Indonesian Currency

Rupiah is the main currency in Indonesia and is also called Perak( silver coins), one Rupiah is divided into one-hundred sen(cents). one US dollar is worth 8,600 Rupiah, banknotes are from 1000 to 100 000 and Perak(coins) are from 25 Rupiah to 1000 Rupiah, coins are made of gold or silver and notes are made of wood fibers.

Currency is important around the world, it allows countries to trade in a global market, banks for international settlements, its also a way of countries to compete with one another, the foreign exchange market determines the values of different currencies.

Climate

Because of its proximity to equator, Indonesia has tropical climate. Generally, the weather is hot and humid. Indonesian climate is divided into two distinct seasons: dry and rainy seasons. Most of Indonesia has their rainy seasons from October through April, but certain places like Maluku islands have theirs from March to August. During the rainy season, rain starts around noon and lasts into the afternoon. Some areas can have sudden showers for more than two hours. 

The dry season does not mean that there are no rains. Actually tropical showers in a dry season’s afternoon are a regular affair. The average annual precipitation is 1800mm. The temperature is almost constant except for the exceptionally rainy season's nights, when it can drop. The temperature on the coast is about 28° C Celsius and drops dramatically in the highlands. For instance, in the highlands of Irian Jaya, temperatures at night can drop to about 7° C, while during daytime they reach to about 22° C.

some people in Indonesia live in harsh weather due to the climate and also they cant move to another location because they their home is in that area where it has harsh weather.also there is no other place to go cause of the population in Indonesia.

What ocean is indonesia found in?

Indonesia is found in the Indian Ocean 2000 km from the Australian coast.

Interesting Facts

-Despite having many natural resources, much of the Indonesian population lives in Poverty.
-The Japanese invaded and occupied Indonesia during World War 2.
-There are about 300,000 soldiers in the Indonesian Army, Navy and Air Force.
-Indonesia is made up of 17,508 islands. About 6,000 of these islands are inhabited by people.
-As it is close to the equator, Indonesia has a tropical climate. Average temperatures vary very little through the year, ranging from about 26 to 30 degrees Celsius.

-Indonesia is home to thousands of different plants and animal species. It has the second highest level of biodiversity
(a measure of the number of species) in the world. Brazil is number one.

-The population is expected to be at 315 million by 2035.

-About 86% of the population is Muslim and 9% are Christians. 

-Species (especially chili), coconut milk, fish and chicken are common ingredients in Indonesian cooking.

-Badminton and soccor (football) are two most popular sports in Indonesia. 

-Unfortunately, illegal gambling on sports is a big problem in the country.  

Where is Indonesia?

Indonesia, with 18 000 counted islands, is by far the largest and most varied archipiago on earth, it spans almost 2 million sq km between Asia and australia

Indonesia

How to get to Indonesia.

Indonesia is made up of many islands and is surrounded by water, transport options are limited. Flying by plane and sailing by boat are the two options.

Transportation within Indonesia include trains, trains in Indonesia are dirty and over crowded due to people leaving their small villages in the morning to the cities and then home.

Buses, buses are cheaper than trains but are also know to be over crowded and dirty.

Taxis's are another option but they are well known for robbery and unfair payment to passengers and tourist's.

Transportation on two wheels:
-In Indonesia the motorcycle is one of the most common type of transport, its lighter on petrol and is able to squeeze through traffic.
-Bicycles
-Cabs or hansom on two wheels
-Segway, a two wheel, self balancing transporter.
-Hand truck , a two wheeled device used for transporting heavy items.

Places of Interests

-The Komodo Dragon are just one attraction of the massive Komodo National Park in Indonesia.
-Manta Rays, seahorses and many other species make up the underwater part of the park.

-Brit and island Riau

It islocated in Riau islands,province the atmosphere on this island, is so enchanting.

-Kelimutu is a volcano on Flores Island (Indonesia) consisting of three close by craters filled with water. The lakes have different colours and the colours change duroing the year. The Westernmost lake is usually blue whilst the others are usually red or green.

-Island located in Indonesia (Bali). Bali is a paradise for tourists. Itls so beautiful and has so many amazing places and you can learn alot of new things...etc learning how to cook their meals and their traditons.

History

President Sukarno

The 17,000 islands that make up Indonesia were home to a diversity of cultures and indigenous beliefs, when the islands came under the influence of Hindu priests and traders in the first and second centuries. Muslim invasions began in the 13th century, and most of the archipelago had converted to Islam by the 15th century. 

During the World War ll, Japan seized the islands. Tokyo was primarily interested in Indonesia's oil, which was vital to the war effort, and tolerated fledgling nationalists such as Sukarno and Mohammed Hatta. After Japan's surrender, Sukarno and Hatta proclaimed Indonesian independence on Aug. 17, 1945

At first independent Indonesia was a parliamentary democracy. However in February 1957 President Sukarno introduced a new political system, which he called 'Guided Democracy'. The power of parliament was reduced and his own power was greatly increased. His opponents formed a separate 'parliament' called the PRRC (the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia). However the army remained loyal to Sukarno and he stayed in power.

In 2004 Susilo Bambang Yudhoyno was elected President of Indonesia.

Traditional Clothing

Indonesian people wear traditional clothing in places like:
Friday Prayer at the Mosqoua or even in a ceromonial occassion.

The women wear Kebaya which is a beautiful figure-hugging embroded blouse worn whith batik sarong with flower patterns on it.

The men wear Savanese Dress which is a batik shirt  with a Javanese jacket and a sarong.

Theres two types traditional dress which they are:

•        The Minagkabau ethic group
•        The Toraja

They wear these clothing to show respect by not showing any skin and also it's how to dress in their tradition.

Religion

Religion

Indonesia is one of the most ancient homes of man. In 1891 a fossil sk

Indonesia is one of the most ancient land for mankind. In 1891 ,a fossil skull of Homo erectus was found in Central Java that is half a million years old, and later an even more primitive type was unearthed. In 1931 the more advanced Solo Man was discovered in the same area.

But these prehistoric people were obliterated by incoming migrants. 30,000 years ago came Negrito pygmies from an unknown region. Most people in Indonesia today speak Austronesian languages and linguistic evidence suggests that these languages originated on Taiwan and the nearby coast of China.

By 2,500 BC these Austronesians had reached Borneo and were infiltrating Eastern and Western Indonesia. This common source of people is reflected in the traditional religions, which share important features.
The subsequent history of Indonesia is a succession of invading cultures - Indian, Chinese, Cambodian, Melanesian/Polynesian, Portuguese, Arabian, English, Dutch - that has resulted in a rich and complex civilisation in which the main religions of the world - Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity - have been grafted on to the traditional religions of Indonesia.

In this interweaving of religions there have been fascinating local variations and this is a dynamic process that is continuing today. The first Hindu inscriptions date from the fourth century, though Indian traders had arrived in Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi two centuries earlier. By the fifth century Hinduism was established on Java with Brahmanist cults worshipping Siva. By the sixth century Buddhism was important in Sumatra and Java, with the port of Srivijaya in southern Sumatra becoming a centre of learning in the seventh century. Borobudur, the largest Buddhist monument in the world, was built in the ninth century, and depicts the Buddhist cosmos.

In contrast to India, Hinduism and Buddhism in Indonesia lived in harmony and by the ninth century syncretism was appearing. In the tenth century students travelled to Nalanda, the great Buddhist monastic university in India, and even to Tibet. During the twelth and thirteenth centuries Srivijaya exerted an influence over all South-East Asia. The peak of Hindu-Javanese civilisation was the Majapahit Empire in the fourteenth century, described as the golden age of Indonesian history.

The Indonesian population is today classified as 89 per cent Muslim. Arab trade with Indonesia started about the fourth century, though Islam did not become established until the fourteenth century, coming from Gujarat in India. The early Islamic centres were in north and west Sumatra, spreading then to west and north-central Java. Twenty Islamic kingdoms were prospering by the end of the fifteenth century. The Bugis officially became Muslims between 1605 and 1610. Batak contact with Islam came in the 1820's. There was an Islamic reform movement in the early twentieth century with the establishment of Muhammadiyah in 1912 and Nahdatul Ulama in 1926.






