mataram
Sultanate of Mataram was the third Sultanate in Java. The first was Demak Bintoro and the second was Pajang
According to Javanese records, Kyai Gedhe Pamanahan became the ruler of the Mataram area some time within the in the 1570s with the support of the kingdom of Pajang to the east, near the current site of Surakarta (Solo). Pamanahan was often referred to as Kyai Gedhe Mataram after his ascension.
Pamanahan's son, Panembahan Senapati Ingalaga, replaced his father on the throne around 1584. Under Senapati the kingdom grew substantially through regular military campaigns against Mataram's neighbors. Shortly after his accession, for example, he conquered his father's patrons in Pajang.
The reign of Panembahan Seda ing Krapyak (c. 1601-1613), the son of Senapati, was dominated by further warfare, especially against powerful Surabaya, already a major center in East Java. The first contact between Mataram and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) occurred under Krapyak. Dutch activities at the time were limited to trading from limited coastal settlements, so their interactions with the inland Mataram kingdom were limited, although they did form an alliance against Surabaya in 1613. Krapyak died that year.
Krapyak was succeeded by his son, who is known simply as Sultan Agung ("Great Sultan") in Javanese records. Agung was responsible for the great expansion and lasting historical legacy of Mataram due to the extensive military conquests of his long reign from 1613 to 1646.
After years of war Agung finally conquered Surabaya. The city was taken not through outright military invasion, but instead because Agung surrounded it on land and sea, starving it into submission. With Surabaya brought into the empire, the Mataram kingdom encompassed all of central and eastern Java, and Madura; only in the west did Banten and the Dutch settlement in Batavia remain outside Agung's control. He tried repeatedly in the 1620s and 1630s to drive the Dutch from Batavia, but his armies had met their match, and he was forced to share control over Java.
In 1645 he began building Imogiri, his burial place, about fifteen kilometers south of Yogyakarta. Imogiri remains the resting place of most of the royalty of Yogyakarta and Surakarta to this day. Agung died in the spring of 1646, with his image of royal invincibility shattered by his losses to the Dutch, but he did leave behind an empire that covered most of Java and stretched to its neighboring islands.
Upon taking the throne, Agung's son Susuhunan Amangkurat I tried to bring long-term stability to Mataram's realm, murdering local leaders that were insufficiently deferential to him, and closing ports so he alone had control over trade with the Dutch.
By the mid-1670s dissatisfaction with the king fanned into open revolt, beginning at the margins and creeping inward. Raden Trunajaya, a prince from Madura, lead a revolt fortified by itinerant fighters from faraway Makassar that captured the king's court at Mataram in mid-1677. The king escaped to the north coast with his eldest son, the future king Amangkurat II, leaving his younger son Pangeran Puger in Mataram. Apparently more interested in profit and revenge than in running a struggling empire, the rebel Trunajaya looted the court and withdrew to his stronghold in East Java leaving Puger in control of a weak court.
Amangkurat I died just after his expulsion, making Amangkurat II king in 1677. He too was nearly helpless, though, having fled without an army or treasury to build one. In an attempt to regain his kingdom, he made substantial concessions to the Dutch, who then went to war to reinstate him. For the Dutch, a stable Mataram empire that was deeply indebted to them would help ensure continued trade on favorable terms. They were willing to lend their military might to keep the kingdom together. Dutch forces first captured Trunajaya, then forced Puger to recognize the sovereignty of his elder brother Amangkurat II.
Colonial era
Beginning in the sixteenth century, successive waves of Europeans—the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and British—sought to dominate the spice trade at its sources in India and the 'Spice Islands' (Maluku) of Indonesia. This meant finding a way to Asia to cut out Muslim merchants who, with their Venetian outlet in the Mediterranean, monopolised spice imports to Europe. Astronomically priced at the time, spices were highly coveted not only to preserve and make poorly preserved meat palatable, but also as medicines and magic potions.
