Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the
Greater Sunda Islands in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
. It is bordered by the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...
to the south and the
Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's
most populous island, home to approximately 56% of the
Indonesian population.
Indonesia's capital city,
Jakarta, is on Java's northwestern coast. Many of the best known events in Indonesian history took place on Java. It was the centre of powerful Hindu-Buddhist empires, the Islamic sultanates, and the core of the colonial
Dutch East Indies. Java was also the center of the
Indonesian struggle for independence during the 1930s and 1940s. Java dominates Indonesia politically, economically and culturally. Four of Indonesia's eight
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
world heritage sites are located in Java:
Ujung Kulon National Park,
Borobudur Temple,
Prambanan Temple, and
Sangiran Early Man Site
Sangiran is an archaeological excavation site in Java in Indonesia. According to a UNESCO report (1995) "Sangiran is recognized by scientists to be one of the most important sites in the world for studying fossil man, ranking alongside Zhoukoud ...
.
Formed by volcanic eruptions due to geologic
subduction
Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, ...
of the
Australian Plate under the
Sunda Plate, Java is the
13th largest island in the world and the
fifth largest in Indonesia by landmass at about . A chain of volcanic mountains is the east–west spine of the island.
Four main languages are spoken on the island:
Javanese,
Sundanese,
Madurese, and
Betawi. Javanese and Sundanese are the most spoken. The ethnic groups native to the island are the
Javanese in the central and eastern parts and
Sundanese in the western parts. The
Madurese in the
Eastern salient of Java are migrants from
Madura Island, while the
Betawi in the capital city of Jakarta are hybrids from various
ethnic groups in Indonesia
There are 1,340 recognised ethnic groups in Indonesia. The vast majority of those belong to the Austronesian peoples.
Based on ethnic classification, the largest ethnic group in Indonesia is the Javanese who make up about 40% of the total pop ...
. Most residents are bilingual, speaking
Indonesian (the official language of Indonesia) as their first or second language. While the majority of the people of Java are
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
, Java's population comprises people of diverse religious beliefs, ethnicities, and cultures.
Java is divided into four administrative provinces:
Banten,
West Java,
Central Java, and
East Java
East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean border its northern and ...
, and two special regions,
Jakarta and
Yogyakarta.
Etymology
The origins of the name "Java" are not clear. One possibility is that the island was named 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. There are other possible sources: the word ''jaú'' and its variations mean "beyond" or "distant".
[Raffles, Thomas E.: '' History of Java''. Oxford University Press, 1965, p. 3.] And, in
Sanskrit ''yava'' means barley, a plant for which the island was famous.
"Yavadvipa" is mentioned in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
's earliest epic, the
Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...
.
Sugriva
''This character is about the vanara, in the Ramayana.''
Sugriva ( sa, सुग्रीव, , ) is a character In the ancient Indian epic Ramayana. He is the younger brother of Vali, whom he succeeded as ruler of the vanara kingdom of Kis ...
, the chief of
Rama
Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bei ...
's army, dispatched his men to Yavadvipa, the island of Java, in search of
Sita
Sita (; ) also called as Janaki and Vaidehi is a Hindu goddess and the female protagonist of the Hindu epic, ''Ramayana''. She is the consort of Rama, the avatar of the god Vishnu, and is regarded as a form of Vishnu's consort, Lakshmi. She ...
. It was hence referred to in India by the Sanskrit name "yāvaka dvīpa" (dvīpa = island). Java is mentioned in the ancient Tamil text ''
Manimekalai
''Maṇimēkalai'' ( ta, மணிமேகலை, ), also spelled ''Manimekhalai'' or ''Manimekalai'', is a Tamil- Buddhist epic composed by Kulavāṇikaṉ Seethalai Sataṉar probably around the 6th century. It is an "anti-love story", a ...
'' by
Chithalai Chathanar which states that Java had a kingdom with a capital called Nagapuram. Another source states that the word "Java" is derived from a
Proto-Austronesian root word, meaning "home". The great island of Iabadiu or Jabadiu was mentioned in
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
's ''
Geographia'' composed around 150 CE in the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
. ''Iabadiu'' is said to mean "barley island", to be rich in gold, and have a silver town called Argyra at the west end. The name indicates Java
and seems to be derived from the Sanskrit name Java-dvipa (Yavadvipa).The annual news of Songshu and Liangshu (5th century CE) referred to Java as 闍婆 (''She-pó'' or ''She-bó''), He-ling (640–818), then called it She-po again until the
Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), where they began mentioning 爪哇 (''Zhao-Wa'' or ''Chao-Wa'').
