What is Java?

Java Native name: Jawa<nowiki />
Topography of Java Topography of Java
Geography
<nowiki/>
Location	Southeast Asia
Coordinates	<nowiki />
Archipelago	Greater Sunda Islands<nowiki /> <nowiki /> <nowiki />
Area	km ( sq mi)<nowiki />
Highest point	Semeru ( m ( ft))<nowiki />
Administration
Indonesia
Provinces	Banten, Jakarta Special Capital City District, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Yogyakarta Special Region<nowiki/> <nowiki/> <nowiki/> <nowiki />
Largest city	Jakarta<nowiki /> <nowiki /> <nowiki/> <nowiki /> <nowiki/> <nowiki /> <nowiki/> <nowiki /> <nowiki/> <nowiki />
Demographics
Population	124 million (as of 2005)<nowiki />
Density	979/km²<nowiki />
Indigenous people	Sundanese, Javanese, Tenggerese, Badui, Osing, Bantenese, Cirebonese, Betawi

Java (Indonesian, Javanese, and Sundanese: Jawa) is an island of Indonesia and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. Once the centre of powerful Hindu kingdoms and the core of the colonial Dutch East Indies, Java now plays a dominant role in the economic and political life of Indonesia. With a population of 124 million, it is the most populous island in the world; it is also one of the most densely populated regions on Earth.

Formed mostly as the result of volcanic events, Java is the 13th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island of Indonesia. A chain of volcanic mountains form an east-west spine along the island. It has three main languages, and most residents are bilingual, with Indonesian as their second language. While the majority of Javanese are Muslim (or at least nominally Muslim), Java has a diverse mixture of religious beliefs and cultures.

Etymology

The origins of the name 'Java' is not clear. One possibility is early travellers from India named the island after the jáwa-wut plant, which was said to be common in the island during the time, and that prior to Indianization the island had different names.^[1] There are other possible sources: the word jaú and its variations mean "beyond" or "distant".^[2] And, in Sanskrit yava means barley, a plant for which the island was famous.^[3]

Outsiders often referred to Java and the neighboring islands by the same name, or use names inconsistently for different islands. For example, Marco Polo refers to neighbouring Sumatra as "little Java"^[4] and Ptolemy refers to Sumatra as Jaba-diu.^[5]

History

For more details on this topic, see History of Indonesia.

Java is known for several important finds of early hominid specimens. ^[6] In particular, the 1891 discovery of cranial fossil remains commonly known as "Java man" (now designated as Trinil 2, after the Trinil site on the Bengawan Solo River) is notable as the first early hominid specimen found outside Europe. In the following course of human history, several kingdoms existed on Java. The first kingdoms ruled there were Indianized kingdoms, influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism. Sailendra (8–9th century), Mataram (752–1045), Kediri (1045–1221), Singhasari (1222–1292) and Majapahit (1293–1500) were among them, where evidences of their existence can be found throughout Java. Among many other temples in Java, Borobudur (a Buddhist temple) and Prambanan (a Hindu temple) are the most famous relic of old Javanese kingdom, both of which are listed in the UNESCO world heritage site.

Islam spread into the Indonesian archipelago in the thirteenth century, including Java, where Wali Songo (the "nine ambassadors") were the most prominent Muslim's evangelist at that time. The spread of Islam (1200–1600) was first taken place at coastal cities before they grew into muslim states, such as Sultanate of Demak (1475–1518) and Mataram Sultanate (1500s–1700s). In 1602, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) arrived in the archipelago and subsequently occupied and maintained control of trade and power for more than 300 years. VOC established Batavia (the present-day of Jakarta) on the northern coast of Java as its trading center and administrative headquarters. Coastal cities, such as Semarang and Surabaya, developed themselves into major trading harbors and the Dutch also developed Bandung in the inner mountainous region of west Java as their plan to move the capital from Batavia.

Java was once governed by the British East India Company (1811–1816) under the appointed Lieutenant Governor General Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, when Holland was occupied by France during the Napoleonic wars. During Raffles administration, he introduced partial self-government, land-tenure system, and abolished the slave trade. Besides that, Raffles had firm interests on Javanese culture, of which he restored several temples, including Borobudur. Raffles also wrote the famous book of "The History of Java", the first book that describes Java's civilization and culture to the outside world.

After the Indonesian independence in 1945, Jakarta remains as the capital and Java has grown itself into the most crowded area in Indonesia. While parts of rural Java are still underdeveloped, the urban areas of the island are Indonesia's wealthiest and most developed ones.

Geography

Java, which includes Sumatra to the northwest and Bali to the east. Borneo lies to the north and Christmas Island to the south. It is the world's 13th largest island.

Java is almost entirely of volcanic origin; it contains no fewer than thirty-eight mountains forming an east-west spine which have at one time or another been active volcanoes. The highest volcano in Java is Mount Semeru (3,676 m). The most active volcano in Java and also in Indonesia is Mount Merapi (2,914 m). See Volcanoes of Java. Further mountains and highlands help to split the interior into a series of relatively isolated regions suitable for wet-rice cultivation; the rice lands of Java are among the richest in the world.^[7]

The island's longest river is the 600 km long Bengawan Solo River.^[8] The river rises from its source in central Java at the Tawu volcano, flows north then eastwards to its mouth in the Java Sea, near the city of Surabaya.

The island is administratively divided into four provinces (Banten, West Java, Central Java, and East Java), one special region (Yogyakarta), and one special capital district (Jakarta).

Popular tourist destinations include the city of Yogyakarta, the huge Buddhist stupa complex of Borobudur, the Hindu temples at Prambanan, and Mount Bromo in East Java.