The arrival of Europeans in South East Asia is often regarded as the watershed moment in its history. Other scholars consider this view untenable,[6] arguing that European influence during the times of the early arrivals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was limited in both area and depth. This is in part due to Europe not being the most advanced or dynamic area of the world in the early fifteenth century. Rather, the major expansionist force of this time was Islam; in 1453, for example, the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople, while Islam continued to spread through Indonesia and the Philippines. European influence, particularly that of the Dutch, would not have its greatest impact on Indonesia until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The Portuguese
Europeans were, however, making technological advances; new found Portuguese expertise in navigation, ship building and weaponry allowed them to make daring expeditions of exploration and expansion. Starting with the first exploratory expeditions sent from newly-conquered Malacca in 1512, the Portuguese came to Indonesia seeking to dominate the sources of valuable spices and to extend their Roman Catholic missionary efforts. Maluku comprised a varied collection of principalities and kingdoms that were occasionally at war with each other but maintained significant inter-island and international trade. Through both military conquest and alliance with local rulers, they established trading posts, forts, and missions in eastern Indonesia including the islands of Ternate, Ambon, and Solor. The height of Portuguese missionary activities, however, came at the latter half of the sixteenth century, after the pace of their military conquest in the archipelago had stopped and their east Asian interest was shifting to Japan, Macau and China; and sugar in Brazil and the Atlantic slave trade in turn further distracted their Indonesian efforts.
The Portuguese presence in Indonesia was reduced to Solor, Flores and Timor in modern day Nusa Tenggara, following defeat in 1575 at Ternate at the hands of indigenous Ternateans, Dutch conquests in Ambon, north Maluku and Banda, and a general failure for sustained control of trade in the region.[7] In comparison with the original Portuguese ambition to dominate Asian trade, their influences on Indonesian culture are small: the romantic keroncong guitar ballads; a large number of Indonesian words which reflect Portuguese’s role as the 'lingua franca' of the archipelago alongside Malay; and many family names in eastern Indonesia such as da Costa, Dias, de Fretes, Gonsalves, etc. The most significant impacts of the Portuguese arrival were the disruption and disorganisation of the trade network mostly as a result of their conquest of Malacca, and the first significant plantings of Christianity in Indonesia. There have continued to be Christian communities in eastern Indonesia through to contemporary times, which has contributed to a sense of shared interest with Europeans, particularly among the Ambonese.[8]
Dutch East-India Company
Main article: Dutch East India Company
The Dutch followed the Portuguese aspirations, courage, brutality and strategies but brought better organisation, weapons, ships, and superior financial backing. Although they failed to gain complete control of the Indonesian spice trade, they had much more success than the previous Portuguese efforts. Beginning in 1602 with the founding of the Dutch East India Company, the Dutch took three centuries to establish themselves as rulers of what is now Indonesia, exploiting the fractionalisation of the small kingdoms that had replaced Majapahit. Unlike the Portuguese, the Dutch established a permanent foothold in Java, from which the Dutch ultimately established a land-based colonial empire known as the Dutch East Indies into one of the world's richest colonial possessions.[citation needed] Although the full extent of the colonial territory was not established until the early Twentieth century, it was these boundaries that formed the modern nation of Indonesia that was declared in 1945. Portuguese Timor, however, remained under Portuguese rule until 1975 when it was invaded and occupied, and declared the Indonesia province of East Timor until 1999.

The logo of the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch East-India Company (VOC).
In the 17th and 18th centuries the Dutch East Indies were not controlled directly by the Dutch government, but by a joint-stock trading company, the Dutch East India Company (in Dutch: Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC). The VOC had been awarded a monopoly on trade and colonial activities in the region by the Dutch parliament in 1602, but had no territory of its own in Java. In 1619, the Company conquered the Javanese city of Jayakarta, burned it to the ground and then founded the city of Batavia (present-day Jakarta), modelling it on Amsterdam.
A primary aim of the VOC was the maintenance of its monopoly of the spice trade in the archipelago. It did this through the use and threatened use of violence against the peoples of the spice-producing islands, and against non-Dutch outsiders who attempted to trade with them. For example, when the people of the Banda Islands continued to sell nutmeg to English merchants, the Dutch killed or deported virtually the entire population and repopulated the islands with VOC indentured servants and slaves who worked in the nutmeg groves.
The VOC became deeply involved in the internal politics of Java in this period, and fought in a number of wars involving the leaders of Mataram and Banten (Bantam).
Dutch state rule
See also: Netherlands East Indies
After the VOC went bankrupt at the end of the 18th century and after a short British rule under Thomas Stamford Raffles, the Dutch state took over the VOC possessions in 1816.[citation needed] A Javanese uprising was crushed in the Java War of 1825-1830. After 1830 a system of forced cultivations was introduced on Java, the Cultivation System (in Dutch: cultuurstelsel). This system brought the Dutch and their Indonesian collaborators enormous wealth. The cultivation system was a government monopoly and was abolished in a more liberal period after 1870.