[Lombard, Denys (2005)'']
Nusa Jawa: Silang Budaya, Bagian 2: Jaringan Asia
'. Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama. An Indonesian translation of Lombard, Denys (1990). ''Le carrefour javanais. Essai d'histoire globale (The Javanese Crossroads: Towards a Global History) vol. 2''. Paris: Éditions de l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. p. 12. According to
Ma Huan's book (the
Yingya Shenlan), the Chinese called Java Chao-Wa, and the island was called She-po in the past. Sulaiman al-Tajir al-Sirafi mentioned two notable islands which separated Arab and
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
: One is 800
farsakh long Al-Rami, which is identified as Sumatra, and the other is
Zabaj
Zabag ( Indonesian: ''Sabak''; Chinese: 阇婆 or 闍婆 "''She-bó''"'','' "''Shepo''"; Sanskrit: ''Javaka''; Tamil: சாவகம் "''Savakam''"; Arabic: الزابج "''Zabaj''"; Latin: Jabad) is thought to have been an ancient kingdom loca ...
(Arabic: الزابج,
Indonesian: Sabak), 400 farsakh in length, identified as Java.
When
John of Marignolli
Giovanni de' Marignolli ( la, Johannes Marignola;. ), variously anglicized as John of Marignolli or John of Florence, was a notable 14th-century Catholic European traveller to medieval China and India.
Life
Early life
Giovanni was born, probab ...
returned from China to
Avignon, he stayed at the
Kingdom of Saba for a few months, which he said had many elephants and was led by a
queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
; Saba may be his interpretation of She-bó.'
Afanasij Nikitin, a merchant from
Tver
Tver ( rus, Тверь, p=tvʲerʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is northwest of Moscow. Population:
Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the Russi ...
(in Russia), traveled to India in 1466 and described the land of java, which he call шабайте (shabait/šabajte).
Geography
Java lies between
Sumatra to the west and
Bali to the east.
Borneo lies to the north, and
Christmas Island is to the south. It is the world's 13th largest island. Java is surrounded by the
Java Sea to the north,
Sunda Strait to the west, the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...
to the south and
Bali Strait and
Madura Strait in the east.
Java is almost entirely of volcanic origin; it contains thirty-eight mountains forming an east–west spine that have at one time or another been active volcanoes. The highest volcano in Java is Mount
Semeru, . The most active volcano in Java and also in Indonesia is
Mount Merapi, . In total, Java has more than 150 mountains.
Java's mountains and highlands split the interior into a series of relatively isolated regions suitable for
wet-rice
A paddy field is a flooded field of arable land used for growing semiaquatic crops, most notably rice and taro. It originates from the Neolithic rice-farming cultures of the Yangtze River basin in southern China, associated with pre-Aust ...
cultivation; the rice lands of Java are among the richest in the world.
Java was the first place where
Indonesian coffee
Indonesia was the fourth-largest producer of coffee in the world in 2014.http://www.ico.org/prices/po-production.pdf Coffee cultivation in Indonesia began in the late 1600s and early 1700s, in the early Dutch colonial period, and has played an ...
was grown, starting in 1699. Today,
coffea arabica is grown on the Ijen Plateau by small-holders and larger plantations.
The area of Java is about .
It is about long and up to wide. The island's longest
river
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...
is the 600 km long
Solo River
The Solo River (known in Indonesian as Bengawan Solo, with ''Bengawan'' being an Old Javanese word for ''river'', and ''Solo'' derived from the old name for Surakarta) is the longest river in the Indonesian island of Java, it is approximately 6 ...
. The river rises from its source in central Java at the
Lawu
The Lawu ( jv, ꦭꦮꦸ), or Mount Lawu ( jv, ꦒꦸꦤꦸꦁꦭꦮꦸ, Gunung Lawu) is a massive compound stratovolcano straddling the border between East Java and Central Java, Indonesia. The north side is deeply eroded and the eastern s ...
volcano, then flows north and eastward to its mouth in the Java Sea near the city of
Surabaya
Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of East Java and the second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern border of Java island, on the M ...
. Other major rivers are
Brantas
The Brantas is the longest river in East Java, Indonesia. It has a length of 320 km, and drains an area over 11,000 km2 from the southern slope of Mount Kawi-Kelud-Butak, Mount Wilis, and the northern slopes of Mount Liman-Limas, Mou ...
