About Indonesia "GEOGRAPHY"
Geography of Indonesia
The largest archipelago in the world, Indonesia is home to
over 13,000 islands. This shows the huge area of the country that it
covers. Geography of Indonesia is punctuated by the islands and the
different landscapes it is blessed with. One can easily find the various
types of natural splendors covering Indonesia.
Situated in the
Southeast Asian region, Indonesia lies between the Malay Archipelago
and the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. The location of the country
is considered to be very strategic as it connects to the different
parts of the hemispheres quite easily. The complex physical
environment of Indonesia has even played an important role in shaping
up of the local culture. The Geographical coordinates of the country
are 5°00?S to 120°00?E.
Indonesia covers an expansive area
stretching up to 5,120 kilometers from east to west and 1,760
kilometers from north to south directions. Out of the staggering over
13,000 islands in the archipelago only 6000 of them are inhabited and as
many are named. But out of them all only five are considered to be
important as they contain the basic facilities of life sustenance.
They are Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya. Other
constituents of Indonesia are the two major archipelagos of Nusa
Tenggara and the Maluku Islands along with sixty smaller archipelagos.
Among them three islands are shared by different neighboring
countries.
The topography of the country is dominated by the
bays, plain lands, natural forests and many more. The variation in the
topography has led to the presence of a varied flora and fauna in the
country. Indonesia is home to a combined animal and plant life common
to Asian and Australian origin.
The flora life of Indonesia
ranges from the tiny orchid to the huge "Rafflesia" plant which blooms
a flower with a diameter of 3.2 feet, the largest flower in the
world. It also includes various other species of plant life.
The
animal kingdom in Indonesia is famous for the Komodo dragon, the last
living species of Dragons on earth and various other animals.
Geography
Indonesia is a land of vivid contrasts. Gleaming urban skyscrapes tower
above tiny roadside kiosks selling ancient herbal remedies thatch-roofed
village houses sport a television in the family room and a team of oxen
tethered in the yard.
To understand the forces shaping the personality of Indonesia, past and
present, many of the nation's most fundamental characteristics can be discerned
from the contours of a map.
The map reveals a sprawling nation, tracing the path of the Equator over
several thousand miles. Comprising 13,700 islands a bridge between the landmass
of Southeast Asia and the continent of Australia -- the vast archipelago of
Indonesia spans three time zones over a width greater than the distance from
Dublin to Moscow, or from Florida to Alaska. Indonesia's historical evolution
has been strongly influenced by the sheer forces of it's own geography -- with
the interplay between climate, rainfall and volcanic activity shaping
agricultural and population patterns in different ways throughout the country's
enormous diversity of islands. Islands such as Java and Bali are endowed with
some of the most fertile soil of the Earth.
For this reason, they are most heavily populated and enjoy the most ancient
of cultures. Other regions -- such as Kalimantan, with its heavy forest canopy,
or Nusa Tenggara (Lesser Sunda) islands, with their more arid climate -- are
home to smaller numbers of people.
The distance seperating islands both from one another and from neighboring
countries also played a critical role in determining Indonesia's early patterns
of settlement and population movement. Whether for trade or cultural reasons,
certain regions of Indonesia shared histories that were closely interwined.
Other regions remained largely untouched by outside contact and developed their
traditions in relative isolation. Java, for example was strongly influenced by
the early Hindu and Buddhist traders from India, as long ago as the 7th
century, coastal Kalimantan, on the other hand, was touched more directly by
influences from Northeast Asian nations; Aceh, in northernmost Sumatra, was
more strongly affected by Islamic traders from the Middle East. All have joined
together to create the Indonesian mosaic today.
Geography has also played role in the remarkable diversity of Indonesia's abundant
plant and animal life. The 19th-century British botanist Alfred Russell
Wallace, who is credited , together with Darwin, with the theory of evolution,
determined a precise line of demarkation between the Indonesian islands of Bali
and Lombok -- the "Wallace Line" -- which separates the flora and
fauna found throughout Asia from those unique to Australasia.
Sometimes called the "Ring of Fire" (referring to the chain of
active volcanoes that form its spine) Indonesia also is the sole habitat for
several of the world's most unusual living species -- ranging from the menacing
Komodo Drageon, a 10-foot carnivorous lizard, to a bizarre flower known as
Rafflesia, with damp and tropical petals opening more than a meter in diameter.
Just as the forces of geography and climate strongly influenced these islands
in the past , they continue to play a critical roled in shaping the evolving
nature of Indonesia today.
Beginning as a loosely structured amalgam of autonomous regions and races,
Indonesia has worked diligently to develop a common national language and a
shared political ideology Together these have played a crucial role in forging
former fiefdoms into today's proud unified nation. It was with good reason that
the new country adopted as its motto the slogan Bhinneka Tunggal Ika. Taken
from the ancient sanskrit means "Unity in Diversity" - aptly
expressing the rich complexity of the people of Indonesia and their nation.
Taken from Embassy of Indonesia Website, Ottawa-Canada.
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