During Dutch rule, several important treaties that delineate modern Indonesian borders were signed. One of them was the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824. This particular treaty effectively delineated the border of future British Malaya and Dutch East Indies.
In 1901 the Dutch adopted what they called the Ethical Policy, which included somewhat increased investment in indigenous education, and modest political reforms. Under governor-general J.B. van Heutsz the government extended more direct colonial rule throughout the Dutch East Indies, thereby laying the foundations of today's Indonesian state.
Early nationalist groups
Main article: Indonesian National Revival
In 1908 the first nationalist movement was formed, Budi Utomo, followed in 1912 by the first nationalist mass movement, Sarekat Islam. The Dutch responded after the First World War with repressive measures. The nationalist leaders came from a small group of young professionals and students, some of whom had been educated in the Netherlands. Many, including Indonesia's first president, Sukarno (1901-70), were imprisoned for political activities.
In 1914 exiled Dutch socialist Henk Sneevliet founded the Indies Social Democratic Association. Initially a small forum of Dutch socialists, it would later evolve into the Communist Party of Indonesia.
World War II
Sukarno, leader of the Indonesian Nationalists, and first president of Indonesia
In May 1940, early in World War II, the Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany. The Dutch East Indies declared a state of siege and in July redirected exports for Japan to the US and Britain. Negotiations with the Japanese aimed at securing supplies of aviation fuel collapsed in June 1941, and the Japanese started their conquest of Southeast Asia in December of that year. That same month, factions from Sumatra sought Japanese assistance for a revolt against the Dutch wartime government. The last Dutch forces were defeated by Japan in March 1942.
Japanese occupation
Main article: Japanese Occupation of Indonesia
During World War II, with the Netherlands under German occupation, Japan began a five-prong campaign in December 1941 towards Java and the vital fuel supplies of the Dutch East Indies.[9] In July 1942, Sukarno accepted Japan's offer to rally the public in support of the Japanese war effort. Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta were decorated by the Emperor of Japan in 1943. However, experience of the Japanese occupation of Indonesia varied considerably, depending upon where one lived and one's social position. Many who lived in areas considered important to the war effort experienced torture, sex slavery, arbitrary arrest and execution, and other war crimes. Thousands taken away from Indonesia as war labourers (romusha) suffered or died as a result of ill-treatment and starvation. People of Dutch and mixed Dutch-Indonesian descent were particular targets of the Japanese occupation.
In March 1945 Japan organized an Indonesian committee (BPUPKI) on independence. At its first meeting in May, Supomo spoke of national integration and against personal individualism; while Muhammad Yamin suggested that the new nation should claim Sarawak, Sabah, Malaya, Portuguese Timor, and all the pre-war territories of the Dutch East Indies. The committee drafted the 1945 Constitution, which remains in force, though now much amended.
On 9 August 1945 Sukarno, Hatta, and Radjiman Wediodiningrat were flown to meet Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi in Vietnam. They were told that Japan intended to announce Indonesian independence on 24 August. After the Japanese surrender however, Sukarno unilaterally proclaimed Indonesian independence on 17 August.

Indonesian National Revolution
Main article: Indonesian National Revolution
Informed that Japan no longer had the power to make such decisions on 16 August, Sukarno read out a brief unilateral "Proklamasi" (Declaration of Independence) on the following day. Word of the proclamation spread by shortwave and fliers while the Indonesian war-time military (PETA), youths, and others rallied in support of the new republic, often moving to take over government offices from the Japanese.
On 29 August 1945 the group appointed Sukarno as President and Mohammad Hatta as Vice-President using the constitution drafted by the BPUPKI. The BPUPKI was renamed the KNIP (Central Indonesian National Committee) and became a temporary governing body until elections could be held. This group declared the new government on 31 August and determined that the new Republic of Indonesia would cover all the territory of the Dutch East Indies, and would consist of 8 provinces: Sumatra, Borneo, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Sulawesi, Maluku, and Sunda Kecil.