,
Citarum
The Citarum River ( su, Walungan Citarum) is the longest and largest river in West Java, Indonesia. It is the third longest river in Java, after Bengawan Solo and Brantas. It plays an important role in the life of the people of West Java. It has ...
,
Cimanuk and
Serayu
The Serayu River is a river in Central Java, Indonesia, about 300 km southeast of the capital Jakarta.
Hydrology
The river spanned from northeast to southwest with length around 181 km, and crossring five '' kabupaten'' (regency) in Central ...
.
The average temperature ranges from to ; average humidity is 75%. The northern coastal plains are normally hotter, averaging during the day in the
dry season. The south coast is generally cooler than the north, and highland areas inland are even cooler. The
wet season begins in November and ends in April. During that rain falls mostly in the afternoons and intermittently during other parts of the year. The wettest months are January and February.
West Java is wetter than
East Java
East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean border its northern and ...
, and mountainous regions receive much higher rainfall. The
Parahyangan highlands of West Java receive over annually, while the north coast of East Java receives annually.
Natural environment
The
natural environment
The natural environment or natural world encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally, meaning in this case not artificial. The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses t ...
of Java is
tropical rainforest, with ecosystems ranging from coastal
mangrove forest on the north coast, rocky coastal cliffs on the southern coast, and low-lying
tropical forest to high altitude rainforest on the slopes of mountainous volcanic regions in the interior. The Javan environment and climate gradually alters from west to east; from wet and humid dense rainforest in western parts, to a dry
savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground ...
environment in the east, corresponding to the climate and rainfall in these regions.
Javan wildlife originally supported a rich biodiversity, where numbers of
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
species of flora and fauna flourished; such as the
Javan rhinoceros,
Javan banteng,
Javan warty pig
The Javan warty pig (''Sus verrucosus''), also called Javan wild pig, is an even-toed ungulate in the family Suidae. It is endemic to the Indonesian islands Java and Bawean, and is considered extinct on Madura. It is listed as Endangered on the ...
,
Javan hawk-eagle,
Javan peafowl,
Javan silvery gibbon,
Javan lutung
The East Javan langur (''Trachypithecus auratus''), also known as the ebony lutung, Javan langur or Javan lutung, is an Old World monkey from the Colobinae subfamily. It is most commonly glossy black with a brownish tinge to its legs, sides, and ...
,
Java mouse-deer
The Java mouse-deer (''Tragulus javanicus'') is a species of even-toed ungulate in the family Tragulidae. When it reaches maturity it is about the size of a rabbit, making it the smallest living ungulate. It is found in forests in Java and perha ...
,
Javan rusa, and
Javan leopard. With over 450 bird species and 37 endemic species, Java is a birdwatcher's paradise. There are about 130 freshwater fish species in Java. There are also several endemic
amphibian species in Java, including 5 species of
tree frogs
A tree frog (or treefrog) is any species of frog that spends a major portion of its lifespan in trees, known as an arboreal state. Several lineages of frogs among the Neobatrachia have given rise to treefrogs, although they are not closely rela ...
.
Since ancient times, people have opened the rainforest, altered the ecosystem, shaped the landscapes and created
rice paddy and terraces to support the growing population. Javan rice terraces have existed for more than a millennium and had supported ancient agricultural kingdoms. The growing human population has put severe pressure on Java's wildlife, as rainforests were diminished and confined to highland slopes or isolated peninsulas. Some of Java's endemic species are now critically endangered, with some already extinct; Java used to have
Javan tiger
The Javan tiger was a ''Panthera tigris sondaica'' population native to the Indonesian island of Java until the mid-1970s. It was hunted to extinction, and its natural habitat converted for agricultural land use and infrastructure. It was one of ...
s and
Javan elephants, but both have been rendered extinct. Today, several national parks exist in Java that protect the remnants of its fragile wildlife, such as
Ujung Kulon,
Mount Halimun-Salak,
Gede Pangrango,
Baluran,
Meru Betiri
Meru may refer to:
Geography Kenya
* Meru, Kenya, a city in Meru County, Kenya
** Meru County, created by the merger of
*** Meru Central District
*** Meru North District
*** Meru South District
* Meru National Park, a Kenyan wildlife park
Tanz ...
,
Bromo Tengger Semeru and
Alas Purwo.
History
Fossilised remains of ''
Homo erectus'', popularly known as the "
Java Man
Java Man (''Homo erectus erectus'', formerly also ''Anthropopithecus erectus'', ''Pithecanthropus erectus'') is an early human fossil discovered in 1891 and 1892 on the island of Java (Dutch East Indies, now part of Indonesia). Estimated to be b ...
