Astonishing Diversity

"From Sabang to Merauke", Indonesia's nationalist slogan, defines a mass of 13,677 diverse islands that stretch from the nation's western-most point, Sabang, a small island off the tip of Sumatra, to its eastern extremity, Merauke, a town near the border with New Guinea. This multitude of islands covers 5,120 km of tropical seas, and comprises a land and people so varied that it constitutes one of the most complex countries in the world.

A combination of an equatorial tropical climate and a geographic position along an immense volcanic fault line has created within the archipelago an amazing variation of landscape and habitat. Verdant ricelands in Java and Bali contrast with lush rainforests in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Maluku, snowy mountain tops in Irian Jaya and savannah grasslands in Nusa Tenggara.

From the forests of Indonesia come cloves, nutmeg, sandalwood, camphor, ebony and teak. From the gardens come unusual fruit such as the durian, jackfruit, salak, rambutan, blimbing, manggis and jambu. Rare animal species still exist : the largest lizard in the world (the prehistoric monitor of Komodo), the Javan rhinoceros, the dwarf buffalo of Sulawesi, and the orangutan of North Sumatra. Exquisitely plumaged birds inhabit the jungle: colourful birds of paradise, parakeets, crowned "mahkota" pigeons and giant cassowary birds. Thousands of varieties of wild orchids and giant butterflies exist in the dense rainforests of the archipelago.

An ecosystem developed over millions of years supports a multitude of vegetation found nowhere else in this world. The giant parasite flower known as the Rafflesia exist only in Sumatra. There are carnivorous pitcher plants, tangled lianas and rattan canes that climb high into giant forest trees. Kalimantan alone has 3,000 different known tree species. Irian Jaya has more than 2,500 species of wild orchids, including the world's largest tiger orchid Granmatophyllum Speciosun) with its three metre long spray of yellow tiger-striped blooms.

There are two main agricultural patterns to be found in Indonesia: ladang agriculture, generally utilizing a primitive "slash-and-burn" technique, breaking in the land in time to meet the seasonal rains, and a highly sophisticated labour-intensive sawah or wet-rice paddy cultivation. The semi-nomadic ladang farmers comprise less than a tenth of Indonesia's total population, despite the fact that they are spread out over more than two-thirds of the nation's land area. Conversely, sawah cultivation is highly intense. Two-thirds of the total population live on Java and Bali, islands covering a mere seven per cent of the archipelago's total land area, where highly cooperative sawah cultivation supports the majority of the population, both rural and urban.

The staple diet of the Indonesian people is rice. Complex irrigation networks and hand-worked rice paddies are highly productive due to ideal soil and climatic conditions, and a new hybrid rice has enabled the nation to more than double its production in recent years to a stage where it can actually export the commodity to other less provident countries.

Over 100 distinct ethnic groups exist within Indonesia, each with its own culture and tradition, not to mention the 300 odd different languages that are spoken.

Spiritual and religious belief exhibit a similar variety. Each society has its own ritual, common knowledge and customary laws that have been passed down from generation to generation to become adat (custom). A strong common basis of animism seems to have developed throughout with various overlying layers of more recent influences such as Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, in each area.

Indonesian adat observances generally include ritual sacrifice as offering to the spirits for blessing, followed by communal feasting to ensure all partake of the blessing.

From this basis has evolved a diverse range of religious customs and traditional law so varied as to be overwhelming. Indonesia is proud of its great diversity of cultures and languages, symbolized in the state motto 'Bhinneka Tunggal Ika' which means Unity in Diversity.

Those who are planning itineraries to visit Bali would be well advised to keep in mind that there are many other fascinating destinations in Indonesia. Your travel agents in Bali are ready with any number of tour extensions to seldom visited corners of the archipelago, opening the door to adventurous travel with the most convenient and comfortable arrangements available.

For more information about tour packages around Indonesia, please follow this link.