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.