", dating back 1.3 million years were found along the banks of the
Bengawan Solo River.
The island's exceptional fertility and rainfall allowed the development of wet-field rice cultivation, which required sophisticated levels of cooperation between villages. Out of these village alliances, small kingdoms developed. The chain of volcanic mountains and associated highlands running the length of Java kept its interior regions and peoples separate and relatively isolated. Before the advent of Islamic states and European colonialism, the rivers provided the main means of communication, although Java's many rivers are mostly short. Only the
Brantas river and Solo river could provide long-distance communication and this way their valleys supported the centers of major kingdoms. A system of roads, permanent bridges, and toll gates is thought to have been established in Java by at least the mid-17th century. Local powers could disrupt the routes as could the wet season and road use was highly dependent on constant maintenance. Consequently, communication between Java's population was difficult.
The emergence of civilization on the island of Java is often associated with the story of
Aji Saka
Aji Saka is a Javanese legend that tells the story of how civilization came to Java, brought by the legendary first king of Java named Aji Saka, and the mythical story of the origin of Javanese script.
Origin
Aji Saka is said to have come from Bh ...
from 78 AD. Although Aji Saka is said to be the bearer of civilization on Java, the story received several objections and rebuttals from other historical sources. Valmiki's
Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...
, made around 500 BC, records that Java already had a governmental organization long before the story:
"Yawadwipa is decorated with seven kingdoms, gold and silver islands, rich in gold mines, and there is Cicira (cold) Mountain that touches the sky with its peak."
The Greek geographer
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
called the island as Yabadiou or Sabadiou ( grc, Ιαβαδίου or Σαβαδίου).
According to Chinese record ''
Míng Shǐ'', the Javanese kingdom was founded in 65 BC, or 143 years before the story of Aji Saka began.
The story of Aji Saka is a Neo Javanese story. This story has not yet been found to be relevant in the Old Javanese text. This story tells of events in the Medang Kamulan kingdom in Java in the past. At that time, the king of Medang Kamulan Prabu Dewata Cengkar was replaced by Aji Saka. This story is considered as an allegory of the entry of Indians into Java. Referring to the
Liang dynasty information, the Javanese kingdom was divided into two: the pre-Hinduism kingdom and the post-Hindu kingdom, which began in 78 AD.
Hindu–Buddhist kingdoms era
The
Taruma and
Sunda kingdoms of western Java appeared in the 4th and 7th centuries respectively, while the
Kalingga Kingdom
Kalingga ( jv, Karajan Kalingga; 訶陵 ''Hēlíng'' or 闍婆 ''She-pó / She-bó'' in Chinese sources) was a 6th-century Indianized kingdom on the north coast of Central Java, Indonesia. It was the earliest Hindu-Buddhist kingdom in Centr ...
sent embassies to China starting in 640.
However, the first major principality was the
Mataram Kingdom that was founded in central Java at the beginning of the 8th century. Mataram's religion centered on the Hindu god
Shiva
Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one o ...
, and the kingdom produced some of Java's earliest Hindu temples on the
Dieng Plateau. Around the 8th century, the
Sailendra dynasty
The Shailendra dynasty (, derived from Sanskrit combined words ''Śaila'' and ''Indra'', meaning "King of the Mountain", also spelled Sailendra, Syailendra or Selendra) was the name of a notable Indianised dynasty that emerged in 8th-centur ...
rose in
Kedu Plain and become the patron of
Mahayana Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
. This ancient kingdom built monuments such as the 9th century
Borobudur and
Prambanan in central Java.
Around the 10th century, the center of power shifted from central to eastern Java. The eastern Javanese kingdoms of
Kediri,
Singhasari
Singhasari ( jv, ꦏꦫꦠꦺꦴꦤ꧀ꦱꦶꦔ꧀ꦲꦱꦫꦶ, translit=Karaton Singhasari or , id, Kerajaan Singasari) was a Javanese Hindu kingdom located in east Java between 1222 and 1292. The kingdom succeeded the Kingdom of Kediri as ...
and
Majapahit were mainly dependent on rice agriculture, yet also pursued trade within the Indonesian archipelago, and with China and India. Majapahit was established by
Wijaya,
and by the end of the reign of
Hayam Wuruk
Hayam Wuruk (Sanskrit: हयम् वुरुक्, Kawi: ꦲꦪꦩ꧀ꦮꦸꦫꦸꦏ꧀) (1334–1389), also called Rajasanagara, Pa-ta-na-pa-na-wu, or Bhatara Prabhu after 1350, was a Javanese Hindu emperor from the Rajasa Dynasty and th ...
