Where is Andre now?

So I am staying at my cousin and his wife's house in Bogor near Jakarta. From the center of Jakarta, it is about 55 miles on the toll roads. There is a palace here as a vacation home for the Indonesian president. I guess you can say Bogor is Indonesia's version of America's Camp David. This year in June, it will be celebrating its 528th anniversary as a city. With a population of almost 40,000 people/km^2 or 100,000 people/square mile, it is one of the densely populated cities in the world. Nicknamed rainy city not only because of the amount of rain, but also for its regularity. Afternoon showers are reported to be quite regular even in the summer; it made the Guiness book of record with having 322 thunderstorms per year. With about 150 inches of rainfall per year, it is almost 5 times that of Portland, Oregon with 35 inches per year. This is not to say that the town is cool and comfortable. The average monthly lowest temperature is 70 degrees and highest is 90 degrees. Daily average humidity is quite high, ranging from 70-90% throughout the year.

Bogor is famous for at least two things, the Bogor Palace (Istana Bogor) and the Bogor Botanical Gardens. The Palace is now a presidential retreat, having been built in 1744 on 70 acres of land. There are deers roaming freely in the palace gardens while the palace guests enjoy the extensive art collection in the now 200,000 square feet palace. Bogor Botanical Gardens border the palace and contains 15000 species of trees and plants, including 3000 species of orchids alone and the world's largest flower, the Rafflesia. The Rafflesia is Indonesia's national flower. Though I'm not sure why, it's a parasitic plant and it smells of rotten meat; its only merit is its rarity. The other two national flowers are much better, the Moon Orchid and the Jasmine. One known for its beauty and the other for its fragrance.








The traffic in Bogor is quite a bit less complicated and crowded than Jakarta. I would drive here (Actually I did, both on the main streets and on the side streets/alleys full of potholes), but not in Jakarta. There are malls, day spas and foot spas (you've got to look that up) here as well as impromptu side of the road markets. These markets are simple stalls made of scrap wood and tarp as roofs. There is one that is actually on the road, a road that's supposed to be two lanes wide is now only one lane because of the market stalls. They sell everything from fruits and vegetables to toys and clothing to rabbits (I don't really know whether it's for eating or as pets).







This city is quite old, it celebrated its 528th anniversary on June 3rd. I am not sure whether it has been a city for that long or what. I know that the area has been inhabited since the 5th century, when it was called Pakuan. Back then of course Indonesia as a nation doesn't exist, it consisted of many kingdoms spread across the different islands. The one that Bogor, or Pakuan back then, belonged to was called Tarumanegara. One amazing thing about this kingdom back then, they had communicated and even sent messengers to China.

Anyway, that is Bogor, where I currently live and while I am in Indonesia, probably will be. As of this writing, I am in Malang to visit my cousins and my aunts (my mom's sisters) and uncles. I was in Surabaya doing the same thing a few days ago. Tomorrow I will be in Bali for a few days, then Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok before I am back in Bogor. My mom will be with me until August 2nd, when she will go back to Los Angeles to my sister, my brother in law and my niece and nephew.

Who are these Indonesian people?

Heck if I know. From what I can tell there are hundreds of different ... hmm ... I suppose ethnicities if you want to call it that. It's more like groups of common culture (language, social structure, etc) because people have moved around so much. The following is my attempt to very much simplify and generalize the complexities and the varieties of the indonesian people.

There isn't a common "look" to an Indonesian. Really, not even native Indonesians in the same meaning as native americans. If you count native Indonesians as people whose ancestors have been in Indonesia since before the Dutch colonization in the 17th century, they all still look different. Indonesia today encompasses an estimated 17,000 islands (no, not a typo) with about 1,000 of them permanently populated. Each of these islands have their own people and their culture that are not at all the same to their neighbors. Often, they differ even within the islands themselves. To complicate things even further, these islands have experienced immigration of different people for thousands of years. Let's look at a few of them who live in the main islands.

*Diversion: Indonesia has 3 of its islands in the top 7 largest islands in the world. The list starts with Australia as the largest island, Greenland, New Guinea, Bornea, Madagascar, Baffin Island and Sumatra. In the top 15 largest, both the islands of Sulawesi and Java also made the list.*

Starting with the island of Java, there are the Sundanese people in West Java. The Sundanese are famous for their angklung, a unique musical instrument made of bamboo, invented by them. Javanese in central and eastern Java with a bit of Madurese (from the island of Madura in east Java). That's just in Java and that's just the major ones. We are not counting the sultanate of Yogyakarta where the Sultan of Yogyakarta is the governor of the province, Betawi people in Jakarta (themselves a mix of people residing in and near Jakarta since the 1600s; Betawi people now are a mix of Southeast Asian ethnic groups, Portuguese and Dutch plus Arab, Chinese and Indian), and many other ones. Also, in this island, there are monuments to Buddhism (Borobudur) and Hinduism (Prambanan) as well as the ubiquitious muslim ones and several Christian ones to mix in religion with the diversity of ethnicity.

In the island of Sumatra, there are the Malay, Batak and Minangkabau people. The Batak people have a history of canibalism, though no longer generally practiced. The famous Danau Toba (Lake Toba) is in the same area where they live. It is famous because it is the largest volcanic lake in the world. The Minangkabau people are probably one of my favorite people in the world, if only because they produce the best food. They are also called the Padang people.

There are the Balinese people, of course, from Bali. The largest population of Hindus in Indonesia, are very dramatic, artistically. Famous for their dances, sculpture and gamelan music.

In Kalimantan/Borneo, there are the Banjarese, itself a fusion of the older Buddhist and Hindu culture until the 1500s when the muslim culture and religion became prevalent in the courts and birthed a new kingdom. This island is shared with Malaysia and one of the richest countries in the world Brunei Darussalam (currently 5th highest Gross Domestic Product per capita).

Sulawesi is an easy island to remember because it looks like K. Bugineses and Makassarese people populate this 12th largest island in the world.

Then there are the aboriginese people in Irian Jaya (a large island shared with Papua New Guinea).

So in a somewhat long Facebook note, that is the Indonesian people. I don't know much about a lot of the different people of Indonesia. Of course, the people I'm most familiar with are the people in the island of Java. Between my parents, they have close family from the west side of the island, throughout the island and to the east side and a few of the surrounding islands.

Java is the most populated island, so now you can see people from many other islands in Indonesia and other countries. The food and the people are influenced by Europeans by the Portuguese and Dutch, Indians, China, Malaysia, middle eastern, several southeast Asian culture, and many others. Indonesia is South East Asia's melting pot. Indonesian people are the stew of that pot.