Indonesia

Prehistory, early states, and Islamisation

The island of Java has yielded numerous hominin fossils generally attributed to Homo erectus, including the type specimen discovered by Eugène Dubois at Trinil. Stone artefacts on Flores show that hominins had reached the island by at least 1.02 million years ago. Homo sapiens had dispersed into Southeast Asia by at least 50,000 years ago. In Sulawesi, narrative cave art has been dated to a minimum age of 51,200 years. Flores also yielded remains of the small-bodied hominin Homo floresiensis. Megalithic traditions later developed at different times across the archipelago, and stone monuments were used for burials and to honour or commemorate ancestors.

Beginning in the third millennium BCE, Austronesian-speaking communities moved south from Taiwan through the Philippines and into the Indonesian archipelago, where related languages spread across most of the islands. Settlement and subsistence practices varied across the islands, with communities combining fishing, hunting, gathering and cultivation. From around 500 BCE, regional trading networks increasingly connected the archipelago with South and East Asia. Goods, knowledge and technologies circulated through these networks, and, during the early centuries CE, some coastal communities in Borneo, Sumatra, and Java developed into trading ports. Indian merchants and religious specialists brought Sanskrit literacy, Hindu and Buddhist practices, and models of kingship that local rulers adopted.

Srivijaya, founded in southeastern Sumatra in the late 7th century, grew as a maritime trading polity and a centre of Buddhist learning and religious networks. In central Java, rulers supported the construction of major Hindu and Buddhist monuments between the 8th and 10th centuries, including Borobudur and Prambanan. Majapahit emerged in eastern Java in the late 13th century after Raden Wijaya used a Mongol expedition to defeat his rivals and then forced the Mongols to withdraw. Its rulers claimed suzerainty over a wide network of ports across the archipelago, although beyond Java this authority was often exercised indirectly through tributary, ritual, and commercial relationships rather than continuous territorial control.

By the late 13th century, Muslim rule had been established in northern Sumatra. Marco Polo reported that Perlak was a Muslim town during his visit in 1292, and a royal tomb at Pasai dated 1297 records a Muslim ruler there. Samudra Pasai became an important pepper port and a major centre for Islamic learning. Islam spread further through maritime trading networks, with Muslim communities becoming established at ports along Java's north coast and elsewhere in the archipelago. Majapahit declined during the 15th century, and Demak emerged as an independent north-coast sultanate and an important centre of Javanese Islam. Early conversions were associated with the Wali Sanga, the nine saints traditionally credited with the spread of Islam in Java. Islamic practice there also incorporated elements of older Javanese culture.

European contact and colonial rule

Before European arrival, spices from Maluku were already traded through Asian maritime networks in which Javanese and other regional merchants participated. In this region, the sultanates of Ternate and Tidore emerged as regional powers during the 15th century. The Portuguese captured Malacca in 1511 and reached Maluku the following year, where they sought control of the spice trade. Dutch expeditions followed in the 1590s, and in 1602 competing Dutch companies were merged into the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC). Its charter authorised it to wage war, build fortresses, and conclude treaties in Asia.

In the 17th century, local states continued to expand, including the Mataram Sultanate across much of Java and the Gowa Sultanate on the southern peninsula of Sulawesi, where the port of Makassar became a major trading centre. In 1619, the VOC captured Jayakarta (present-day Jakarta) and renamed it Batavia. It developed as an administrative and commercial centre and attracted Chinese migrants and others from the archipelago. Over the next two centuries, the VOC imposed monopolies to control the spice trade and expanded its influence in Java through military campaigns and intervention in local disputes. The VOC was dissolved in 1800 after going bankrupt, and its possessions passed to the Dutch government. During the Napoleonic Wars, British forces captured Java in 1811, but was returned to the Dutch in 1816.

In the 19th century, Dutch power expanded across the archipelago and met sustained resistance in Java, Sumatra, and Aceh. The Dutch established an outpost in western New Guinea in 1828 but abandoned it in 1836 and began permanent occupation only after 1898. In Bali, a series of Dutch campaigns since 1846 against the independent kingdoms there culminated in 1908. By the early 20th century, military campaigns and boundary agreements had established Dutch control over a territory that largely corresponded to present-day Indonesia, known then as the Netherlands Indies. The colonial administration ruled several territories directly and governed others through local states whose rulers retained limited authority under Dutch supremacy.

