INDONESIA, my lovely country
Indonesia is a large archipelago comprising over thirteen thousand island and is the fifth most populous nation in the world after China, India, Rusia and USA. Indonesia fall into three hundred and more ethnic group, each with their own cultural identity and linked by national language reffered to as “Bahasa Indonesia”. Indonesia strassling the equator as a vast land bridge between South-east Asia and Australia, is seemingly never-ending chain of islands separating the Pasific and Indian oceans. A long chain of mountains and a volcanic belt form the backbone of the large Indonesia islands of Sumatra at the west through Java and Bali to the east. The most infamous of the active volcanoes is Krakatau-an island volcano in the Sunda straits between Java and Sumatra. The various art forms, notably the dance dramas of Java which are derrived from Hindu mythology, feature episodes of the “Ramayana” or “Mahabrata” epics. They are stylized in movement, exquisite in customes and are accompanied by “gamelan” music with drums, gongs, xylophones and occasionally, stringed instruments. The people will be varied and fascinating to study. Dignified and reserved with strangers. They are basically a kind and friendly people. New visitors to Indonesia archipelago will find strange cultures and exotic ecologies, there. The ecology more varied even than the people, contains some of the most ancient plants and animals still leaving, as well as some of the most exotic and bizzare.