THE INDONESIAN ARCHIPELAGO

 

         The Indonesian Archipelago is the largest group of island in the world. It extends between two continents, Asia and Australia. it also lies between two oceans - the Samudra Indonesia and the Pacific Ocean.
         Indonesia's 13,667 island stretch 5,120 kilometres from east to west and 1,770 kilometres from north to south. the five main island are Sumatera, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya .
Indonesia has a land area of 1,904,345 square kilometres. More than half of it is forested land ad a large part is mountainous , with 15 of the mountains are still volcanically active. One of history's greatets volcanic eruptions , which kill thousands of people , occurred in !1883 on the island of Krakatau, which lies between Java and Sumatra.
         Indonesia is one of the most populous contries in the world. Its total population is 10 million. More than 60% of the population live on the island of Java.
        The Indonesian population consists of more than 30 ethnic groups which speak 500 different languages, but most of them understand the national languages, Bahasa Indonesia. The Indonesian government's campaign to popularize Bahasa Indonesia at present can be seen through sign in public places and various offices which say ' Use good Bahasa Indonesia correctly'; Indonesia's motto ' Bhinneka Tunggal Ika ', which means Unity in Diversity, symbolizes the unity of the people in spite of their sthnic and cultural origins.