In Java, the Dutch had introduced the Cultivation System in 1830, requiring villagers to devote part of their land and labour to government-designated crops as payment for land tax. Criticism of the system helped establish colonial policy as a subject of public debate in the Netherlands. In 1901, the Dutch government adopted the Ethical Policy, which aimed to improve welfare in the Indies. The policy expanded vernacular schooling, irrigation, and other public services. Western-style schooling also expanded, but it reached only a small minority of the population. In 1905, the colonial government also began resettling people from Java to less densely populated islands.

Emergence of Indonesia and independence

Colonial education, despite its limited reach, helped produce an educated elite who became active in the emerging nationalist movements. Several political organisations were founded during this period, including Budi Utomo and Sarekat Islam, followed by the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) and the Indonesian National Party. During the 1920s, a shared national identity began to develop through youth associations and a growing body of literature in Malay, which had long been a lingua franca that did not favour any single ethnic group. Intellectuals increasingly called the language Bahasa Indonesia and made it a common medium for the emerging nation. The Youth Pledge in 1928 recognised it as the "language of unity", alongside the ideals of one homeland and one nation, Indonesia.

The Great Depression reached the colony in the early 1930s, bringing severe economic hardship and increasing fears among colonial authorities that discontent could strengthen radical nationalist movements. Restrictions on nationalist activity became stricter, and by the mid-1930s, Sukarno, Mohammad Hatta, Sutan Sjahrir, and other non-cooperative nationalist leaders had either been imprisoned or exiled. In 1942, Dutch colonial rule collapsed following the Japanese conquest of the colony during the Pacific War.

Japanese occupation imposed martial law, banned political parties and mobilised Indonesians through Japanese-sponsored civil and quasi-military organisations. Wartime shortages and forced labour caused widespread hardship, but the ban on the Dutch language strengthened the public use of the Indonesian language. Japanese-sponsored forces such as PETA and the Sumatran Giyugun trained tens of thousands of Indonesians. One day after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japanese authorities permitted Indonesian leaders to begin preparing institutions and a constitution for an independent state planned for September 1945.

However, Japan surrendered to the Allies on 15 August 1945. Two days later, Sukarno proclaimed Indonesian independence, with Hatta co-signing the declaration. They were named president and vice-president on 18 August. Dutch attempts to restore colonial rule led to a four-year military and diplomatic struggle. International opposition to the Netherlands intensified after its offensive of December 1948, and the United States subsequently pressed the Dutch into negotiations recommended by the United Nations. On 27 December 1949, the Netherlands transferred sovereignty to the federal United States of Indonesia, except over western New Guinea. The federal states soon dissolved, and a unitary republic was proclaimed on 17 August 1950.

Sukarno era and Suharto's New Order

Sukarno (left) and Suharto (right), Indonesia's first two presidents

Indonesia adopted a parliamentary system of government under the 1950 provisional constitution. The early republic faced armed opposition from the Darul Islam rebellion, whose supporters aimed to establish an Islamic state. In February 1958, dissidents in West Sumatra proclaimed its own government before being joined by rebels in Sulawesi. They were seeking reforms to the republic rather than separation but were defeated by the central government. After the Constituent Assembly failed to secure the required majority for a permanent constitution, Sukarno dissolved it by decree in 1959 and restored the 1945 Constitution.

This established Guided Democracy, a system characterised by dominant presidential authority, less regional autonomy and a reduced role for political parties. Under this system, Sukarno expanded the military's political role while supporting the growing PKI as a counterweight. He also promoted state enterprises and import substitution, even as foreign investment declined, inflation soared and shortages of consumer goods worsened by the mid-1960s. The western New Guinea dispute culminated in the US-mediated New York Agreement in 1962, and Indonesia administered the territory in 1963. Not long after, Sukarno pursued Konfrontasi, opposing the formation of Malaysia through diplomatic pressure and armed incursions into its territory.

