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Komodo Island – Indonesia
Komodo is an Indonesian island home to approximately 2,000 people who are mostly descendants of former convicts once exiled here. The island is part of Komodo National Park and is especially known for its native Komodo Dragon – the world’s largest living lizard!
For centuries, a local tradition required feeding the dragons by leaving deer parts behind after a hunt or by sacrificing goats. In the past, this practice has maintained a friendly relationship with the animals, which can live for more than 50 years and recognise individual humans. Ancient taboos also strictly forbid harming the komodos, which is why they survived here while they became extinct elsewhere.
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Because of its strategic location on the shores of the Java Sea, for centuries Jakarta has been a meeting point for the different races, cultures and traditions of hundreds of ethnic groups that compose Indonesia and of the foreign travelers and traders that visit the archipelago.
A bustling metropolis that never stops growing, Jakarta is home to over 12 million people. As the country’s capital, Jakarta’s attractions are a blend of all that is modern with the traditional and of the different ethnic influences that converge. Today, Jakarta has all kinds of attractions to offer, ranging from museums, art and antique markets, first-class shopping and accommodations to food and a wide variety of cultural activities.
Attractions
Indonesia’s most famous landmark, the National Monument or Monas is a 137 m obelisk topped with a flame sculpture coated with 35 kg of gold. Climbing to the top of the monument will provide the viewers with a panorama of the city.
For a brief glimpse into Indonesia’s rich past, the National Museum holds an extensive collection of historical, pre-historic, archeological and ethnographic artifacts and relics that provide an introduction to the life of the various ethnic groups which populate Indonesia. It houses one of the most complete collections of bronzes and ceramics dating back to the Han, Tang, Ming Dynasties, and statuary and sculpture which display Indonesia’s Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic influences. Cloth and money, traditional musical instruments, arts and crafts provide an introduction to the life of the various ethnic groups which populate Indonesia.
A visit to the old town area and Chinatown in North Jakarta is like stepping back in time to the days of the Dutch colonial rule. Old warehouses of the Dutch East Indies Company and period buildings now house a variety of museums. The Maritime Museum in the Sunda Kelapa Harbor area with its landmark old harbor-master’s tower exhibits Indonesia’s seafaring tradition. Models of sea going vessels from all parts of the archipelago are displayed. The Jakarta Historical Museum was once the Dutch East Indies Company’s Town Hall in the 17th and 18th century. Old maps and antiquities used by the Dutch colonists in the 18th century are put on display. Across from the Fine Art and Ceramic Museum, the Wayang Museum holds a collection of wayang puppets from parts of Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Shortened performances of the wayang kulit (leather puppets) are given every Sunday morning.
A collection of over 327 kinds of textiles from all over the country; handwoven cotton, silk and batik cloths, both of the ancient and contemporary productions are put on display in an authentic Betawi house which is the Textile Museum. A small workshop shows the process of batik making.
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Indonesia‘s variations in culture have been shaped–although not specifically determined–by centuries of complex interactions with the physical environment. Although Indonesians are now less vulnerable to the vicissitudes of nature as a result of improved technology and social programs, to some extent their social diversity has emerged from traditionally different patterns of adjustment to their physical circumstances.
Indonesia is a huge archipelagic country extending 5,120 kilometers from east to west and 1,760 kilometers from north to south. It encompasses 13,667 islands (some sources say as many as 18,000), only 6,000 of which are inhabited. There are five main islands (Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya), two major archipelagos (Nusa Tenggara and the Maluku Islands), and sixty smaller archipelagos. Two of the islands are shared with other nations; Kalimantan (known in the colonial period as Borneo, the world’s third largest island) is shared with Malaysia and Brunei, and Irian Jaya shares the island of New Guinea with Papua New Guinea. Indonesia’s total land area is 1,919,317 square kilometers. Included in Indonesia’s total territory is another 93,000 square kilometers of inlands seas (straits, bays, and other bodies of water). The additional surrounding sea areas bring Indonesia’s generally recognized territory (land and sea) to about 5 million square kilometers. The government, however, also claims an exclusive economic zone, which brings the total to about 7.9 million square kilometers.
Geographers have conventionally grouped Sumatra, Java (and Madura), Kalimantan (formerly Borneo), and Sulawesi (formerly Celebes) in the Greater Sunda Islands. These islands, except for Sulawesi, lie on the Sunda Shelf–an extension of the Malay Peninsula and the Southeast Asian mainland. Far to the east is Irian Jaya (formerly Irian Barat or West New Guinea), which takes up the western half of the world’s second largest island–New Guinea–on the Sahul Shelf. Sea depths in the Sunda and Sahul shelves average 200 meters or less. Between these two shelves lie Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara (also known as the Lesser Sunda Islands), and the Maluku Islands (or the Moluccas), which form a second island group where the surrounding seas in some places reach 4,500 meters in depth. The term Outer Islands is used inconsistently by various writers but it is usually taken to mean those islands other than Java and Madura.
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