5 Unusual, Interesting and Fun Facts About Indonesia
Home to diverse natural landscapes and inhabitants that are culturally and spiritually fascinating, Indonesia is also home to many funny things, quirky idiosyncrasies and fun facts that’ll only make you fall further in love with the massive archipelago of diverse islands. This article will explore twenty interesting, curious and downright bizarre facts about Indonesia.
1. Indonesia is home to over 100 endangered animals
Known as the Lost World of Asia, Indonesia is the playing ground of increasingly rare, exotic and absolutely beautiful animals that are slowly reaching critically dangerous levels of endangerment. These animals include, the Sumatran Tiger, Sumatran Rhinoceros, the Komodo Dragon, Orang-utans, the anoa (the smallest buffalo in the world), the beautiful Merak or Peafowl, sea turtles and the Tarsius Tarsier (a small, adorable, big-eyed primate not unlike Dobby the house elf in Harry Potter). Astoundingly, despite Indonesia only making up 1% of the Earth’s land area, its rainforests are home to 10% of the entire world’s known plant species, 12% of all mammal species and 17% of all known bird species
2. Indonesia has the world’s biggest ‘young’ population
Indonesia is the home to 165 million people under the age of 30, compared to only 8% of the Indonesian population being older than 60 years of age. Although a relatively effective family planning programme was implemented in Indonesia in 1964, Indonesia’s population growth is projected to surpass the present population of the United States should nothing change.
3. The world’s biggest flower lives in Indonesia
The Rafflessia Arnoldia, also known as the ‘corpse lily’, due to its foul odour upon blooming, is the largest flower in the world. These huge flowers mostly grow in Indonesia’s rainforests, are very tricky to find and after months of the bud developing, only last a short few days. The orangey, red, parasitic, five-petalled flower has no observable stem or leaves, can grow up to 3 feet and can weigh a hefty ten kilograms. The flower was discovered by the Italian botanist and explorer, Dr Oroardo Beccari in 1878 in the rainforest of central Sumatra Island.
4. Home to over 700 different languages and dialects
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This shocking number of languages is spoken throughout the Indonesian archipelago, with Bahasa Indonesia being the official language of Indonesia. Just the Papua Province alone, boasts over 270 spoken dialets. The total population for Indonesia is around 242 million people and Indonesia is also the largest Muslim-majority nation in the world.
5. Indonesia is the hottest spot on the Pacific Ring of Fire
The Pacific Ring of Fire, also known as the circum-Pacific belt, is the world’s largest earthquake belt with fault lines running from Chile to Japan and Southeast Asia. With Indonesia having roughly 130 active volcanoes, approximately four small earthquakes that occur daily, and sitting between the most active seismic area on earth, it is the hottest spot on the Ring of Fire. As a result of population density, many Indonesians live dangerously close to active volcanoes frequentlyings.