An earthquake occurred on July 17, 2006 at 15:19:27 local time along a subduction zone off the coast of west and central Java, a large and densely populated island in the Indonesian archipelago. The shock had a moment magnitude of 7.7 and a maximum perceived intensity of IV (Light) in Jakarta, the capital and largest city of Indonesia. There were no direct effects of the earthquake's shaking due to its low intensity, and the large loss of life from the event was due to the resulting tsunami, which inundated a 300 km (190 mi) portion of the Java coast that had been unaffected by the earlier 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that was off the coast of Sumatra. The July 2006 earthquake was also centered in the Indian Ocean, 180 kilometers (110 mi) from the coast of Java, and had a duration of more than three minutes.

Nusa Kambangan is an island located in Indonesia, separated by a narrow strait from the south coast of Java. The closest port is Cilacap in Central Java province. It is known as the place where the fabled wijayakusuma, which translates as the 'flower of victory' in the highest literary register of the Javanese language, grows. The wijayakusuma can be used to bring a person back from the dead, and the princes of the Sultanate of Mataram and later the Surakarta Sunanate sent to the island for the blooms in order to become kings. Thus the island is also known as pulau bunga-bungaan, the 'island of many flowers'. There is a forest reserve on the island. One of the main cultural events is Sedekah Laut, which is held by the Surakarta Sunanate every Satu Suro in the Javanese calendar. Since the Dutch colonial period, there have been a number of supermax prisons on the island, some of which are still operational and run by the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.