Facts for Kids

People have lived in Indonesia for a very long time. Fossils show early humans on Java and other islands long before tools and farming. The first modern humans arrived tens of thousands of years ago and left cave paintings on Sulawesi and Borneo. Around 2,000 BCE, Austronesian peoples came by boat and began new fishing and farming ways, like wet rice fields, that helped villages grow into kingdoms.

Indonesia’s islands became centers of trade and learning. Powerful kingdoms such as Srivijaya and Majapahit shaped culture and built big temples. From the 13th century, Islam mixed with older beliefs. Europeans arrived in the 1500s and the Dutch later ruled for many years. After World War II, Indonesians declared independence in 1945 and worked to build a democracy. The country has changed a lot since then, learning how to balance traditions and new ideas.

Indonesia is a huge country made of islands between the Indian and Pacific oceans. You can imagine it as a long chain of land and sea called an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands. Some big islands are Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. People speak many languages and follow many traditions, but the country’s motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (“Unity in Diversity”), reminds everyone to live together. More than 280 million people call Indonesia home, and many live on Java, the busiest island. What would you pack for a trip across so many islands?

The national motto is Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, which means "unity in diversity." Indonesia has more than 280 million people, so it is one of the busiest countries in the world. Most people follow Islam, and the country includes hundreds of ethnic groups and languages. The Javanese are the largest group, and the island of Java holds more than half of the people, with Jakarta as the biggest city.

Indonesia is a presidential republic, which means citizens vote for a president and lawmakers. The country is split into 38 provinces, and nine have special rules for local culture. Indonesia also joins groups of countries like the United Nations and ASEAN. What kind of place do you imagine living in among so many islands?

Indonesia is a growing country with a big economy and lots of natural resources. It is known as a newly industrialised nation, and many people work in farming, factories, and services. Tourism brings money for towns and islands: in 2023 about 11.6 million visitors helped the economy, and most came from nearby countries.

Natural places draw tourists: rainforests cover much of the land and you can visit orangutan reserves in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Cultural sites like Borobudur and Prambanan, the Toraja highlands, Bali’s festivals, and Komodo National Park are famous. History spots from Dutch times and royal palaces also attract visitors. Which of these places would you like to explore?

Indonesia stretches across a wide tropical region with thousands of islands, so its weather can be warm and wet. Most places have two main seasons: a dry time from May to October and a wet time from November to April. Highlands feel cooler and get more rain than the low coasts. Warm seas keep daytime temperatures steady and humidity high, so it often feels muggy.

Indonesia sits where three big pieces of Earth’s crust meet. This is called the Ring of Fire, and it makes many volcanoes and earthquakes. Volcanoes sometimes make life hard, but their ash also turns into rich soil that helps farms. Climate change brings more worries: seas can rise and weather can change, which affects people who live near the coast.

Music and dance are very important in daily life. Instruments like the gamelan, angklung, and sasando make sounds you might hear at ceremonies or festivals. There are more than 3,000 kinds of traditional dances. Some dances tell stories from temples or village life, and others celebrate harvests or weddings.

People show their history in art, clothes, and houses. You can see carved wooden houses like the Toraja Tongkonan or the Minangkabau Rumah Gadang, and bright cloths such as batik, kebaya, and songket. Food is part of every day: rice is the staple, and dishes like nasi goreng, sate, and rendang taste different across islands.

Indonesia is one of the world’s most plant- and animal-rich places, so scientists call it “megadiverse.” Because the islands sit between Asia and Australia, some islands have Asian animals while others have unique species found nowhere else. The Wallace Line is an invisible line scientists use to show where many of these animal types change.

You can find rainforests, mangrove swamps, and colorful coral reefs in the Coral Triangle, home to thousands of fish species. But forests and wetlands have been cut or changed for farms and logging, which hurts animals like orangutans, the Javan rhinoceros, and the Bali myna. Indonesia has many national parks and marine protected zones and aims to protect more ocean areas by 2045, though caring for them well is still a big task.