(r. 1350–89) it claimed sovereignty over the entire Indonesian archipelago, although control was likely limited to Java, Bali, and Madura. Hayam Wuruk's prime minister,
Gajah Mada, led many of the kingdom's territorial conquests.
Previous Javanese kingdoms had their power based on agriculture, however, Majapahit took control of ports and shipping lanes and became Java's first commercial empire. With the death of Hayam Wuruk and the
coming of Islam to Indonesia, Majapahit went into decline.
Spread of Islam and rise of Islamic sultanates
Islam became the dominant religion in Java at the end of the 16th century. During this era, the Islamic kingdoms of
Demak,
Cirebon, and
Banten were ascendant. The
Mataram Sultanate became the dominant power of central and eastern Java at the end of the 16th century. The principalities of Surabaya and Cirebon were eventually subjugated such that only Mataram and Banten were left to face the Dutch in the 17th century.
Colonial periods
Java's contact with the European colonial powers began in 1522 with
a treaty between the Sunda kingdom and the
Portuguese in Malacca. After its failure, the
Portuguese presence was confined to Malacca and to the eastern islands.
In 1596, a four-ship expedition led by
Cornelis de Houtman was the first Dutch contact with Indonesia. By the end of the 18th century the Dutch had extended their influence over the sultanates of the interior through the
Dutch East India Company in Indonesia. Internal conflict prevented the Javanese from forming effective alliances against the Dutch. Remnants of the Mataram survived as the Surakarta (Solo) and Yogyakarta principalities. Javanese kings claimed to rule with divine authority and the Dutch helped them to preserve remnants of a Javanese aristocracy by confirming them as regents or district officials within the colonial administration.
Java's major role during the early part of the colonial period was as a producer of rice. In spice-producing islands like
Banda
Banda may refer to:
People
* Banda (surname)
* Banda Prakash (born 1954), Indian politician
* Banda Kanakalingeshwara Rao (1907–1968), Indian actor
* Banda Karthika Reddy (born 1977), Indian politician
*Banda Singh Bahadur (1670–1716), Sikh ...
, rice was regularly imported from Java, to supply the deficiency in means of subsistence.
During the
Napoleonic wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...
in Europe, the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
fell to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, as did its colony in the
East Indies. During the short-lived
Daendels administration, as French proxy rule on Java, the construction of the
Great Post Road was commenced in 1808. The road, spanning from
Anyer
Anyer, also known as Anjer or Angier, is a coastal town in Banten, formerly West Java, Indonesia, west of Jakarta and south of Merak. A significant coastal town late 18th-century, Anyer faces the Sunda Strait.
History
The town was a considerab ...
in Western Java to Panarukan in East Java, served as a military supply route and was used in defending Java from British invasion. In 1811, Java was
captured by the British, becoming a possession of the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
, and Sir
Stamford Raffles was appointed as the island's governor. In 1814, Java was returned to the Dutch under the terms of the
Treaty of Paris.
In 1815, there may have been five million people in Java. In the second half of the 18th century, population spurts began in districts along the north-central coast of Java, and in the 19th century population grew rapidly across the island. Factors for the great population growth include the impact of Dutch colonial rule including the imposed end to civil war in Java, the increase in the area under rice cultivation, and the introduction of food plants such as
cassava and
maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American English, North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous ...
that could sustain populations that could not afford rice. Others attribute the growth to the taxation burdens and increased expansion of employment under the
Cultivation System to which couples responded by having more children in the hope of increasing their families ability to pay tax and buy goods.
Cholera claimed 100,000 lives in Java in 1820.
The advent of trucks and railways where there had previously only been buffalo and carts, telegraph systems, and more coordinated distribution systems under the colonial government all contributed to famine elimination in Java, and in turn, population growth. There were no significant famines in Java from the 1840s through to the
Japanese occupation in the 1940s.
[Taylor (2003), p. 254.] However, other sources claimed the Dutch's Cultivation system is linked to famines and epidemics in the 1840s, firstly in
Cirebon and then
Central Java, as cash crops such as indigo and sugar had to be grown instead of rice.
Independence
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
n nationalism first took hold in Java in the early 20th century, and
the struggle to secure the country's independence following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
was centered in Java. In 1949, Indonesian independence was recognized.