From 1945 to 1949 the Australian maritime unions in sympathy with an independence effort, enforced a total ban on all Dutch shipping throughout the long conflict, to deny Dutch authorities access to the shipping, supplies and logistical support required to re-establish colonial control. Following the defeat of Japan in the World War, the Netherlands' Army, at first backed by the British, attempted to reoccupy their former East Indies colonies.[10] Indonesia's war for independence lasted from 1945 until December 27, 1949 when, under heavy international pressure, especially from the United States, which threatened to cut off Marshall Plan funds, the Netherlands acknowledged the independence of Indonesia as a Federation of autonomous states.[11] This federation soon became a republic with Sukarno as president and Hatta as vice president. See Indonesian National Revolution. It was not until August 17, 2005 that the Dutch government recognized 1945 as the country's year of independence[12][13].
Dutch efforts to reestablish complete control met resistance. At the war's end, a power vacuum arose, and the nationalists often succeeded in seizing the arms of the demoralised Japanese. A period of unrest with city guerrilla warfare called the Bersiap period ensued. Groups of Indonesian nationalists armed with improvised weapons (like bamboo spears) but also firearms attacked returning Allied troops. 3500 Europeans were killed and 20000 were missing, meaning more European deaths in Indonesia after the war than during the war. After returning to Java, Dutch forces quickly re-occupied the colonial capital of Batavia (now Jakarta), so the city of Yogyakarta in central Java became the capital of the nationalist forces. Negotiations with the nationalists led to two major truce agreements, but disputes about their implementation, and much mutual provocation, led each time to renewed conflict. Within four years the Dutch had recaptured almost the whole of Indonesia, but guerilla resistance, led on Java by commander Nasution persisted. On 27 December 1949, after four years of sporadic warfare and fierce criticism of the Dutch by the United Nations, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands acknowledged sovereignty to a federal Indonesian Government. In 1950, Indonesia became the 60th member of the United Nations .
Independence era

The independece declaration announced by Sukarno
Shortly after hostilities with the Dutch ended in 1949, Indonesia adopted a new constitution providing for a parliamentary system of government in which the executive was chosen by and made responsible to parliament. Parliament was divided among many political parties before and after the country's first nationwide election in 1955, and stable governmental coalitions were difficult to achieve.
The role of Islam in Indonesia became a divisive issue. Sukarno defended a secular state based on Pancasila while some Muslim groups preferred either an Islamic state or a constitution that included preambular provision requiring adherents of Islam to be subject to Islamic law.
Unsuccessful rebellions on Sumatra, Sulawesi, West Java, and other islands beginning in 1958, plus a failure by the constituent assembly to develop a new constitution, weakened the parliamentary system. Consequently, in 1959, when President Sukarno unilaterally revived the provisional 1945 constitution, which gave broad presidential powers, he met little resistance.
Guided Democracy
Coat of Arms of the Republic of Indonesia, adopted 1950
From 1959 to 1965, President Sukarno imposed an authoritarian regime under the label of "Guided Democracy." He also moved Indonesia's foreign policy toward nonalignment, a foreign policy stance supported by other prominent leaders of former colonies who rejected formal alliances with either the Western or Soviet blocs. Under Sukarno's auspices, these leaders gathered in Bandung, West Java, 1955, to lay the groundwork for what became known as the Non-Aligned Movement. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, President Sukarno moved closer to Asian communist states and toward the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) in domestic affairs. Though the PKI represented the largest communist party outside the Soviet Union and China, its mass support base never demonstrated an ideological adherence typical of communist parties in other countries.
West Irian question
At the time of independence, the Dutch retained control over the western half of New Guinea, and permitted steps toward their own self-government and declaration of independence December 1, 1961.
After negotiations with the Dutch on the incorporation of the territory into Indonesia failed, an Indonesian paratroop invasion December 18 preceded armed clashes between Indonesian and Dutch troops in 1961 and 1962. In 1962 the United States pressured the Netherlands into secret talks with Indonesia which in August 1962 produced the New York Agreement, and Indonesia assumed administrative responsibility for West Irian on May 1, 1963.
[Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation
Main article: Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation
In 1961, the island of Borneo was divided into four separate states: Kalimantan, an Indonesian province, was located in the south of the island. In the north were the sultanate of Brunei (a British protectorate) and two British colonies — Sarawak and British North Borneo (which was later renamed Sabah). As a part of its withdrawal from its Southeast Asian colonies, the UK moved to combine its colonies on Borneo with those on peninsular Malaya, to form Malaysia.
