Jakarta

Bali

Sumatra

Sumatra is Indonesia’s westernmost and second largest island. It’s home to the Bukit Barisan, a volcanic mountain range with more than 30 active volcanoes. Sumatra’s climate is hot and moist with heavy rainfall, giving the island swampland and impenetrable rainforests. The island has great natural wealth in the form of rich oil fields, coalfields, deposits of gold and silver, and plantations that grow most of Indonesia’s rubber, coffee, pepper, tea, and sugarcane.

Java

Java is the fifth largest island of Indonesia, and makes up only one seventh of the country’s total area. However, it is also one of the most densely populated regions in the world, containing two thirds of the country’s population.

Java was home to early humans. In 1891 fossilized remains of ‘Java man’ (Homo erectus) were found on the island. The remains of Java Man, once thought the missing link between apes and humans, are between 700,000 and one million years old.

For centuries Java has been a political, economic and cultural center, containing most of Indonesia’s manufacturing centers, several universities, and widespread interest in literature and wayang, or shadow play, particularly in the cities of Yogyakarta and Surakarta.

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world. Indonesian Borneo (called Kalimantan by the Indonesians) covers 70% of the island, which is also shared with the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, and the sultanate of Brunei.

The Dutch colonized the island in the early 1600s, with the British taking the north edge of the island in the 1840s. The final boundaries for the three countries occupying the island were defined in 1905. Dutch Borneo became part of the Republic of Indonesia in 1950, while Brunei became fully independent in 1984. The island these countries share is largely covered by dense jungle and mountains, much of which remains unexplored. Borneo is home to a diverse assortment of plants and animals, including the elephant, deer, orangutan, gibbon, Malay bear, and crocodile.

Toba Volcano

The Toba Volcano is an important volcano studied by scientists because of its supervolcanic eruption said to have occurred about 75,000 years ago. The Toba supereruption was the largest known volcanic eruption during the past two million years. More than 600 cubic miles of magma were erupted, and all of South Asia and the surrounding oceans were covered in volcanic ash at least 6 inches thick. Today, the 62-mile long Lake Toba rests inside the caldera of the super volcano.

Komodo National Park

Komodo National Park is made up of three major volcanic islands and numerous smaller ones, in the center of the Indonesian archipelago. The islands’ dry climates and rugged hillsides contrast with the sandy beaches and coral-rich waters surrounding them. Komodo lizards are the most remarkable inhabitant of the park. Found nowhere else in the world, these giant lizards are often referred to as ‘Komodo Dragons,’ due to their aggressive behavior and average length of 6 to 10 feet. Because of the rich biodiversity within the park, Komodo National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sulawesi

Formerly known as Celebes, Sulawesi is the fourth largest island in Indonesia and the eleventh largest in the world. The island is home to over 18 million people.

Sulawesi is famous for its archaeological sites including large, mysterious megaliths and cave paintings that are thought to be about 40,000 years old, making them the world's oldest paintings.

Papua Province

Papua Province, formerly called Irian Jaya, is the easternmost and largest of Indonesia's provinces. It is home to incredible natural resources including the world's largest gold mine, vast rainforests, over 16,000 types of plants and numerous species of birds and reptiles. Papua is also home to the world's largest species of butterflies.

The red stripe represents courage, while the white represents purity. The colors come from the banner of the Majapahit Empire of the 13th-15th centuries.