1.
National Museum of Indonesia
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Popularly known as Elephant Building after the elephant statue in its forecourt. Its broad collections cover all of Indonesias territory and almost all of its history, the museum has endeavoured to preserve Indonesias heritage for two centuries. On April 24,1778, a group of Dutch intellectuals established an institution under the name Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen. This private body had the aim of promoting research in the field of arts and sciences, especially in history, archaeology, ethnography and physics, and publish the various findings. One of the founders – JCM Radermacher – donated a building and a collection of objects and books. Due to the collections, General Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles built a new premises on Jalan Majapahit No.3 at the beginning of the 19th century. In the 1862 the Dutch East Indies government decided to build a new museum that would not only serve as an office but also could be used to house, preserve, the Museum was officially opened in 1868 and popularly known as Gedung Gajah or sometimes called Gedung Arca. It was called Gedung Gajah on account of the elephant statue in the front yard – a gift to Batavia from King Chulalongkorn of Siam in 1871. It was also called Gedung Arca because a variety of statues from different periods are on display in the house. In 1931, the collections were shown in a world cultural exhibition in Paris. Unfortunately, a fire in the hall demolished the Dutch East Indies exhibition pavilion. The museum received some money as compensation and the following year these funds were used to build the old ceramics room, the bronze room. In February,1950 the institution became the Lembaga Kebudayaan Indonesia, on September 17,1962 it was handed over to the Indonesian government and became known as Museum Pusat. By decree of the Minister of Education and Culture No, 092/0/1979 May 28,1979 it was renamed the Museum Nasional. In 2007, a new building to the side of existing building was opened. This new building, called Gedung Arca, provides a new exhibition wing, the old building is named as Gedung Gajah. In September 11,2013, four precious golden artifacts from the 10th-century Eastern Medang kingdom period was stolen from the museum. The items were first discovered in the ruins of the Jalatunda ancient royal bathing place and in the temples on the slopes of Mount Penanggungan in Mojokerto Regency, East Java
2.
South Sumatra
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South Sumatra Province is a province of Indonesia. It is located in the part of Sumatra Island, east of the Bukit Barisan Mountains. It spans 91,592.43 km2 and had a population of 7,450,394 at the 2010 Census, the capital of the province is Palembang. South Sumatra has been settled by humans since the Palaeolithic era, the evidence of those settlements is proven by some discoveries of Palaeolithic tools in the riverbed of Saling and Kikim rivers in Bungamas Village, Lahat Regency. Relics of seven stone chambers believed to be about 2,500 years old were found near a plantation in Kotaraya Lembak. Around 300 BC, the Deutero-Malay people arrived in this region, around 7th century AD, an ancient Buddhist kingdom of Srivijaya was established in an area known today as Palembang. It once controlled a part of what is now Indonesia, Malaysia and Southern Thailand, effectively ruled the Malacca Strait. In 1025, it was defeated by the Chola Empire of southern India, srivijayas capital eventually moved northward to Jambi. After its eventual fall in 14th century AD, some kingdoms were established in South Sumatra. However, there was virtually a power vacuum in the region there was no prominent power to hold the region except for the waning Majapahit Empire. The vacuum allowed pirates to flourish in the region, in the 16th century AD, the Palembang Sultanate was established by Ki Gede Ing Suro, a politician who fled from Demak Sultanate. Clashes with the Dutch had occurred since the 17th century until the sultanate was abolished in 1825 when the Dutch gave a blow to the final Sultan of Palembang. Southern Sumatra was occupied by the Japanese in January 15,1942 after the Battle of Palembang in World War II, after the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, South Sumatra became a part of Sumatra Province as a residency with Adnan Kapau Gani as the resident. On January 1,1947, the Dutch tried to gain its sovereignty over South Sumatra by invading Palembang, since then, fighting ensued across South Sumatra until Indonesias independence was recognized by the Dutch on December 27,1949. The province is located in the portion of the island of Sumatra. The majority of its area consists of low-lying plains filled with plantations, forest, the natural environment of South Sumatra is hot and humid tropical rain forest. However, most of these forest has been cleared out to make way for oil palm plantation for palm oil production, the Bukit Barisan mountain range is located on the western edge of the province and forms the border with the neighbouring Bengkulu province. The mountains are the source of systems that drain eastward to the Bangka Strait
3.
Indonesia
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Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a unitary sovereign state and transcontinental country located mainly in Southeast Asia with some territories in Oceania. Situated between the Indian and Pacific oceans, it is the worlds largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands. At 1,904,569 square kilometres, Indonesia is the worlds 14th-largest country in terms of area and worlds 7th-largest country in terms of combined sea. It has an population of over 260 million people and is the worlds fourth most populous country. The worlds most populous island, Java, contains more than half of the countrys population, Indonesias republican form of government includes an elected legislature and president. Indonesia has 34 provinces, of which five have Special Administrative status and its capital and countrys most populous city is Jakarta, which is also the most populous city in Southeast Asia and the second in Asia. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, other neighbouring countries include Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, Palau, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support the second highest level of biodiversity. The country has abundant natural resources like oil and natural gas, tin, copper, agriculture mainly produces rice, palm oil, tea, coffee, cacao, medicinal plants, spices and rubber. Indonesias major trading partners are Japan, United States, China, the Indonesian archipelago has been an important region for trade since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Indonesia consists of hundreds of native ethnic and linguistic groups. The largest – and politically dominant – ethnic group are the Javanese, a shared identity has developed, defined by a national language, ethnic diversity, religious pluralism within a Muslim-majority population, and a history of colonialism and rebellion against it. Indonesias national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, articulates the diversity that shapes the country, Indonesias economy is the worlds 16th largest by nominal GDP and the 8th largest by GDP at PPP, the largest in Southeast Asia, and is considered an emerging market and newly industrialised country. Indonesia has been a member of the United Nations since 1950, Indonesia is a member of the G20 major economies and World Trade Organization. The name Indonesia derives from the Greek name of the Indós, the name dates to the 18th century, far predating the formation of independent Indonesia. In 1850, George Windsor Earl, an English ethnologist, proposed the terms Indunesians—and, his preference, in the same publication, one of his students, James Richardson Logan, used Indonesia as a synonym for Indian Archipelago. However, Dutch academics writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use Indonesia, they preferred Malay Archipelago, the Netherlands East Indies, popularly Indië, the East, and Insulinde
4.
Musi River (Indonesia)
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The Musi River is located in southern Sumatra, Indonesia. It is about 750 kilometers long, and drains most of South Sumatra province, after flowing through Palembang, the provincial capital, it joins with the several other rivers, including the Banyuasin River, to form a delta near the city of Sungsang. The river, dredged to a depth of about 6, the river mouth was the site of the SilkAir Flight 185 plane crash which killed all 104 passengers and crew on board in 1997. Media related to Musi River at Wikimedia Commons Banyuasin Musi River Delta conservation information from the ARCBC
5.
Vatteluttu alphabet
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The Vaṭṭeḻuttu alphabet, also spelled Vattezhutthu is an abugida writing system originating from the ancient Tamil people of South India. The syllabic alphabet is attested from the 6th century CE to the 14th century in present-day Tamil Nadu and it was later supplanted by modern Tamil script and Malayalam script. Vaṭṭeḻuttu replaced Tamil-Brahmi for writing Tamil after the 2nd century CE and this rounded form of writing was also used in Kerala to write in Tamil as well as in proto-Malayalam and Malayalam language. Currently, Malayalam uses the Malayalam script, inhabitants of Kuccaveli, located north of Trincomalee, used the Vaṭṭeḻuttu script between the 5th and 8th centuries, attested to on rock inscriptions found there. Inscriptional records in Tamil date from 300 BCE to 1800, grantha was an alphabet in which extra letters were created specifically for Sanskrit words. It was also a form of Tamil script to write Sanskrit granthas or books. In Tamil, many of the letters which are found in Sanskrit do not exist, the following image shows the divergent evolution of the Tamil script and the Vatteluttu script. The Vatteluttu script is shown on the left, while the Tamil script is shown on the right, the following image shows the characters used in Vatteluttu. Tamil copper-plate inscriptions Indian copper plate inscriptions Laguna Copperplate Inscription Pallava script Tamil script Sivaramamurti, C, Indian Epigraphy, bulletin of the Madras Government Museum
6.