After the 30 September Movement killed six generals in 1965, forces of Major General Suharto took control of Jakarta, and the military presented the movement as an attempted coup d'etat by the PKI. The ensuing anti-communist campaign spread across the country, with army units working alongside or directing civilian groups. At least 500,000 people were killed over the course of a few months, and hundreds of thousands others were detained. The campaign destroyed the PKI and shifted power to the military. The Supersemar order in 1966 gave Suharto de facto control over key executive and security powers, an effective transfer of power from Sukarno.

Suharto's "New Order" restricted political organisation, embedded the military in government, and used his political party Golkar and a tightly controlled party system to dominate elections. The Act of Free Choice in 1969 formally incorporated western New Guinea into Indonesia, but just over a thousand selected community leaders took part in it amid reports of military intimidation. Many Papuans opposed this integration and have waged an armed resistance since then. In 1975, Indonesia invaded Portuguese Timor and annexed the territory the following year. Hasan di Tiro founded the Free Aceh Movement in 1976 and declared independence from Indonesia. The insurgency in Aceh was largely suppressed by 1979 but revived in 1989 after the return of fighters trained in Libya, prompting a military campaign lasting a decade.

The New Order encouraged renewed foreign investment and sought foreign aid while pursuing industrialisation through state development plans. From the 1970s, the regime greatly expanded the transmigration programme, resettling families from Java to other islands. Manufacturing expanded and the number of people below the official poverty line fell substantially by the mid-1990s. At the same time, conglomerates connected to Suharto's family and close associates accumulated wealth through state patronage and political protection. The Asian financial crisis of 1997–98 caused a sharp economic downturn, followed by protests and riots in May 1998, culminating in Suharto's resignation. In a UN-supervised referendum in 1999, a majority of people in East Timor voted against remaining part of Indonesia.

Reformasi and contemporary Indonesia

The period after Suharto, known as Reformasi, brought constitutional amendments, competitive elections, and decentralisation. The military lost its reserved parliamentary seats, and the police became a separate service, but military influence did not disappear. Democratic institutions were established, but patronage and influence of oligarchy persisted. Former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won the first direct presidential election in 2004. His administration reached a peace agreement with Aceh separatists in 2005 after the previous year's Indian Ocean tsunami brought more international attention to the province. Sporadic bombings occurred throughout the 2000s but had declined by the early 2010s.

Joko Widodo, popularly called Jokowi, was elected president in 2014 and prioritised infrastructure and economic development, which he linked to improving welfare. Indonesia remained an electoral democracy, but the quality of its democracy declined amid weakened parliamentary opposition and oversight, curbs on dissent, reduced independence of the anti-corruption commission, and Jokowi's intervention in the 2024 election. Under his successor Prabowo Subianto, the government pursued a fiscally expansive programme and revised a military law in 2025, which allowed more active officers to serve in civilian posts.

Climate

Indonesia's equatorial position and monsoon winds give it a tropical climate. Most lowland areas are warm and humid throughout the year, while higher terrain is cooler, and seasonal temperature differences are small. Seasonal changes in the monsoon generally bring wetter conditions from November to April and drier conditions from May to October, but their timing and intensity vary by region. Much of the country has a tropical rainforest climate, and tropical monsoon and savanna climates occur on parts of the islands. Seasonal rainfall helps set rice-planting calendars and influences droughts, floods, and fires.

Western Sumatra, western Java, and portions of Kalimantan and Papua receive the highest annual rainfall, whereas regions in closer proximity to Australia, such as Nusa Tenggara, experience a much drier climate. The surrounding oceans, island geography, monsoon winds, and topography all affect where and when rain falls. In drought-prone regions of the country, El Niño can suppress rainfall and prolong dry periods, causing water shortages and crop losses.

Indonesia already faces climate-related hazards. Climate projections indicate further warming and sea-level rise, changes in rainfall patterns, and greater risks from extreme heat and flooding. These changes affect agriculture, water resources, public health, coastal settlements and wildfire management. Sea-level rise is especially relevant to coastal areas, where much of the population and infrastructure are located. Evidence from Pekalongan in Central Java suggests that households with fewer economic resources and communities with weaker infrastructure may have less capacity to adapt.

Biodiversity and conservation

Indonesia is among the 17 countries identified as megadiverse by Conservation International. Its many islands and geological history have helped produce a diverse flora and fauna. Wallacea is a transition zone between Asian and Australian fauna and one of the world's largest centres of endemism. In 2015, an estimated 83% of Southeast Asia's old-growth forest was in Indonesia. Mangrove forests, coral reefs and seagrass beds make up much of the coastal ecosystems.

Large oil-palm and timber plantations were estimated to account for more than 40% of national deforestation between 2001 and 2016. Conversion of forest land for farming, roads, and other development breaks up remaining habitat, which affects species populations, habitat quality, and biodiversity. Peat-swamp forests are important carbon stores and habitat for threatened taxa but are vulnerable to logging, fire and land conversion. At sea, coral diversity has been found to be lower on polluted or anchor-damaged reefs, while coral cover has declined sharply during prolonged periods of extreme ocean heat.

Indonesia has designated 554 protected areas covering 27 million hectares, equivalent to 14% of its land area. Assessments conducted in 2015, 2017 and 2019 found improvements in management scores but identified poaching, illegal logging, human settlements, tourism and non-timber cultivation as the main threats to protected areas. In Papua, research around the Cyclops Mountains protected area found limited consultation with nearby communities and implementation problems linked to scarce resources.

Parties and elections

Prabowo Subianto
President

Gibran Rakabuming Raka
Vice President

Since the return to competitive elections in 1999, Indonesia has had a fragmented multi-party system. No party has won a majority in legislative elections, and presidents have usually governed through broad coalitions that include many parties in the legislature and cabinet.

Political parties are often distinguished by their orientation towards secular nationalism or political Islam, but governing coalitions commonly include both. Party politics often relies more on patronage and elite power-sharing than detailed policy programmes, although the role of Islam in public life is a source of ideological difference. Opposition parties have at times joined presidential power-sharing arrangements after elections.

Indonesia held its first general election in 1955. Since 2004, voters have directly elected the president, the DPR, and the DPD every five years. Members of the DPR are elected through party-based contests, while DPD candidates run as individuals to represent provincial constituencies. National elections require large-scale logistics, because ballots and other materials must reach remote islands, mountainous areas and places with limited infrastructure.

Administrative divisions

Indonesia is a unitary state divided into provinces, regencies and cities, each with elected regional authorities regulated by law. Provinces are headed by governors and have provincial legislatures. Regencies and cities are headed by regents and mayors and have local legislatures. They are divided into districts, which are further subdivided into villages and urban villages. Villages exercise local self-government, whereas urban villages form part of the district administration.

Regional autonomy after 1998 transferred substantial powers to subnational governments, including provinces. Special arrangements apply to nine of them: Aceh may apply aspects of Islamic law, the six provinces in Papua have special autonomy, and Yogyakarta retains a hereditary sultanate. Jakarta has autonomy as the national capital. Since 2022, Nusantara in East Kalimantan has been planned as the future national capital.

Aceh

North
Sumatra

West
Sumatra

Riau

Riau
Islands

Bangka
Belitung

Jambi

South
Sumatra

Bengkulu

Lampung

Banten

Jakarta
↓

West
Java

Central
Java

↑
Yogyakarta

East
Java

Bali

West
Nusa
Tenggara

East Nusa
Tenggara

West
Kalimantan

Central
Kalimantan

North
Kalimantan

East
Kalimantan

South
Kalimantan

North
Sulawesi

North
Maluku

Central
Sulawesi

Gorontalo
↓

West
Sulawesi

South
Sulawesi

Southeast
Sulawesi

Maluku

Southwest
Papua

West
Papua

Central
Papua

Papua

Highland
Papua

South
Papua

Foreign relations and military

Indonesia follows an "independent and active" (bebas aktif) foreign policy, a doctrine formulated by Vice President Mohammad Hatta in 1948. The policy has emphasised non-alignment and independent action, along with a preference for diplomacy over military means in pursuing regional objectives. As a middle power, Indonesia works through regional and multilateral institutions while preserving room to manoeuvre in its relations with major powers.