Though the statistics make Indonesia a predominantly Islamic country, the most populous in the Islamic world, Bali is an important traditional Hindu-Buddhist island and there have been recent Hindu conversions in south Java. Besides the growth of Neo-Hinduism there has been a Neo-Buddhist expansion. This is rooted in the Tengger, the only extant folk-Buddhist population, living near the volcano of Mount Bromo on Java. Since 1965 the Indonesian Buddhist Association says it has built ninety monasteries and has won fifteen million followers. These Hindu-Buddhist revivals incorporate indigenous Balinese and Javanese traditions and huge festivals are held at Borobudur and other ancient sites. There are traces of Hindu-Buddhist religion throughout Indonesian culture. The symbol of Indonesia is the mythical Garuda bird, the mount of Vishnu.
On Java only about ten per cent of the people follow the pure santri form of Islam, some thirty per cent follow a syncretic Javanese form of Islam - a blend of Sufism, Hinduism, and traditional religion, while the remainder adhere to traditional Javanese beliefs, Hinduism, and Buddhism. The religious complexity of Java is reflected in the hundreds of sects on the island.
Christians account for seven per cent of the population and are found in centres all over Indonesia. Catholicism arrived with the Portuguese about 1512, who stayed for 150 years. The Dutch reached Indonesia in 1596 and brought Protestantism. In the early seventeenth century the English were rivals to the Dutch. There was Batak contact with Christianity in the 1850's and 1860's. It was also in the nineteenth century that Christianity spread from the coastal ports of Borneo and missionaries arrived among the Torajans on Sulawesi. Indonesia became free of the Dutch with independence on 27 December, 1949.
Chinese Indonesians are usually classified as Buddhist but can be Taoist, ConfHucianist, or Christian. There was a Chinese invasion of Java in 1293. In 1965 after the killing of half a million so-called Communists, the Indonesian government required all people to profess a recognised religion. Traditional religions were not recognised and some peoples have been classified under recognised religions. For example, tribal religions from various islands have beeen included under Bali-Hindu, which is an official religion.

                               Hindus performing a Traditional dance
There are important areas of traditional religion surviving in Indonesia. Sometimes these are blended with a major religion, as with the Aceh and Islam, and the Batak and Christianity. Traditional religious groups are considered as separate entries: see Acehnese Religion, Balinese Religion, Batak Religion, Bornean Religions, Bugis Religion, Javanese Religion, Toraja Religion. In addition, there are survivals of isolated peoples who follow a hunter-gatherer way of life with a little cultivation. Examples of these are the Sakkudei who live on the island of Siberut off western Sumatra, the Kubu in the forests of Sumatra, the Punan in Borneo (Kalimantan), and the Da'a of Sulawesi. Sumba is the only island in Indonesia where a majority of the population adhere to their traditional religion.

There are several basic concepts and practices found in the traditional religions of Indonesia, which are common to the Austronesian religious conceptual framework.First, there is a prevalence of complementary duality. The Toraja believe that the universe originates from the marriage of heaven and earth. The chief deity of the Sumbanese is a paired being, Amawolo/Amarawi. Sacred space is divided into an upper world and an underworld, inside and outside, upstream and downstream, and in terms of classes of people. This parallelism and dualism is enacted in ritual celebration and even pervades Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, as for example in the wayang, shadow theatre.
Second, there is belief in the immanence of life. It is too simplistic to refer to this as 'animism.' There is typically a multitude of life forms. Many traditional religions do not have a single origin of mankind. The origin of some types of humans is not explained. In some religions, all spirits are evil, while other religions recognise benevolent spirits who are called on to intervene against the malevolent spirits. The aim of all the traditional religions is a ritual balance in which each life form has its due place. The human body, a village, a house, or a ship can be the symbolic representation of the cosmos. Characteristically, life depends on death and the dead play an important role in religious life, as with the slametan ritual of Java. Sacrificial animals can be identified with the dead, such as the water buffalo of the Toraja.

Third, there are rituals of life and death. These are part of a cycle to enhance life and commonly have an agricultural theme with planting, growing, and ripening into old age. Death rituals are highly important and these can have stages continuing for years to assist the dead in the journey through the afterworld. Headhunting was formerly an integral part of these death rituals. Lastly, there is the celebration of spiritual differentiation with an openness to life and acceptance of its manifold manifestations. Such manifestations - sun, moon, stars, thunder, lightning, strong winds, mountains, volcanic craters, caves, old trees, ancient sites, royal regalia, and amulets - tend to be personalised. These life forms are venerated for their potency. All traditional societies have social hierarchies. These may be based on different spiritual origins. Heroic journeys of folk heroes are echoed in the importance given to journeys in life to gain knowledge, experience, and wealth. Rituals involve journeys, such as a ship of the dead. Through mortuary ritual, the dead can give benefits to the living.