Administration
Java is divided into four
provinces and two special regions:
*
Banten, capital:
Serang
Serang ( id, Kota Serang, , Sundanese: ) is a city and the capital of Banten province and was formerly also the administrative center of Serang Regency in Indonesia (the Regency's capital is now at Baros). The city is located towards the nor ...
*
West Java, capital:
Bandung
*
Central Java, capital:
Semarang
*
East Java
East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean border its northern and ...
, capital:
Surabaya
Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of East Java and the second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern border of Java island, on the M ...
*
Special Capital Region of Jakarta
*
Special Region of Yogyakarta, capital:
Yogyakarta
Demographics
Demographic profile
Java has been traditionally dominated by an elite class, while the people in the lower classes were often involved in agriculture and fishing. The elite class in Java has evolved over the course of history, as cultural wave after cultural wave immigrated to the island. There is evidence that South Asian emigres were among this elite, as well as Arabian and Persian immigrants during the Islamic eras. More recently, Chinese immigrants have also become part of the economic elite of Java. Although politically the Chinese generally remain sidelined, there are notable exceptions, such as the former governor of Jakarta,
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama. Though Java is increasingly becoming more modern and urban, only 75% of the island has electricity. Villages and their rice paddies are still a common sight. Unlike the rest of Java, the population growth in Central Java remains low. Central Java however has a younger population than the national average. The slow population growth can in part be attributed to the choice by many people to leave the more rural Central Java for better opportunities and higher incomes in the bigger cities. Java's population continues to rapidly increase despite many Javanese leaving the island. This is somewhat due to the fact that Java is the business, academic, and cultural hub of Indonesia, which attracts millions of non-Javanese people to its cities. The population growth is most intense in the regions surrounding
Jakarta and
Bandung, which is reflected through the demographic diversity in those areas.
Population development
With a combined population of 151.6 million in the 2020 census (including Madura's 4.0 million),
Java is the
most populous major island in the world and is home to 56% of Indonesia's population.
At nearly 1,200 people per km
2 in 2020, it is also one of the most densely populated parts of the world, on a par with Bangladesh. Every region of the island has numerous volcanoes, with the people left to share the remaining flatter land. Because of this, many coasts are heavily populated and cities ring around the valleys surrounding volcanic peaks.
The population growth rate more than doubled in economically depressed Central Java in the latest 2010–2020 period vs 2000–2010, indicative of migration or other issues; there were significant
volcanic eruptions during the earlier period. Approximately 45% of the population of Indonesia is ethnically Javanese, while Sundanese make a large portion of Java's population as well.
The western third of the island (West Java, Banten, and DKI Jakarta) has an even higher population density, of roughly 1,563 per square kilometer and accounts for the lion's share of the population growth of Java.
It is home to three metropolitan areas,
Greater Jakarta
The Jakarta metropolitan area or Greater Jakarta, known locally as Jabodetabek (an acronym of Jakarta–Bogor– Depok– Tangerang–Bekasi), and sometimes extended to Jabodetabekjur (with the acronym extended to include part of Cianjur Rege ...
(with outlying areas of Greater
Serang
Serang ( id, Kota Serang, , Sundanese: ) is a city and the capital of Banten province and was formerly also the administrative center of Serang Regency in Indonesia (the Regency's capital is now at Baros). The city is located towards the nor ...
and Greater
Sukabumi),
Greater Bandung, and Greater
Cirebon.
1) Other islands are included in this figure, but are very small in population and area, Nusa Barung 100 km2, Bawean 196 km2, Karimunjawa 78 km2, Kambangan 121 km2, Panaitan 170 km2, Thousand Islands 8.7 km2 – with a combined population of roughly 90,000.
2) Land area of provinces updated in 2010 Census figures, areas by 2020 may be different from past results.
From the 1970s to the fall of the
Suharto regime in 1998, the Indonesian government ran
transmigration programs aimed at resettling the population of Java on other less populated islands of Indonesia. This program has met with mixed results, sometimes causing conflicts between the locals and the recently arrived
settlers. Nevertheless, it has caused Java's share of the nation's population to progressively decline.
Jakarta and its outskirts, being the dominant metropolis, is also home to people from all over the nation. East Java is also home to ethnic Balinese, as well as large numbers of Madurans due to their historic poverty.
Ethnicity and culture
Despite its large population and in contrast to the other larger islands of Indonesia, Java is comparatively homogeneous in ethnic composition. Only two ethnic groups are native to the island—the
Javanese and
Sundanese. A third group is the
Madurese, who inhabit the island of
Madura off the northeast coast of Java, and have immigrated to
East Java
East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean border its northern and ...
in large numbers since the 18th century.
