Indonesia in a Nutshell: 17,000 Islands, One Idea

Indonesia is the largest island nation in the world: an archipelago of roughly 17,000 islands stretched along the equator between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. More than 270 million people live here, which makes it the fourth most populous country on earth and, at the same time, home to the largest Muslim population anywhere. Bali, the Hindu island our objects come from, is just one of its provinces.

This article gathers the essentials in one place: how the archipelago is built and what sets its great islands apart, a short history from Srivijaya to independence, how a country of several hundred languages manages to speak one, how its religions fit together, and why craft here is not a souvenir trade but the economy of entire villages.

What does the archipelago look like?

Indonesia spans more than 5,000 kilometres from east to west, roughly the distance from Lisbon to Moscow. It covers three time zones, straddles the equator and sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, with more active volcanoes than any other country. Those volcanoes gave the islands the fertile soil that grows rice, coffee, cloves and the trees that become furniture.

Only a few thousand islands are inhabited, but a handful of regions define the country:

A short history: from Srivijaya to 17 August 1945

For millennia the archipelago lay at the crossroads of sea routes between India and China. The first great states grew out of that trade.

• Srivijaya (c. 7th–13th century): a Buddhist maritime empire centred on Sumatra that controlled the Strait of Malacca and the spice trade.
• The kingdoms of Java: in the 9th century, Borobudur (Buddhist) and Prambanan (Hindu) were built, two of the greatest monuments in Southeast Asia.
• Majapahit (c. 1293–c. 1500): a Hindu-Buddhist empire from East Java whose influence reached most of present-day Indonesia. The motto Bhinneka Tunggal Ika comes from its court, and after its fall its elites moved to Bali, as we describe in our history of Bali.
• The sultanates (from the 15th–16th century): Islam arrived with traders from India and Arabia and gradually, without great conquests, became the faith of the port cities: Demak, Aceh, Ternate, Mataram.
• The VOC and the Dutch East Indies: the Dutch East India Company (VOC), founded in 1602, built Batavia (today's Jakarta) and controlled the spice trade for almost two centuries. After its collapse the archipelago became a colony of the Dutch state.
• Japanese occupation (1942–1945): three hard years that nonetheless shattered the colonial order and accelerated the independence movement.
• Independence: on 17 August 1945 Sukarno and Hatta proclaimed the independence of Indonesia. The Netherlands recognised it only at the end of 1949, after four years of fighting and negotiation.

The foundation of the new state became Pancasila, five principles: belief in one God, humanity, the unity of Indonesia, democracy and social justice. On the national emblem, on a ribbon held by the mythical bird Garuda, stands the motto Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, unity in diversity. It comes from an Old Javanese poem of the Majapahit era and still describes the country better than anything else.

What language do people speak in Indonesia?

The official language is Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), a form of Malay, which had been the language of trade across the islands for centuries. The choice was deliberate: in 1928 young independence activists took the so-called Youth Pledge, declaring one homeland, one nation and one language. They did not choose Javanese, even though it was the largest group's mother tongue; Malay was neutral and simple, so it favoured no one.

Indonesian is now the language of school, television and government, but at home most Indonesians speak the language of their island or ethnic group. Linguists count around seven hundred of them: Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, Minangkabau, Buginese, Balinese and hundreds of smaller ones, especially in Papua. Balinese has its own levels of politeness; you address a priest differently from a neighbour.

A few words that serve everyone well:

• terima kasih: thank you,
• selamat pagi: good morning,
• pelan-pelan: slowly, gently; a phrase that sums up the pace of village life,
• gotong royong: mutual help, working together for the village; a concept without which Indonesian culture cannot be understood.

Which religions do Indonesians follow?

Indonesia is not a religious state, but the first principle of Pancasila, belief in one God, means religion is part of everyday life. The state officially recognises six faiths: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.

• Islam is followed by just under nine in ten inhabitants, the largest Muslim community in the world, mostly Sunni, traditionally moderate and interwoven with local custom.
• Christianity dominates in the east: Flores, Timor, Papua, parts of Sulawesi and North Sumatra (the Batak).
• Hinduism is the religion of Bali, in a form found nowhere else: with ancestor worship, spirits of place and daily offerings. We describe it in our article on Balinese Hinduism.
• Buddhism and Confucianism are mainly the religions of the Chinese community, present on the islands for centuries.

In practice the lines are softer than the statistics suggest. On Java the Hindu-Buddhist past survives in wayang shadow theatre, in batik and in the calendar; on Bali Muslim villages have lived beside temples since Majapahit times. This is unity in diversity as daily practice, not just as a slogan.

Why is craft the economy of whole villages?

In Europe handicraft suggests a hobby or a luxury. In Indonesia it is a branch of the economy that employs millions of people in small home workshops. The model is similar everywhere: a village, or part of one, specialises in a single craft, skills pass from parents to children, and the work happens in the yard of the family compound, between household duties and temple obligations.

A few examples of that specialisation:

• Jepara in Central Java, the capital of teak furniture, where people have carved and joined wood for centuries,
• Yogyakarta and Solo: batik, inscribed on the UNESCO list of intangible heritage in 2009, and the silver of Kotagede,
• Cirebon: rattan weaving that ends up in homes all over the world,
• Sumba, Flores, Timor: ikat textiles dyed naturally with indigo and morinda root,
• Bali: a whole map of it: Mas (wood carving), Celuk (silver), Batubulan (stone), Sidemen and Gelgel (textiles), Kamasan (painting), Tegallalang (weaving and decor). We collected it in our map of craft villages.

When we visited workshops on Bali in August 2026, one thing struck us: there was no factory. There was a house, an open-sided shed, a few craftspeople and children coming home from school. That is why a single carving or basket ordered from here is not goods from Asia but several days of work by one particular family.

What this means for the objects in your home

Every object from Indonesia carries this whole mosaic: the volcanic soil the wood grew in, Hindu-Javanese motifs brought to Bali six hundred years ago, a village that has made one thing for generations, and a person who made it with their own hands. When you choose handicraft from Bali or solid wood furniture, you are buying continuity rather than exoticism, and it is in that continuity, not in ornament, that the essence of the island lies. Every object has a face.