In Brunei, the Indonesian-backed North Kalimantan National Army (TKNU) revolted on December 8, 1962. They tried to capture the Sultan of Brunei, seize the oil fields and take European hostages. The Sultan escaped and asked for British help. He received British and Gurkha troops from Singapore. On December 16, British Far Eastern Command claimed that all major rebel centers had been occupied, and on April 17, 1963, the rebel commander was captured and the rebellion ended.
The Philippines and Indonesia formally agreed to accept the formation of Malaysia if a majority in the disputed region voted for it in a referendum organized by the United Nations. However, on September 16, before the results of the vote were reported, the Malaysian government announced that the federation would be created, depicting the decision as an internal matter, with no need for consultation. The Indonesian government saw this as a broken promise and as evidence of British imperialism.
On January 20, 1963, Indonesian Foreign Minister Subandrio announced that Indonesia would pursue a policy of Konfrontasi with Malaysia. On April 12, Indonesian volunteers — allegedly Indonesian Army personnel — began to infiltrate Sarawak and Sabah, to engage in raids and sabotage, and spread propaganda. On July 27, Sukarno declared that he was going to "crush Malaysia" or in Indonesian "Ganyang Malaysia".
Tensions rose on both sides of the Straits of Malacca. Two days later rioters burned the British embassy in Jakarta. Several hundred rioters sacked the Singapore embassy in Jakarta and the homes of Singaporean diplomats. In Malaysia, Indonesian agents were captured and crowds attacked the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
When the United Nations accepted Malaysia as a nonpermanent member, Sukarno withdrew Indonesia from the UN and attempted to form the Conference of New Emerging Forces (Conefo) as an alternative.
In mid-1965, the Indonesian government began to openly use Indonesian army forces. On June 28, they crossed the border into eastern Sebatik Island near Tawau, Sabah, and clashed with defenders. The outbreak of an all-out war would only be stopped by the outbreak of civil war in Indonesia.
Overthrow of Sukarno
Main article: Overthrow of Sukarno
By late 1965, the Indonesian Army had fragmented into Left-wing and right-wing camps. The former were allied with the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), which also controlled many of the mass civic and cultural organizations that Sukarno had established to mobilize support for his regime. The latter were courted from abroad by the United States, which trained a number of Army officers and which formed a number of think-tanks. After gaining Sukarno's acquiescence, the PKI began to arm groups of peasants in order to combat the growing power of right-wing military commands in the countryside. Army leaders objected to this campaign.
On September 30, 1965 six senior generals within the military and several other officers were murdered by palace guards, alleged to be loyal to the PKI. The guards claimed they were attempting to stop an attempt by the generals to assassinate President Sukarno. After panic spread throughout Indonesia about a communist coup attempt, Major General Suharto, the commander of the Army Strategic Reserve (Kostrad), organized an offensive under the justification of crushing this alleged rebellion. The army is believed killed tens of thousands of alleged communists in rural areas. The number of those murdered by 1966 was at least 500,000. The violence was especially brutal in Java and Bali.
Seeing the nationalist and pro-Communist Sukarno as a threat to their interests, the West was keen to exploit the situation to its advantage. Suharto's portrayal of events as 'communist carnage' was the official version promoted in the West. Christopher Koch's popular novel The Year of Living Dangerously later helped cement this view. Yet a large body of evidence[citation needed] has since emerged that the killings of PKI members were encouraged by the US and UK governments. According to a CIA memo, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and President John F. Kennedy had agreed to "liquidate President Sukarno, depending on the situation and available opportunities". In 1990 the American journalist Kathy Kadane revealed the extent of the secret American support of some of the massacres of 1965-66 that allowed Suharto to seize the Presidency. She interviewed many former US officials and CIA members, who spoke of compiled lists of 5,000 PKI operatives, which the Americans ticked off as the victims were killed or captured. They worked closely with the British who were keen to protect their interests in Malaysia. Sir Andrew Gilchrist cabled the Foreign Office in London saying: "…a little shooting in Indonesia would be an essential preliminary to effective change". The PKI had won some popular support from the poor, it was this popularity, rather than any armed insurgency that alarmed the American government.[citation needed] Like Vietnam in the North, Indonesia might 'go communist'.