The Javanese comprise about two-thirds of the island's population, while the Sundanese and Madurese account for 38% and 10% respectively.
[ The fourth group is the ]Betawi people Betawi may refer to:
* Betawi people
*Betawi language
*Betawi cuisine
*Betawi mask dance
See also
* Batavia (disambiguation)
* Batavi (disambiguation)
Batavi may refer to:
*Batavi (Germanic tribe)
**Revolt of the Batavi
* Batavi (military unit)
* ...
that speak a dialect of Malay, they are the descendants of the people living around Batavia from around the 17th century. Betawis are creole people
Creole peoples are ethnic groups formed during the European colonial era, from the mass displacement of peoples brought into sustained contact with others from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, who converged onto a colonial ter ...
, mostly descended from various Indonesian archipelago ethnic groups such as Malay, Sundanese, Javanese, Balinese, Minang, Bugis, Makassar, Ambonese, mixed with foreign ethnic groups such as Portuguese, Dutch, Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
, Chinese and Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
brought to or attracted to Batavia to meet labour needs. They have a culture and language distinct from the surrounding Sundanese and Javanese.
The Javanese prose text Tantu Pagelaran (circa 15th century) explained the mythical origin of the island and its volcanic nature.
Four major cultural areas exist on the island: the central part of Java or Yogyakarta is the Javanese people heartland and the north coast of the ''pasisir'' region, the Sunda lands ( Sundanese: , ''Tatar'' ''Sunda'') in the western part of Java and Parahyangan as the heartland, the eastern salient of Java also known as Blambangan. Madura makes up a fifth area having close cultural ties with coastal eastern Java. The ''kejawen of Javanese'' culture is the island's most dominant. Java's remaining aristocracy is based here, and it is the region from where the majority of Indonesia's army, business, and political elite originate. Its language, arts, and etiquette are regarded as the island's most refined and exemplary. The territory from Banyumas in the west through to Blitar in the east and encompasses Indonesia's most fertile and densely populated agricultural land.''''
In the southwestern part of Central Java, which is 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
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...
'' and ''Mahabharata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the K ...
''. 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, Banyumasan, and Tenggerese (closely related to Javanese), Baduy and Bantenese (closely related to Sundanese), Kangeanese (closely related to Madurese), and Balinese. The vast majority of the population also speaks Indonesian, often as a second language.
Religion
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
influences came first with Shaivism and Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
penetrating deeply into society, blending with indigenous tradition and culture. 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 were merely ceremonial. At the courts, Brahmin
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests ( purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers ( ...
clerics and ''pudjangga'' (sacred literati) legitimised rulers and linked Hindu cosmology to their political needs. 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.
The coming of Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
, strengthened the status structure of this traditional religious pattern. More than 90 percent of the people of Java are Muslims, on a broad continuum between '' abangan'' (more traditional) and '' santri'' (more modernist). Muslim scholars ('' 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 '' pesantren'' (Islamic schools), The ''Kyai'' perpetuated the tradition of the ''resi''. Students around him provided his needs, even peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasa ...
s around the school.
File:Pura Parahyangan Agung Jagatkartta, Candi Siliwangi Shrine.jpg, A Hindu shrine dedicated to King Siliwangi in Pura Parahyangan Agung Jagatkarta
Pura Parahyangan Agung Jagatkarta ("the perfect divine nature") or often referred to simply as Pura Parahyangan is a Hindu temple of Nusantara located in Ciapus village, Tamansari subdistrict, Bogor Regency, West Java, Indonesia.
The temple comp ...
, Bogor
File:Candi Mendut 1.jpg, Mendut Vihara, a Buddhist monastery near Mendut temple, Magelang
File:Masjid Agung Yogyakarta.jpg, Masjid Gedhe Kauman in Yogyakarta, built in traditional Javanese multi-tiered roof
File:Ganjuran Church, exterior 01.jpg, Ganjuran Church
The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ( id, Gereja Hati Kudus Yesus), also known as the Ganjuran Church ( id, Gereja Ganjuran), is a Roman Catholic church located in Ganjuran, Bantul, Java, Indonesia. It is the oldest church in its administr ...
in Bantul, built in traditional Javanese architecture
Javanese may refer to:
Of Java
*Javanese people, and their culture
*Javanese language
**Javanese script, traditional letters used to write Javanese language
**Javanese (Unicode block),
**Old Javanese, the oldest phase of the Javanese language
* ...