Traditional religion in Indonesia is today under threat, especially from Islam and Christianity. These religions teach transcendence rather than the immanence of life and spiritual equality over spiritual differentiation. Examples of important 20th century Islamic movements are Muhammadiyah and Nahdatual Ulama. However, the rise of the kebatinan movements show that traditional religion is still of vibrant importance in Indonesia. Kebatinan is from the Javanese word batin, of Arabic origin, meaning "inner." There are a thousand kebatinan sects flourishing, mainly on Java, and most were founded this century. The beliefs and practices of the kebatinan sects go back to the eighth century and the start of Javanese Hindu-Buddhist civilisation. It seems likely that the twenty-first century will see religious movements in Indonesia playing thieir earlier reformative role independent of central government.

All of Homo erectus was found in Central Java that is half a million years old, and later an even more primitive type was unearthed. In 1931 the more advanced Solo Man was discovered in the same area.

But these prehistoric people were obliterated by incoming migrants. 30,000 years ago came Negrito pygmies from an unknown region. Most peoples today in Indonesia speak Austronesian languages and linguistic evidence suggests that these languages originated on Taiwan and the nearby coast of China. By 2,500 BCE these Austronesians had reached Borneo and were infiltrating eastern and western Indonesia. This common source of peoples is reflected in the traditional religions, which share important features.

The subsequent history of Indonesia is a succession of invading cultures - Indian, Chinese, Cambodian, Melanesian/Polynesian, Portuguese, Arabian, English, Dutch - that has resulted in a rich and complex civilisation in which the main religions of the world - Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity - have been grafted on to the traditional religions of Indonesia. In this interweaving of religions there have been fascinating local variations and this is a dynamic process that is continuing today.

The first Hindu inscriptions date from the fourth century, though Indian traders had arrived in Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi two centuries earlier. By the fifth century Hinduism was established on Java with Brahmanist cults worshipping Siva. By the sixth century Buddhism was important in Sumatra and Java, with the port of Srivijaya in southern Sumatra becoming a centre of learning in the seventh century. Borobudur, the largest Buddhist monument in the world, was built in the ninth century, and depicts the Buddhist cosmos. In contrast to India, Hinduism and Buddhism in Indonesia lived in harmony and by the ninth century syncretism was appearing. In the tenth century students travelled to Nalanda, the great Buddhist monastic university in India, and even to Tibet. During the twelth and thirteenth centuries Srivijaya exerted an influence over all South-East Asia. The peak of Hindu-Javanese civilisation was the Majapahit Empire in the fourteenth century, described as the golden age of Indonesian history.

The Indonesian population is today classified as 89 per cent Muslim. Arab trade with Indonesia started about the fourth century CE, though Islam did not become established until the fourteenth century, coming from Gujarat in India. The early Islamic centres were in north and west Sumatra, spreading then to west and north-central Java. Twenty Islamic kingdoms were prospering by the end of the fifteenth century. The Bugis officially became Muslims between 1605 and 1610. Batak contact with Islam came in the 1820's. There was an Islamic reform movement in the early twentieth century with the establishment of Muhammadiyah in 1912 and Nahdatul Ulama in 1926.

Though the statistics make Indonesia a predominantly Islamic country, the most populous in the Islamic world, Bali is an important traditional Hindu-Buddhist island and there have been recent Hindu conversions in south Java. Besides the growth of Neo-Hinduism there has been a Neo-Buddhist expansion. This is rooted in the Tengger, the only extant folk-Buddhist population, living near the volcano of Mount Bromo on Java. Since 1965 the Indonesian Buddhist Association says it has built ninety monasteries and has won fifteen million followers. These Hindu-Buddhist revivals incorporate indigenous Balinese and Javanese traditions and huge festivals are held at Borobudur and other ancient sites. There are traces of Hindu-Buddhist religion throughout Indonesian culture. The symbol of Indonesia is the mythical Garuda bird, the mount of Vishnu.
On Java only about ten per cent of the people follow the pure santri form of Islam, some thirty per cent follow a syncretic Javanese form of Islam - a blend of Sufism, Hinduism, and traditional religion, while the remainder adhere to traditional Javanese beliefs, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

 The religious complexity of Java is reflected in the hundreds of sects on the island.
Christians account for seven per cent of the population and are found in centres all over Indonesia. Catholicism arrived with the Portuguese about 1512, who stayed for 150 years. The Dutch reached Indonesia in 1596 and brought Protestantism. In the early seventeenth century the English were rivals to the Dutch. There was Batak contact with Christianity in the 1850's and 1860's. It was also in the nineteenth century that Christianity spread from the coastal ports of Borneo and missionaries arrived among the Torajans on Sulawesi. Indonesia became free of the Dutch with independence on 27 December, 1949.
Chinese Indonesians are usually classified as Buddhist but can be Taoist, Confucianist, or Christian. There was a Chinese invasion of Java in 1293.

