5 Interesting facts about Indonesia

Jodee and I spent a month in Indonesia traipsing through it’s various islands. There’s little I knew about this country before we arrived here. I chose Indonesia mainly due to it’s promised Snorkeling spots (See my blog on purpose-based travel), and they did not disappoint! However, moving through this land, experiencing it’s cultures, I am humbled and in awe. I know no list does justice to any place, and these were the things that stood out to me. So in no particular order…

5 things that are interesting to me about Indonesia.

1. There are a TON of islands here, and its geographically spread out really, really wide
   • Indonesia is not just one land mass with a few adjoining islands. It’s a country that’s made up of many, many islands, over 16,000! Java and Sumatra are just the biggest 2 islands, but there’s a lot, and it stretches all the way from the westernmost island of Sumatra, just under Singapore, to the easternmost island of Papua, which it shares with, you guessed it, Papua New Guinea. The spread between the two is about 3200 miles. However the total land is only about 730,000 sq mi. Compare that to, say, the US which stretches about 2100 miles, and has over 3.7 Million square miles. If those numbers don’t make any sense, let’s bring them to some relatable ones. Just scaling it down, the US is equivalent to a land mass 
2. There are a TON of languages
   • Indonesia is like India in this respect. Most of the islands have their own language. Each language has multiple dialects. There is one common language that most everyone speaks, which is simply called ‘Indonesian Language’ (or ‘Bahasa Indonesia’. Bahasa in their language simply means ‘language’). The interesting thing I learnt is that sometimes a language is split in two. One that you use to communicate with your peers, and one for your elders (E.g. Javanese has 2 versions. ‘Javanese’ and ‘Polite Javanese’.). Initially I thought they are similar to this trait in, say, Spanish (Tu/Usted) or Hindi (Aap/Tum/Tu), where the languages are mostly the same with just a difference in the ‘you’ word and it’s conjugation. But no, the entire sentence construct and grammar rules are different!
3. It used to be mainly a Hindu country, and now is mainly a Muslim country.
   • It was Hindu till a lot of Indian Muslims converted the majority of the country to Islam. Certain sections are still Hindu, like the island of Bali. Most of the rest of Indonesia is Muslim. From what I saw, they co-exist pretty peacefully. For instance, in the town of Jogja, a muslim town, exists the biggest Hindu temple complex in the world – Prambanan. In here is also a grand performance of the Ramayana, one of the famous Hindu Mythology Sagas.

 Interestingly, since most of the town is muslim, the actors playing these characters in a Hindu Ballet, are muslim! In another instance, in the town of Borobudur, where exists the oldest and biggest Buddhist Temple, all the temple guides, incredibly knowledgeable about Buddhism, are muslims as well!

We traveled through the islands of Java, Karimunjawa, Bali, and Flores. It was quite an amazing experience, meeting people with completely different points of view on life. Unfortunately, not many Indonesians spoke English. So I spent sometime learning basic Bahasa Indonesia. I was pleasantly surprised at a few things I learnt about the language…

1. There isn’t a concept of time.
   • In other words, the language has no past, present, and future. There is no reason to get tense, for everything only happens in the now.
2. Terima Kasih
   • The word for Thank You is Terima Kasih. Terima means ‘to receive’, and Kasih is Indonesian for ‘love’. Thank You in Indonesian then, literally means ‘I receive your love’.