Pre-Islamic Javan 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, belief
A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to tak ...
and practice. 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 have mixed pre-Islamic animistic
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, h ...
and Hindu-Indian concepts with a superficial acceptance of Islamic belief.
There are also Christian communities, mostly in the larger cities, though some rural areas of south-central Java are strongly Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
. Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
communities also exist in the major cities, primarily among the Chinese Indonesian. The Indonesian constitution recognises six official religions.
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 six in East Java
East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean border its northern and ...
. 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.[Beatty, Andrew, ''Varieties of Javanese Religion: An Anthropological Account'', Cambridge University Press 1999, ] Sunda Wiwitan is a traditional Sundanese religion, its adherents still exist in several villages.
Economy
Initially the economy of Java relied heavily on rice agriculture. Ancient kingdoms such as the Tarumanagara, Mataram, and Majapahit were dependent on rice yields and tax. Java was famous for rice surpluses and rice export since ancient times, and rice agriculture contributed to the population growth of the island. Trade with other parts of Asia such as ancient India and China flourished as early as the 4th century, as evidenced by Chinese ceramics found on the island dated to that period. Java also took part in the global trade of Maluku spice from ancient times in the Majapahit era, until well into the Dutch East India Company (VOC) era.
The VOC set their foothold on Batavia in the 17th century and was succeeded by the Dutch East Indies in the 19th century. During these colonial times, the Dutch introduced the cultivation of commercial plants in Java, such as sugarcane, rubber, coffee, tea, and quinine. In the 19th and early 20th century, Javanese coffee gained global popularity. Thus, the name "Java" today has become a synonym for coffee.
Java has been Indonesia's most developed island since the Dutch East Indies era and continues to be so today in the modern Republic of Indonesia. The road transportation networks that have existed since ancient times were connected and perfected with the construction of Java Great Post Road by Daendels in the early 19th century. It became the backbone of Java's road infrastructure and laid the base of Java North Coast Road ( id, Jalan Pantura, abbreviation from "Pantai Utara"). The need to transport commercial produces such as coffee from plantations in the interior of the island to the harbour on the coast spurred the construction of railway networks in Java. Today, industry, business, trade and services flourished in major cities of Java, such as Jakarta, Surabaya
Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of East Java and the second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern border of Java island, on the M ...
, Semarang, and Bandung; while some traditional Sultanate cities such as Yogyakarta, Surakarta, and Cirebon preserved its royal legacy and has become the centre of art, culture and tourism. Industrial estates are also growing in towns on northern coast of Java, especially around Cilegon, Tangerang, Bekasi, Karawang, Gresik
Gresik Regency ( older spelling: Grissee, ) is a regency within East Java Province of Indonesia. As well as a large part of the Surabaya northern and western suburbs, it includes the offshore Bawean Island, some 125 km to the north of Java ...
and Sidoarjo
Sidoarjo Regency ( jv, ꦑꦧꦸꦥꦠꦺꦤ꧀ꦱꦶꦢꦲꦂꦗ, Kabupatèn Sidaharja) is a regency in East Java, Indonesia. It is bordered by Surabaya city and Gresik Regency to the north, by Pasuruan Regency to the south, by Mojokerto Rege ...
. The toll road
A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or '' toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implement ...
highway networks was built and expanded since the New Order until the present day, connecting major urban centres and surrounding areas, such as in and around Jakarta and Bandung; also the ones in Cirebon, Semarang and Surabaya
Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of East Java and the second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern border of Java island, on the M ...
. In addition to these motorways, Java has 16 national highways.
Based on the statistical data by the year of 2021 released by Statistics Indonesia (''Badan Pusat Statistik''), Java alone contributes around 60% of Indonesia's GDP or equivalent to US$686 billion (int$2.0 trillion, PPP).
See also
* History of Indonesia
* List of monarchs of Java
* Javanese people
* Sundanese people
*Betawi people Betawi may refer to:
* Betawi people
*Betawi language
*Betawi cuisine
*Betawi mask dance
See also
* Batavia (disambiguation)
* Batavi (disambiguation)
Batavi may refer to:
*Batavi (Germanic tribe)
**Revolt of the Batavi
* Batavi (military unit)
* ...
References
Sources
*
Further reading
*
*Padmo, Soegijanto (2000).
Java and The Making of The Nation.
' Humaniora Journal, Gadjah Mada University.
{{Authority control
Greater Sunda Islands
Islands of Indonesia
Maritime Southeast Asia