In 1965 after the killing of half a million so-called Communists, the Indonesian government required all people to profess a recognised religion. Traditional religions were not recognised and some peoples have been classified under recognised religions. For example, tribal religions from various islands have beeen included under Bali-Hindu, which is an official religion. There are important areas of traditional religion surviving in Indonesia. Sometimes these are blended with a major religion, as with the Aceh and Islam, and the Batak and Christianity. Traditional religious groups are considered as separate entries: see Acehnese Religion, Balinese Religion, Batak Religion, Bornean Religions, Bugis Religion, Javanese Religion, Toraja Religion. In addition, there are survivals of isolated peoples who follow a hunter-gatherer way of life with a little cultivation. Examples of these are the Sakkudei who live on the island of Siberut off western Sumatra, the Kubu in the forests of Sumatra, the Punan in Borneo (Kalimantan), and the Da'a of Sulawesi. Sumba is the only island in Indonesia where a majority of the population adhere to their traditional religion.
There are several basic concepts and practices found in the traditional religions of Indonesia, which are common to the Austronesian religious conceptual framework.

First, there is a prevalence of complementary duality. The Toraja believe that the universe originates from the marriage of heaven and earth. The chief deity of the Sumbanese is a paired being, Amawolo/Amarawi. Sacred space is divided into an upper world and an underworld, inside and outside, upstream and downstream, and in terms of classes of people. This parallelism and dualism is enacted in ritual celebration and even pervades Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, as for example in the wayang, shadow theatre.
Second, there is belief in the immanence of life. It is too simplistic to refer to this as 'animism.' There is typically a multitude of life forms. Many traditional religions do not have a single origin of mankind. The origin of some types of humans is not explained. In some religions, all spirits are evil, while other religions recognise benevolent spirits who are called on to intervene against the malevolent spirits. The aim of all the traditional religions is a ritual balance in which each life form has its due place. The human body, a village, a house, or a ship can be the symbolic representation of the cosmos. Characteristically, life depends on death and the dead play an important role in religious life, as with the slametan ritual of Java. Sacrificial animals can be identified with the dead, such as the water buffalo of the Toraja.

Third, there are rituals of life and death. These are part of a cycle to enhance life and commonly have an agricultural theme with planting, growing, and ripening into old age. Death rituals are highly important and these can have stages continuing for years to assist the dead in the journey through the afterworld. Headhunting was formerly an integral part of these death rituals. Lastly, there is the celebration of spiritual differentiation with an openness to life and acceptance of its manifold manifestations. Such manifestations - sun, moon, stars, thunder, lightning, strong winds, mountains, volcanic craters, caves, old trees, ancient sites, royal regalia, and amulets - tend to be personalised. These life forms are venerated for their potency. All traditional societies have social hierarchies. These may be based on different spiritual origins. Heroic journeys of folk heroes are echoed in the importance given to journeys in life to gain knowledge, experience, and wealth. Rituals involve journeys, such as a ship of the dead. Through mortuary ritual, the dead can give benefits to the living.

Traditional religion in Indonesia is today under threat, especially from Islam and Christianity. These religions teach transcendence rather than the immanence of life and spiritual equality over spiritual differentiation. Examples of important 20th century Islamic movements are Muhammadiyah and Nahdatual Ulama. However, the rise of the kebatinan movements show that traditional religion is still of vibrant importance in Indonesia. Kebatinan is from the Javanese word batin, of Arabic origin, meaning "inner." There are a thousand kebatinan sects flourishing, mainly on Java, and most were founded this century. The beliefs and practices of the kebatinan sects go back to the eighth century CE and the start of Javanese Hindu-Buddhist civilisation (See Subud.). It seems likely that the twenty-first century will see religious movements in Indonesia playing thieir earlier reformative role independent of central government.

Places of worship for Indonesians