As a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Indonesia places the organisation at the centre of its regional diplomacy, including in managing relations with major powers. Indonesia has broad bilateral ties with Malaysia and Singapore, including cooperation in economic, defence, and cultural fields. Relations with Australia are conducted through a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership covering several areas, including economic development and regional stability. On China–United States competition, Indonesia has avoided alliances and taking sides, emphasised an ASEAN-led regional approach and sought to limit escalation.

Indonesia has been a member of the United Nations since 1950, apart from an absence in 1965–66. It participates in multilateral forums including the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the East Asia Summit. After decades as a major recipient of foreign aid, Indonesia has been providing development assistance since 2015 and established a foreign aid agency in 2019. Since 1957, it has sent military and police personnel to UN peacekeeping missions.

The Indonesian National Armed Forces comprise the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The Army's territorial units extend across provincial and regency/city areas. Until its termination in 2000, the military's "dual function" (dwifungsi) doctrine provided a basis for involvement in political affairs alongside its security role. By 2004, reforms had ended unelected military representation in Parliament and removed the military faction from the MPR. A 2024 study found that cooperative parliamentary oversight had helped stabilise civil–military relations but also slowed further reform and weakened democratic management of defence.

Law enforcement and human rights

Law enforcement is carried out by the Indonesian National Police, whose duties include maintaining public security and order, enforcing the law, and providing protection and services to the public. The Chief of the Indonesian National Police is directly responsible to the president.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) is authorised to investigate human rights violations. Accountability for past abuses has been limited. In 2024, the United Nations Human Rights Committee noted that only 4 of 16 violations investigated by Komnas HAM had reached the courts. Indonesia practices the death penalty but has not executed anyone since 2016.

Anti-Chinese racism has persisted despite the removal of most discriminatory policies after the New Order. Since 2016, anti-LGBTQ campaigns have included hostile statements by public officials, police raids and proposals for criminal restrictions. Religious minorities have also been affected by the country's blasphemy law. In Papua, human rights monitors have reported extrajudicial killings and disappearances, restrictions on peaceful expression, and displacement due to security operations and armed conflict.

Transport and connectivity

Road transport is the predominant mode of transport in Indonesia. Reliance on cars and motorcycles is high because public transport in many cities has not kept pace with urban growth. Rail transport is concentrated on Java, but new lines have recently begun operating in South Sulawesi. The Jakarta–Bandung high-speed railway, the first of its kind in the region, began commercial operations in 2023.

Shipping routes and domestic air services link the country's many islands, including remote and outermost regions. Connectivity is weaker in eastern Indonesia, where higher logistics costs contribute to regional price differences. In the telecommunications sector, the Palapa Ring project uses terrestrial and submarine fibre as a core national internet network, but there are service gaps in some remote regions.

Energy

In 2023, Indonesia produced nearly twice as much primary energy as it consumed, with coal dominating both primary energy production and electricity generation. The country exports large volumes of coal and liquefied natural gas and imports substantial amounts of refined petroleum products. The state-owned electricity company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) controls transmission and distribution networks and purchases electricity from independent power producers for supply to the national grids.

Renewables supplied a small share of electricity in 2023, although the country ranked first globally in geothermal generation. Investment in renewable energy has been hindered by regulatory uncertainty and PLN's financial capacity.

Ethnic groups and languages

The 2010 census listed over 1,300 suku bangsa, or ethnic groups. A later study in 2015 reclassified them into about 600 groups after noting classification difficulties. Austronesian-speaking populations predominate in much of western and central Indonesia. Melanesian populations live mainly in the eastern islands, including parts of Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, and Papua. The Javanese are the largest ethnic group, making up about 40% of the population. Other major groups include the Sundanese, Malay, Batak, Madurese, Betawi, Minangkabau, and Bugis.

The official language, Indonesian, is a standardised variety of Malay based on the Riau-Johor literary tradition. Malay had long served as a lingua franca in the archipelago before Indonesian nationalists adopted it as a language of unity through the 1928 Youth Pledge. It gained official and formal status in 1945 under the name Bahasa Indonesia. Written in the Latin script, Indonesian has spread through education, government, and mass media, and serves as a common language across ethnic and regional boundaries.

More than 700 languages are spoken across the archipelago. These belong to two main language groups, Austronesian and Papuan. Javanese is the most widely spoken local language and has official regional status in Yogyakarta. Several regional languages have their own traditional writing systems, some of which are now used only to a limited extent. Local languages remain part of regional identity and cultural heritage, even as Indonesian dominates national public life. Dutch never became widely spoken as Malay was already the archipelago's lingua franca. However, it remains important in some legal contexts.

Religion

Indonesia recognises six religions: Islam, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, while the constitution guarantees freedom of religion. The state regulates religious affiliation and public worship. Recognised religions receive administrative recognition in matters of religious affiliation, marriages, and places of worship, but followers of indigenous religions often receive weaker recognition or face discrimination. Pancasila makes belief in one God one of the state ideology's five principles and is used to support national unity and religious harmony. Religious minorities still face discrimination, including through local religious bylaws, social pressure, and restrictions on worship.

Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, with 251 million Muslims in 2025, or 87.15% of the population. Christians make up 10.44% of the population and form majorities in several eastern provinces. Hindus account for 1.66% and are concentrated in Bali, while Buddhists account for 0.69% and are found mainly among Chinese Indonesians, though not exclusively.

Many local belief systems predate major world religions and continue alongside them. They include beliefs in ancestors, spirits, and powers associated with nature. Traditions such as Sunda Wiwitan, Kejawèn, and Kaharingan continue in different forms within or alongside the recognised religions. In Java and Bali, Islam and Hinduism also absorbed older customs and ritual practices.

Education

Indonesia's education system includes more than 50 million students and over 250,000 schools. It is administered by ministries responsible for school education, higher education and religious education, and follows a 6-3-3-4 structure: six years of elementary school, three years each of junior and senior secondary school, and four years of tertiary education.

Since independence, schools have supported national integration through Indonesian-language instruction, national curricula, and civic education. Access to education and school quality vary, particularly between urban and rural areas and among regions with differing levels of development. Teacher quality and distribution are also persistent issues. Student learning outcomes are low by OECD benchmarks. In PISA 2022, Indonesian 15-year-olds performed below OECD averages in mathematics, reading and science, with most not reaching the minimum proficiency level in each subject.

Government expenditure on education was approximately 2.4% of GDP in 2024. In 2022, Indonesia had 4,481 higher education institutions, including universities, Islamic institutions, service colleges, and open universities. The University of Indonesia, Gadjah Mada University, and the Bandung Institute of Technology are among the highest-ranked public universities in international rankings. Higher education has expanded since 1990 and contributes to better employment, but access, participation, and institutional quality are uneven.

Healthcare

Primary care is provided mainly through community health centres (puskesmas) and primary-care hospitals. In 2014, Indonesia launched Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional, one of the world's largest single-payer health-insurance systems that covered 98% of the population by 2024. Despite near-universal coverage, access to care and healthcare personnel still varies by location. Government expenditure on healthcare was approximately 1.4% of GDP in 2024.

Life expectancy increased between 1990 and 2019 from 62.5 to 69.4 years for men and from 65.7 to 73.5 years for women, but there are substantial differences between provinces. Indonesia faces a double burden of disease. Non-communicable conditions have become increasingly prominent in overall health loss, and infectious diseases continue to contribute substantially to disability and premature mortality. Stunting prevalence among children was 21.6% in 2022.

National identity and observances

Indonesia's national symbols include the red-and-white flag, the Garuda Pancasila emblem and the national anthem, Indonesia Raya. The scroll on the Garuda emblem carries an Old Javanese motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, usually translated as "Unity in Diversity". The phrase originates from Sutasoma, a 14th-century poem by Mpu Tantular that addressed relations between Buddhists and Hindus. In its modern national usage, it expresses the ideal of unity among Indonesia's different ethnic, linguistic and religious communities.

