Published by Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd., with editorial office at 61 Tai Seng
Avenue #02-12, Singapore 534167.
Text copyright © 2006 Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
Photographs copyright © 2006 Jill Gocher
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4629-0924-7 (ebook)
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A back lane in Ubud is decorated for a temple festival. The tall bamboo poles by the roadside are known as penjor, and are symbols of prosperity. A farmer waters his cattle in a rice field on the island of Lombok. The Indonesian farmer lives in harmony with these beasts of burden. They help trample the hard pan that holds the water in the fields.
Contents
The Land Under the Rainbow
“Men came down the Asian mainland into the archipelago, and crossed to the emerald-green islands around the equator, the Land Under the Rainbow. They came in small dug-outs and outriggers a very long time ago, in the dim and distant past, far beyond the memory of the present Indonesia.”
— Mochtar Lubis (1977)
The golden dragon, ostensibly a Chinese symbol, is also a symbol of the Sultan of Yogyakarta and his palace or kraton.
Crowning the summit of the ninth-century Buddhist monument of Borubudur are many aspiring Budddhas or Bodddhisatwas, men on the verge of achieving enlightenment.
In a world full of color and variety, Indonesia is a galaxy in its own right—thousands of far-flung islands, never ending and always changing, filled with people of all shades and cultures. If the world was ever recreated on a bare canvas, Indonesia would be used as the palette on which to mix the colors.
It’s hard to appreciate Indonesia’s amazing diversity from the first glimpses of a gray, muddy coastline that marks the approach to Jakarta’s international airport. The riot of sound and color begins on the ground. There’s the noise, a constant chatter of sing-song Indonesian language with its hard consonants, long rolling “r”s and musically-lilting intonations. There is the ever-present smell of clove-scented kretek cigarettes, a hint of fried garlic and onions in the air, and the pungent odor of charcoal. And then there are the smiles. People are always smiling and baring their teeth—great expanses of gum and enamel; there doesn’t seem to be any embarrassment when it comes to showing off bad dental work. Welcome to Indonesia.
A welcoming smile from two boys in an outrigger canoe off the coast near Ujung Pandang in South Sulawesi. Much larger versions of these craft took Indonesia's outer-islanders across oceans as far as Madagascar.
Indonesia is an archipelagic nation, meaning that it is defined by islands and the seas that separate them. With more than 17,000 islands, it’s hard to maintain a mental map of them all. There are of course the larger islands of Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi and Borneo, arrayed like the limbs of a dismembered marionette across the Indian Ocean. Then there are the smaller, farther-flung islands to the east with evocative names like Ternate, Tidore and Banda—islands that once played a larger role in the nation’s early history when the world craved cloves and nutmeg to cure and preserve food. Back in the 16th century the seas between these islands were as well known as the waters around Falmouth or Plymouth or Hoorn, from where leaky wooden ships set sail in search of spices. Not much has changed since then in these tiny volcanic specks of greenery, set like emeralds in a sapphire sea.
Being an archipelago helps to sustain Indonesia’s variety. There’s a natural insularity about the place and people are proud of their distinct traditions and cultures. Languages vary, although one of this country’s great achievements has been to disseminate a national language, Bahasa Indonesia, that is understood by all. It’s hard to get lost in Indonesia with a few words of Bahasa.
A fisherman patiently plies the waters off Menado, North Sulawesi,