Demographics

Java is by far the most populous island in Indonesia, with approximately 62% of the country's population,^[9] and is the most populous island in the world. With 130 million inhabitants at 1026 people per km², it is also one of the most densely-populated parts of the world. If it were a country, it would be the second-most densely-populated country of the world after Bangladesh, if very small city-states are excluded.^[10] Approximately 45% of the population of Indonesia is ethnically Javanese.^[11]

Since the 1970s, the Indonesian government has run transmigration programs aimed at resettling the population of Java on other less-populated islands of Indonesia. This program has met with mixed results, and sometimes caused conflicts between the locals and the recently arrived settlers.

Culture

Generally speaking, the three major cultures of Java are the Sundanese culture of West Java, the Central Javanese culture, and the Eastern Javanese culture. In the southwestern part of Central Java, usually named the Banyumasan region, a cultural mingling occurred; bringing together Javanese culture and Sundanese culture to create the Banyumasan culture.

In the central Javanese court cities of Yogyakarta and Surakarta, contemporary kings trace their lineages back to the pre-colonial Islamic kingdoms that ruled the region, making those places especially strong repositories of classical Javanese culture. Classic arts of Java include gamelan music and wayang puppet shows.

Java was the site of many influential kingdoms in the Southeast Asian region, and as a result, many literary works have been written by Javanese authors. These include Ken Arok and Ken Dedes, the story of the orphan who usurped his king, and married the queen of the ancient Javanese kingdom; and translations of Ramayana and Mahabarata. Pramoedya Ananta Toer is a famous contemporary Indonesian author, who has written many stories based on his own experiences of having grown up in Java, and takes many elements from Javanese folklore and historical legends.

Languages

The three major languages spoken on Java are Javanese, Sundanese and Madurese. Other languages spoken include Betawi (a Malay dialect local to the Jakarta region), Osing and Tenggerese (closely related to Javanese), Badui (closely related to Sundanese), Kangeanese (closely related to Madurese), and Balinese.^[12] The vast majority of the population also speaks Indonesian, generally as a second language.

Religion

More than 90 percent of Javanese are Muslims, on a broad continuum between abangan (more nominal or syncretic) and santri (more orthodox). Small Hindu enclaves are scattered throughout Java, but there is a large Hindu population along the eastern coast nearest Bali, especially around the town of Banyuwangi. There are also Christian communities, mostly in the larger cities, though some rural areas of south-central Java are strongly Roman Catholic. Buddhist communities also exist in the major cities, primarily among the Chinese Indonesian. The Indonesian constitution recognises six official religions. (See Religion in Indonesia.)

Java has been a melting pot of religions and cultures, which has created a broad range of religious belief. Indian influences came first with Shivaism and Buddhism penetrating deeply into society, blending with indigenous tradition and culture.^[13] One conduit for this were the ascetics, called resi, who taught mystical practices. A resi lived surrounded by students, who took care of their master's daily needs. Resi's authorities was merely ceremonial. At the courts, Brahmin clerics and pudjangga (sacred literati) legitimised rulers and linked Hindu cosmology to their political needs.^[13]

Islam, which came after Hinduism, strengthened the status structure of this traditional religious pattern. The Muslim scholar of the writ (kyai) became the new religious elite as Hindu influences receded. Islam recognises no hierarchy of religious leaders nor a formal priesthood, but the Dutch colonial government established an elaborate rank order for mosque and other Islamic preaching schools. In Javanese Islamic schools (pesantren), kyai prepertuated the tradition of resi. Students around him provided his needs, even peasants around the school.^[13]

Pre-Islamic Javanese traditions have encouraged Islam in a mystical direction. There emerged in Java a loosely structured society of religious leadership, revolving around kyais, possessing various degrees of proficiency in pre-Islamic and Islamic lore, dogma and practice.^[13] The kyais are the principal intermediaries between the villages masses and the realm of the supernatural. However, this very looseneess of kyai leadership structure has promoted schism. There were often sharp divisions between orthodox kyais, who merely instructed in Islamic law, with those who taught mysticism and those who sought reformed Islam with modern scientific concepts. As a result, there is a division between santri, who believe that they are more orthodox in their Islamic belief and practice, with abangan, who has mixed pre-Islamic animistic and Hindu-Indian concepts with a superficial acceptance of Islamic dogma.^[13]

A wider effect of this division is the number of sects. In the middle of 1956, the Department of Religious Affairs in Yogyakarta reported 63 religious sects in Java other than the official Indonesian religions. Of these, 35 were in Central Java, 22 in West Java and 6 in East Java.^[13] These include Kejawen, Sumarah, Subud, etc. Their total membership is difficult to estimate as many of their adherents identify themselves with one of the official religions.^[14]

Further reading

• Cribb, Robert (2000). Historical Atlas of Indonesia. London and Honolulu: RoutledgeCurzon Press, University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-2111-4. 

See also

• May 2006 Java earthquake
• July 2006 Java earthquake

References

External links

Provinces of Indonesia

Sumatra: Aceh | North Sumatra | West Sumatra | Bengkulu | Riau | Riau Islands | Jambi | South Sumatra | Lampung | Bangka-Belitung Islands Java: Jakarta | West Java | Banten | Central Java | Yogyakarta | East Java Kalimantan: West Kalimantan | Central Kalimantan | South Kalimantan | East Kalimantan Lesser Sunda Islands: Bali | West Nusa Tenggara | East Nusa Tenggara Sulawesi: West Sulawesi | North Sulawesi | Central Sulawesi | South Sulawesi | South East Sulawesi | Gorontalo Maluku Islands and New Guinea: Maluku | North Maluku | West Papua | Papua