Pancasila, the country's foundational philosophy, comprises five principles, belief in one God, just and civilised humanity, national unity, democracy through deliberation and representation, and social justice. They appear in the preamble to the 1945 Constitution and have formed part of official efforts to define Indonesian national identity. Other prominent social concepts include gotong royong (mutual assistance) and musyawarah (deliberation and consensus). Adat encompasses customary norms and traditions that vary among communities.

National holidays include Independence Day on 17 August and religious observances such as Eid al-Fitr, Christmas, Nyepi, Vesak and Chinese New Year. Independence Day is commemorated through flag-raising ceremonies, community celebrations, and traditional competitions. Eid al-Fitr, which follows Ramadan and locally called Lebaran, is associated with homecoming called mudik, family visits and gatherings seeking forgiveness. In Bali, Nyepi is observed with a day of silence and restrictions on work and travel.

Visual arts and architecture

Indonesian arts include textiles, puppetry, masks, carving, and painting. Textiles are used in rituals and can convey social standing and ethnic affiliation. Colonial rule and nationalism affected the development of modern painting, and tourism and urban art communities became increasingly important later in the 20th century. Regional painting traditions include Bali's classical Kamasan tradition, a narrative form often described as wayang painting. Sculptural traditions range from megalithic monuments to Ngaju Dayak hampatong figures and Asmat artefacts, serving commemorative, protective, aesthetic, or spiritual functions.

Indonesian architecture ranges from everyday houses to ritual houses (rumah adat), whose layouts, posts, roofs, heirlooms, and construction rites can express ancestry, status, and local beliefs. Regional forms include the Javanese pendapa, Dayak longhouses, Minangkabau Rumah Gadang, and Toraja Tongkonan. Monumental religious architecture includes Borobudur and Prambanan, while surviving Hindu and Buddhist sculpture from the 8th to 15th centuries includes works in stone, bronze, and gold.

Clothing traditions differ by region and are used in ceremonies, weddings, formal occasions, and as markers of local identity. Batik and kebaya are widely used in national and formal dress and are especially prominent in Javanese culture. Other regional textile traditions include Minangkabau gold-thread textiles and distinctive ikat traditions among Batak and many eastern Indonesian communities. These textiles are used at formal events, in bridal exchanges and during ceremonies and weddings.

Performing arts

Indonesian music and dance include court, village, ritual, and popular forms. Gamelan traditions are centred especially in Java and Bali, while angklung and other bamboo ensembles are used in western Java, Banyumas, and other regions. Drums, gongs, lutes and singing often accompany dance. Islamic musical forms include gambus and qasida, while popular genres include keroncong and dangdut. The latter developed from Melayu music and draws on Indian, Arabic and Western pop and rock influences.

Mask dances appear in Javanese court drama and Balinese ritual performance, while Dayak mask dances are performed in agricultural rituals and communal ceremonial settings. Javanese court dance includes forms such as bedhaya and serimpi, while other local dances are associated with theatre and music, spirit possession, harvests, temple festivals, cremation ceremonies, and commemorations of the dead. Contemporary performers also adapt global forms.

Traditional Indonesian theatre encompasses storytelling, music, movement, puppetry, masks, acting, and dance. Wayang is a prominent puppet-theatre tradition in Java that is also practised in Bali. Led by a dalang and accompanied by gamelan music, its repertory frequently reworks episodes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. It has served ritual, moral, comic, political, and public-messaging functions. Other regional traditions combine drama with music, dance, masks, or martial arts, and modern theatre groups have used their performances for social and political commentary.

Literature

Literary traditions developed in many regional languages and included both oral and written forms. Oral traditions ranged from storytelling to songs, customs, beliefs, and other community forms, and material could move between oral and written forms. Traditional written literature includes court chronicles, religious and legal writing, narrative prose, and verse. These forms often served ethical, religious, or dynastic purposes rather than entertainment.

