FACTS ABOUT INDONESIA

- Indonesia is the world’s largest island country, with more than 13,000 islands.

- The Komodo dragon is the national animal of Indonesia.

- Indonesia has the world’s highest rate of deforestation, with Brazil as a close second.

- Indonesia is home to 12.7% of the world’s Muslim population.

- With 234 million people, Indonesia is the forth most populous nation in the world, just behind China, India, and
the U.S. The island of  Java, with over 140 million people, is the most populous island in the world.

- Marco Polo was the first European to visit Indonesia, in 1292.

- The Indonesia archipelago is spread over the Pacific “Ring of Fire” that is situated in the Western Pacific. The country has over 400 active volcanoes and records at least three earthquakes a day.

- The Minagkabau tribe of Indonesia, where marriage perpetuates the female line, refer to a husband as the “borrowed man”.

- Bahasa Indonesia is Indonesia’s formal language, but the country recognizes more than 700 other languages as well.

- The average woman in Bolivia, Indonesia, and Guatemala is short enough to be considered a Dwarf (4’10 or under).

- Muslims make up 87.2% of Indonesian population, which makes it the world’s largest Muslim majority nation.

- In 2010, a 2 year old boy from Indonesia, Ardi Rizal, made headlines for having a 40 a day smoking habit.

- During World War II, the Japanese invaded and occupied Indonesia from 1942 to 1945.

- A UN report stated that 4 million people died in Indonesia as a result of famine and forced labor during the WW2 Japanese occupation.

- Indonesia is the third worst emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.

- The eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia is believed to be the reason why the sky is red in Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream”, set in Norway.

- Jakarta, Indonesia, is the world’s largest population center without a metro train system that results in some of the worst traffic jams in the world.

- With its rich variety of flora and fauna, Indonesia is second in the world after Brazil with the highest level of biodiversity in the world.

- Out of the 10 largest islands in the world, three are a part of Indonesia: Borneo, Papua/New Guinea, and Sumatra.

- Despite being one of the G20 group of world’s leading economies, roughly half of Indonesia’s population lives on less than US $2 a day.

- Indonesia is one of the world’s largest producers of nutmeg, which is native to its Banda Islands.

- The word “ketchup” in English comes from the Indonesian word kecap, which is sweet soy sauce.

- Indonesians do not openly discuss sex. The general term in Bhasa Indonesia for both male and female sexual organs is kemaluan, meaning “shame” or “embarrassment”.

- Indonesia men admire virility, and the term jago (rooster) characterizes a man who is successful with women. Indonesian men admire the philandering reputations of U.S. Presidents like John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton.

- Adult male oraguatans, found in the wild only won the Indonesia Islands of Borneo and Sumatra, are said to be eight times stronger than a human.

- Pepper was introduced to Indonesia’s Sumatra and Java from south India around 600 B.C. Black pepper is the result of picking unripe fruits and drying them in the sun, while white pepper comes form larger fruits left on the vine until ripe.

- Jakarta, which was called Batavia by the Dutch, is the capital of Indonesia and is the 13^th largest city in the world.

- The island of Sumatra was originally known as Swarnadwipa (Island of Gold). It was Marco Polo who corrupted the name to Sumatra in his 1292 report on his journey through the Indonesian archipelago.

- Indonesia is the only Southeast Asian country to have been a member of OPEC, although in left the cartel in 2008 due to the decline in world oil prices.

- Of its 17,508 islands, only around 6,000 are inhabited by people.

- Indonesia is very rich in natural resources – its oil reserves alone make it the only South East Asian member of Nato and it is the world’s largest producer of palm oil.

- Indonesia is the world’s leading exporter of frog legs. During the last decade, Europe alone imported 4,600 tons annually, with France, Belgium and the Netherlands being the main importers.

- Among the Mappurondo on the Indonesian islandof Borneo, they still practice headhunting in the ritual of pangngae; however, they use coconuts instead of real heads during their simulated “hunts”.

- The Buddhist temple of Borobudur on the Indonesian island of Java is the largest Buddist monument in the world. It resembles a ninetiered “mountain”, rising to 113 feet (34.5 m) tall. It is said to have taken 75 years to complete.

- Indonesia is extremely culturally diverse. In fact, there are over 300 ethnic groups in Indonesia, each with their own customs, traditions and dialects.