There are doubts the massacre was done by military alone. Although PKI had won some support from the poor, they hadn't won any support from others who were believed them to be godless. The communist, unlike Sukarno who coined Marhaenism, didn't realize most of the farmer have their own farm. Hence, when they have support from some poor peasant, they got more hatred from other peasants who was afraid their land was taken by Peasants Front of Indonesia (Barisan Tani Indonesia). Not mentioning some of them were Ulama or Kyai.
Soe Hok Gie in his writing, About the Massacre in Bali Island (Di Sekitar Peristiwa Pembunuhan Besar-Besaran di Pulau Bali), wrote about what happened in Bali. Instead of military, the massacre was done by Bali people themselves, lead by, ironically, supporters of Nasakom (Nationalist - Religion - Communist) or they who had affiliation with Communist. They lead the mass to kill anyone who had been accused as communist (not necessary to be real communist) to hide their connection with communist or to use the event to thrown their rival (either in business or in politics) away.
In Gie's article, The Ruler's Men or Stockholder (Kuli Penguasa atau Pemegang Saham), the military has a long history of disagreement with Sukarno. Instead of CIA's involvement, in Gie's article, the military was encouraged by the Indonesian student and intellectuals. Hence, any report about CIA's involvement in the collapse of Indonesian Communist Party might be a hoax, a propaganda spread by CIA to gain support for Vietnam War.
Throughout the 1965-66 period, President Sukarno attempted to restore his political position and shift the country back to its pre-October 1965 position. Although he remained president, in March 1966, Sukarno had to transfer key political and military powers to General Suharto, who by that time had become head of the armed forces. In March 1967, the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS) named General Suharto acting president. Sukarno ceased to be a political force and lived under virtual house arrest until his death in 1970.
New Order era
Main article: New Order (Indonesia)

Suharto was the military president of Indonesia from 1967 to 1998.
The 1950s and 1960s saw Sukarno's government aligned first with the emerging non-aligned movement and later with the socialist bloc. The 1960s saw Indonesia in a military confrontation against neighbouring Malaysia, and increasing frustration over domestic economic difficulties.[14] Army general Suharto became president in 1967 on the pretext of securing the country against an alleged communist coup attempt against a weakening Sukarno, whose tilt leftward had alarmed both the military and Western powers. In the aftermath of Suharto's rise, hundreds of thousands of people were killed or imprisoned by the military and religious groups in a backlash against alleged communist supporters.[15] Suharto's administration is commonly called the New Order era.[16] Suharto invited major foreign investment, which produced substantial, if uneven, economic growth. However, Suharto enriched himself and his family through widespread corruption and was forced to step down amid massive popular demonstrations and a faltering economy by the Indonesian Revolution of 1998.[17] From 1998 to 2005, the country had four presidents: Bacharuddin Jusuf (BJ) Habibie (1998 to 1999), Abdurrahman Wahid (1999 to 2001), Megawati Sukarnoputri (2001 to 2004) and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (2004 to Current).[18] On May 21, 1998, President Suharto announced his resignation and ask Indonesian Vice President DR BJ Habibie to become the new Indonesian President
Annexation of West Irian
Rejecting United Nations supervision, the Indonesian government under Suharto decided to settle the question of West Irian, the former Dutch New Guinea, in their favor. Rather than a referendum of all residents of West Irian as had been agreed under Sukarno, an "Act of Free Choice" was conducted 1969 in which 1,025 Papuan representatives of local councils were selected by the Indonesians. After training in Indonesian language they were warned to vote in favor of Indonesian integration[citation needed] with the group unanimously voting for integration with Indonesia. A subsequent UN General Assembly resolution confirmed the transfer of sovereignty to Indonesia.
West Irian was renamed Irian Jaya ('glorious Irian') in 1973. Opposition to Indonesian administration of Irian Jaya (later known as Papua) gave rise to small-scale guerrilla activity in the years following Jakarta's assumption of control.
Annexation of East Timor
Further information: History of East Timor
In 1975, the Carnation Revolution in Portugal caused authorities there to announce plans for decolonisation of Portuguese Timor, the eastern half of the island of Timor whose western half was a part of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. In the elections held in 1975, Fretilin, a left-leaning party and UDT, aligned with the local elite, emerged as the largest parties, having previously formed an alliance to campaign for independence from Portugal. Apodeti, a party advocating integration with Indonesia, enjoyed little popular support.