Modern literature grew in the early 20th century alongside the expansion of literacy, publishing, and a wider reading public. Balai Pustaka, established in 1917, distributed books and maintained libraries and agencies across the archipelago, which gave writers access to wider circulation. During this period, prose fiction and poetry became more prominent, displacing some older literary forms. From 1933, Pujangga Baru provided another venue for literary and cultural writing, publishing essays, poetry, short stories, and longer prose before the Japanese occupation. Newspapers, magazines, and other publications carried Indonesian-language prose and poetry during the prewar period.

In the 1970s and 1980s, newspapers and magazines were important outlets, with regular sections carrying poetry, short stories, criticism, and serial fiction. From the late 1990s, some forms of literary activity began to emerge in digital media, as websites, mailing lists, forums and blogs provided spaces for literary communities and publication. Post-1998 literary production has faced fewer state restrictions, allowing writers to address previously sensitive subjects, including sexuality and stronger religious expression, more openly.

Cinema and mass media

Indonesian film production began during the Dutch colonial era with Loetoeng Kasaroeng (1926), and a small number of film companies emerged after independence. Film became a vehicle for nationalist and anti-imperialist politics under Sukarno, while the New Order regulated and censored cinema. The domestic industry of the 1970s and 1980s declined sharply in the early 1990s. After 1998, independent filmmakers, film communities, festivals, and renewed commercial production helped revive Indonesian cinema. However, censorship and pressure from non-state actors still limited expression.

During the New Order, newspapers and broadcasters operated under licensing and censorship, and television was used to advance state-led development and a unified vision of national identity. In the Reformasi period, the 1999 Press Law ended government censorship and publication bans, and removed the requirement for publishing licences, but journalists and news organisations continued to face lawsuits, intimidation and physical attacks, sometimes involving government officials.

Internet use grew rapidly from the mid-1990s, and websites provided another means of distributing news and information. Mainstream news organisations increasingly use the same reporting across television, print and online outlets, either through integrated newsrooms or by sharing content between them. News is also shortened or reformatted for websites and social media.

Cuisine

Indonesian cuisine differs from one region to another in its ingredients, methods, and flavours. Trade and migration brought Indian, Chinese and Middle Eastern influences over centuries, and Portuguese and other European traders arriving from the 16th century, followed by Dutch colonial rule, introduced further ingredients and cooking practices. Indonesian cuisine also spread abroad, particularly to the Netherlands, where cookbooks and migration introduced Indonesian food to Dutch society by the late 19th century.

Rice is the staple food in much of the country and is commonly served with meat or fish, vegetables, sambal, and other condiments. Chilli, coconut milk, shrimp paste, peanuts, garlic, shallots, and tamarind are widely used in cooking, along with foods such as chicken and seafood. Peanuts are used to make sauces for dishes such as gado-gado and sate.

Tempeh and tahu (tofu) are widely consumed soybean products. Tempeh originated in Java and is also eaten in Bali and elsewhere in Indonesia. Mie (noodles) and nasi goreng are also popular dishes. Regional cuisines include Minangkabau dishes such as rendang. Tumpeng is a Javanese ceremonial rice dish served for life-cycle events and other communal observances, where it is associated with gratitude and blessing.

Sports

Popular sports in Indonesia include football, badminton, weightlifting, and basketball, along with local games and martial arts. Football is one of the most followed sports, with active club supporters and public screenings of matches. The national football team was the first Asian representative to appear at the FIFA World Cup, taking part in the 1938 tournament as the Dutch East Indies.

Indonesia has been particularly successful in international badminton, winning both the Thomas and Uber Cups, the men's and women's world team championships. Most of Indonesia's Olympic medals have come from badminton and weightlifting. Indonesia first competed at the Olympics in 1952 and has participated in the Asian Games since their inaugural edition in 1951. Jakarta has hosted the Asian Games twice, first in 1962 and again in 2018 with Palembang.

Traditional sports and games are featured in ceremonies, harvest events, contests, and public entertainment. Examples include sepak takraw, bull racing (karapan sapi) in Madura, and ritual combat traditions such as caci in Flores and pasola in Sumba. Pencak silat is a form of Indonesian martial arts and was included as an official event at the 2018 Asian Games, where Indonesia won all 14 gold medals contested in the sport.

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