Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The fourth-largest country in the world in terms of human numbers is also the globe’s most expansive archipelago. Spread across a chain of more than 17,000 mostly volcanic islands, Indonesia’s 261 million people live both separated and clustered—separated by water and clustered on islands large and small. With more than 300 discrete ethnic clusters, over 250 languages, and just about every religion practiced on Earth, Indonesia’s survival as a unified state is remarkable. Indeed, Indonesia’s national motto is bhinneka tunggal ika—diversity in unity. Nevertheless, Indonesia nominally is the largest Muslim country in the world: 88 percent of the people adhere to Islam, and in the cities the silver domes and minarets of neighborhood mosques rise like a dense forest above the townscape. . . . Today, Indonesia’s stature within Southeast Asia is steadily rising. This is not just the biggest country in the realm: it is also striving to achieve a commensurate level of economic development and prosperity. The economy expanded vigorously during the 2000s; global recession notwithstanding, per capita incomes here now exceed those of Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar . . ." [Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, 17th Edition, p. 445-9]