Indonesia alleged that Fretilin was communist, and feared that an independent East Timor would influence separatism in the archipelago. Indonesian military intelligence influenced the break-up of the alliance between Fretilin and UDT, which led to a coup by the UDT on August 11, 1975, and a month-long civil war. During this time, the Portuguese government effectively abandoned the territory, and did not resume the decolonisation process. On November 28, Fretilin unilaterally declared independence, and proclaimed the 'Democratic Republic of East Timor'. Nine days later, on December 7, Indonesia invaded East Timor, eventually annexing the tiny country of (then) 680,000 people. Indonesia was supported materially and diplomatically by the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom who regarded Indonesia as an anti-communist ally.
Transmigration
Main article: Transmigration program
Under Suharto, development and modernisation of Indonesian urban centers, as well as rising living standards caused urban population density to rise dramatically, as rural peoples migrated to the cities in search of jobs. To counteract this, Suharto sanctioned transmigration programs, moving people from the islands of Java, Bali, and Madura to areas including Papua, Kalimantan, Sumatra, and Sulawesi.
At its peak between 1979 and 1984, 535,000 families, or almost 2.5 million people, moved under the transmigration program. It had had a major impact on the demographics of some areas; for example, in 1981 sixty percent of the three million people in the southern Sumatra province of Lampung were transmigrants. The World Bank, Asian Development Bank and bilateral donors funded the program with huge sums of money in the 1980s.
The stated purpose of the program was to reduce poverty and crowding on Java, provide opportunities for hard-working poor people, and to provide a workforce to better utilize the natural resources of the outer islands. The program coincided with efforts to further unify the country through the creation of a single 'Indonesian' identity to augment or replace regional identities.
Critics of these program accused the government of Indonesia of trying to use these migrants to replace native populations, and to weaken separatist movements. The program became a subject of considerable controversy and conflict, including violence between settlers and indigenous populations.
In August 2000, after the Asian financial crisis and the fall of the Suharto government, the Indonesian government officially cancelled the large-scale transmigration program, funding no longer being available to underwrite it.
Pro-democracy movement
In 1996 Suharto undertook efforts to pre-empt a challenge to the New Order government. The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), a legal party that had traditionally propped up the regime had changed direction, and began to assert its independence. Suharto fostered a split over the leadership of PDI, backing a co-opted faction loyal to deputy speaker of Parliament Suryadi against a faction loyal to Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Sukarno and PDI's proper chairperson.
After the Suryadi faction announced a party congress to sack Megawati would be held in Medan June 20 - 22, Megawati proclaimed that her supporters would hold demonstrations in protest. The Suryadi faction went through with its sacking of Megawati, and the demonstrations manifested themselves throughout Indonesia. This lead to several confrontations on the streets between protesters and security forces, and recriminations over the violence. The protests culminated in the military allowing Megawati's supporters to take over PDI headquarters in Jakarta, with a pledge of no further demonstrations.
Suharto allowed the occupation of PDI headquarters to go on for almost a month, as attentions were also on Jakarta due to a set of high-profile ASEAN meetings scheduled to take place there. Capitalizing on this, Megawati supporters organized "democracy forums" with several speakers at the site. On July 26, officers of the military, Suryadi, and Suharto openly aired their disgust with the forums. (Aspinall 1996)
On July 27, police, soldiers, and persons claiming to be Suryadi supporters stormed the headquarters. Several Megawati supporters were killed, and over two-hundred arrested and tried under the Anti-Subversion and Hate-spreading laws. The day would become known as "Black Saturday" and mark the beginning of a renewed crackdown by the New Order government against supporters of democracy, now called the "Reformasi" or Reformation. (Amnesty International 1996)
Economic crisis
In 1997 Asian financial crisis had dire consequences for the Indonesian economy and society, and Suharto's regime. The rupiah, the Indonesian currency, took a sharp dive in value. Suharto came under scrutiny from international lending institutions, chiefly the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United States, over longtime embezzlement of funds and some protectionist policies. In December, Suharto's government signed a letter of intent to the IMF, pledging to enact austerity measures, including cuts to public services and removal of subsidies, in return for receiving the aid of the IMF and other donors.
Beginning early 1998, the austerity measures approved by Suharto had started to erode domestic confidence in the regime. Prices for goods such as kerosene and rice, and fees for public services including education rose dramatically. The effects were exacerbated by widespread corruption.
Suharto stood for reelection by parliament for the seventh time in March 1998, justifying it on the grounds of the necessity of his leadership during the crisis. The parliament approved a new term. This sparked protests and riots throughout the country, now termed the Indonesian 1998 Revolution. Dissent within the ranks of his own Golkar party and military finally weakened Suharto, and on May 21 he stood down from power. He was replaced by his deputy Jusuf Habibie.
Reformation era
Habibie administration
President Habibie quickly assembled a cabinet. One of its main tasks was to reestablish International Monetary Fund and donor community support for an economic stabilization program. He moved quickly to release political prisoners and lift some controls on freedom of speech and association.
Elections for the national, provincial, and sub-provincial parliaments were held on June 7, 1999. For the national parliament, Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P, led by Sukarno's daughter Megawati Sukarnoputri) won 34% of the vote; Golkar (Suharto's party; formerly the only legal party of government) 22%; United Development Party (PPP, led by Hamzah Haz) 12%; and National Awakening Party (PKB, led by Abdurrahman Wahid) 10%.

East Timorese independence
On August 30, 1999, the people of East Timor voted overwhelmingly for independence in a UN-conducted popular consultation. About 99% of the eligible population participated; more than three quarters chose independence despite months of attacks by the Indonesian military and its militia. After the result was announced, the Indonesian military and its militia retaliated by murdering some 2,000 East Timorese, displacing two-thirds of the population, raping hundreds of women and girls, and destroying much of the country's infrastructure.
In October 1999, the Indonesian parliament (MPR) revoked the decree that annexed East Timor, and the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) assumed responsibility for governing East Timor until it officially became an independent state in May 2002.
Wahid administration
In October 1999, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which consists of the 500-member Parliament plus 200 appointed members, elected Abdurrahman Wahid (commonly referred to as "Gus Dur") as President, and Megawati Sukarnoputri as Vice President, for 5-year terms. Wahid named his first Cabinet in early November 1999 and a reshuffled, second Cabinet in August 2000.
President Wahid's government continued to pursue democratization and to encourage renewed economic growth under challenging conditions. In addition to continuing economic malaise, his government faced regional, interethnic, and interreligious conflict, particularly in Aceh, Maluku Islands, and Irian Jaya. In West Timor, the problems of displaced East Timorese and violence by pro-Indonesian East Timorese militias caused considerable humanitarian and social problems. An increasingly assertive Parliament frequently challenged President Wahid's policies and prerogatives, contributing to a lively and sometimes rancorous national political debate.

Megawati administration
During the People's Consultative Assembly's first annual session in August 2000, President Wahid gave an account of his government's performance. On January 29, 2001 thousands of student protesters stormed parliament grounds and demanded that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals. Under pressure from the Assembly to improve management and coordination within the government, he issued a presidential decree giving Vice President Megawati control over the day-to-day administration of government. Soon after, Megawati Sukarnoputri assumed the presidency on July 23.

2004 Tsunami disaster
On 26 December 2004, a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated parts of northern Sumatra, particularly Aceh. Partly as a result of the need for cooperation and peace during the recovery from the tsunami in Aceh, peace talks between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were restarted. Accords signed in Helsinki created a framework for military de-escalation in which the government has reduced its military presence, as members of GAM's armed wing decommission their weapons and apply for amnesty. The agreement also allows for Acehnese nationalist forces to form their own party, and other autonomy measures. See: Effect of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake on Indonesia.
References
General references and further reading
• Dijk, Kees van. 2001. A country in despair. Indonesia between 1997 and 2000. KITLV Press, Leiden, ISBN 90-6718-160-9
• Ricklefs, M.C. 1991. A History of Modern Indonesia since c.1300. 2nd Edition, Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-333-57690-X
• Ricklefs, M.C. 2001. A History of Modern Indonesia since c.1200. 3rd Edition, Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4480-7
• Taylor, Jean Gelman. 2003. Indonesia: Peoples and histories. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09709-3
• Schwarz, Adam. 1994. A Nation in Waiting: Indonesia's Search for Stability. 2nd Edition. St Leonards, NSW : Allen & Unwin.
• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain.
• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia