1.
Simeulue Regency
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Simeulue Regency is a regency in the Aceh special region of Indonesia. It occupies the island of Simeulue,150 km off the west coast of Sumatra. It had a population of 80,674 at the 2010 Census, with its isolated geographic location, Simeulue has not been affected by the turmoil of conflicts in mainland Aceh between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement. There has been no major GAM activity on the island, Simeulue was once a part of West Aceh Regency but was split off in 1999 with the hope that the regions development would improve. The seat of the regency is Sinabang, the regency is divided into 8 districts. The people of Simeulue are similar to the people in the neighboring Nias Island, the majority of the people of Simeulue are Muslim. Simeulue was close to the epicenter of the 9, local folklore has it that a huge earthquake and tsunami hit Simeulue in 1907, killing many of its inhabitants. Many died when they rushed to the beach after seeing the water recede, exposing the coral and they went to collect the fish, not realizing that the water would come back. Those who survived told the story of the 1907 semong, the word for tsunami. It is largely because of this history that many in Simeulue say that they knew what to do when the 26 December 2004 earthquake. In the fishing village of Kariya Vhapi on the NW shore of Simuelue, on 28 March 2005 an 8.7 magnitude stuck with its epicenter just off the south end of Simeulue Island. During the earthquake, Simeulue rose at least six feet on the western coast, on the east coast, the land was submerged, seawater flooding fields and settlements. At the village of Kariya Vhapi the 28 March 2005 tsunami was smaller than the one the previous December and did not damage the village, in Sinabang the 28 March 2005 earthquake and subsequent fire destroyed 50 to 60 percent of the downtown area and significantly damaged the port facility. At Sinabang the uplift was less than further north being only 40 cm, on 20 February 2008 at 03,08 PM local time, Simeulue suffered a 7.4 magnitude earthquake. On 11 April 2012 at 04,38 PM local time, Simeulue suffered an 8.6 magnitude earthquake
2.
Southeast Asia
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Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies near the intersection of geological plates, with seismic and volcanic activity. Southeast Asia consists of two regions, Mainland Southeast Asia, also known historically as Indochina, comprising Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar. Maritime Southeast Asia, comprising Indonesia, East Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, East Timor, Brunei, Cocos Islands, definitions of Southeast Asia vary, but most definitions include the area represented by the countries listed below. All of the states are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the area, together with part of South Asia, was widely known as the East Indies or simply the Indies until the 20th century. Sovereignty issues exist over some territories in the South China Sea, Papua New Guinea has stated that it might join ASEAN, and is currently an observer. Southeast Asia is geographically divided into two subregions, namely Mainland Southeast Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia includes, