Java (Javanese and Sundanese: Jawa) is an island of Indonesia, and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. It is the most populous island, and one of the most densely-populated regions, in the world. The former site of powerful Hindu kingdoms and the core of the colonial Dutch East Indies, Java now plays a dominant role in the economic and political life of Indonesia.

Demographics

Java contains the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta. Popular tourist destinations include the city of Yogyakarta, a massive pyramid-like monument to Buddha known as Borobudur; and Prambanan, the largest Hindu temple in Java.

Java is by far the most populous island in Indonesia, with nearly 60% of the overall population of the country residing there [1]. With an area of 132,000 square km, and 127 million inhabitants at 864 people per km it would, if it were a country, be the second-most densely-populated country of the world after Bangladesh, except for some very small city-states.

Since the 1970s, the Indonesian government has run transmigration programs aimed at resettling the population of Java on other less-populated islands of Indonesia. This program has met with mixed results, and sometimes caused conflicts between the locals and the recently arrived settlers.

Culture

Generally speaking, the three major cultures of Java are the Sundanese culture of West Java, the Central Java culture, and the East Java culture. In the western part of Central Java, usually named the Banyumasan region, a cultural mingling occurred; bringing together Javanese culture and Sundanese culture to create the Banyumasan culture.

In the central Javan court cities of Yogyakarta and Surakarta, contemporary kings trace their lineages back to the pre-colonial Islamic kingdoms that ruled the region, making those places especially strong repositories of classical Javanese culture. Classic arts of Java include gamelan music and wayang puppet shows.

Java was the site of many influential kingdoms in the Southeast Asian region, and as a result, many literary works have been written by Javanese authors. These include Ken Arok and Ken Dedes, the story of the orphan who usurped his king, and married the queen of the ancient Javanese kingdom; and translations of Ramayana and Mahabarata. Pramoedya Ananta Toer is a famous contemporary Indonesian author, who has written many stories based on his own experiences of having grown up in Java, and takes many elements from Javanese folklore and historical legends.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Java (island)".

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