Grantha alphabet
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It is a Brahmic script, having evolved from the Brahmi script in Tamil Nadu. The Malayalam script is a descendant of Grantha as are the Tigalari. Grantha script still lives in Tamil Nadu, albeit in reduced state, in Sanskrit, grantha is literally a knot. It is a word that was used for books, and the used to write them. This stems from the practice of binding inscribed palm leaves using a length of thread held by knots, although Sanskrit is now mostly written with Devanagari, Grantha was widely used to write Sanskrit in the Tamil-speaking parts of South Asia until the 19th century. Scholars believe that the Grantha script was used when the Vedas were first put into writing around the 5th century CE, in the early 20th century, it began to be replaced by Devanagari in religious and scholarly texts and the Tamil script in popular texts. The Grantha script was historically used for writing Manipravalam, a blend of Tamil. This evolved into a complex writing system which required that Tamil words be written in the Tamil script. In modern times, the Grantha script is used in religious contexts by orthodox Tamil-speaking Hindus. It is also used in many religious almanacs to print traditional formulaic summaries of the coming year, Grantha script may be classified as follows, An archaic and ornamental variety of Grantha is sometimes referred to as Pallava Grantha. They were used by the Pallava in some inscriptions, mamallapuram Tiruchirapalli Rock Cut Cave Inscriptions, Kailasantha Inscription come under this type. The Pallavas also produced a distinctive script separate from the Grantha family, the Tigalari-Malayalam script is called Western Grantha. Currently two varieties are used, Brahmanic, or square, and Jain, or round, the Tigalari-Malayalam script was a variety of Grantha dating from the 8th or 9th century CE. It later split into two distinct scripts – Tigalari and Malayalam and this type of Grantha was used by Cholas approximately from 650 CE to 950 CE. Inscription of later Pallavas and Pandiyan Nedunchezhiyan are also examples for this variety of Grantha Script, Inscriptions of the Imperial Thanjavur Cholas are an example for Medieval Grantha. This variety was in vogue from 950 CE to 1250 CE, Grantha in the present form descended from later Pandyas and the Vijayanagara rulers. The Modern form of Grantha is very similar to Malayalam alphabet, the font used in the following tables is e-Grantamil taken from INDOLIPI. The glyphs below denote the form of Grantha Script, which can be noticed by its similarity with the Modern Tamil Script
7.
Pallava alphabet
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The Pallava script, a Brahmic script, was developed under the Pallava dynasty of Southern India around the 6th century AD. The form shown here is based on examples from the 7th century AD, letters labeled * have uncertain sound value, as they have little occurrence in Southeast Asia. Each consonant has an inherent /a/, which will be sounded if no vowel sign is attached, if two consonants follow one another without intervening vowel, the second consonant is made into a subscript form, and attached below the first. Sivaramamurti, C, Indian Epigraphy and South Indian Scripts, bulletin of the Madras Government Museum. Chennai 1999 Media related to Pallava script at Wikimedia Commons Examples of Pallava at SkyKnowledge. com
8.
Sanskrit
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Sanskrit is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, a philosophical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and a literary language and lingua franca of ancient and medieval South Asia. As a result of transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia and parts of Central Asia, as one of the oldest Indo-European languages for which substantial written documentation exists, Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-European studies. The body of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical, the compositions of Sanskrit were orally transmitted for much of its early history by methods of memorization of exceptional complexity, rigor, and fidelity. Thereafter, variants and derivatives of the Brahmi script came to be used, Sanskrit is today one of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which mandates the Indian government to develop the language. It continues to be used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals and Buddhist practice in the form of hymns. The Sanskrit verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- may be translated as refined, elaborated, as a term for refined or elaborated speech, the adjective appears only in Epic and Classical Sanskrit in the Manusmṛti and the Mahabharata. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit, with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved, Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini, around the fourth century BCE. Sanskrit, as defined by Pāṇini, evolved out of the earlier Vedic form, the present form of Vedic Sanskrit can be traced back to as early as the second millennium BCE. Scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or Pāṇinian Sanskrit as separate dialects, although they are quite similar, they differ in a number of essential points of phonology, vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a collection of hymns, incantations and theological and religio-philosophical discussions in the Brahmanas. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, for nearly 2000 years, Sanskrit was the language of a cultural order that exerted influence across South Asia, Inner Asia, Southeast Asia, and to a certain extent East Asia. A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of Indian epic poetry—the Ramayana, the deviations from Pāṇini in the epics are generally considered to be on account of interference from Prakrits, or innovations, and not because they are pre-Paninian. Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations ārṣa, meaning of the ṛṣis, in some contexts, there are also more prakritisms than in Classical Sanskrit proper. There were four principal dialects of classical Sanskrit, paścimottarī, madhyadeśī, pūrvi, the predecessors of the first three dialects are attested in Vedic Brāhmaṇas, of which the first one was regarded as the purest. In the 2001 Census of India,14,035 Indians reported Sanskrit to be their first language, in India, Sanskrit is among the 14 original languages of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. The state of Uttarakhand in India has ruled Sanskrit as its official language. In October 2012 social activist Hemant Goswami filed a petition in the Punjab. More than 3,000 Sanskrit works have been composed since Indias independence in 1947, much of this work has been judged of high quality, in comparison to both classical Sanskrit literature and modern literature in other Indian languages
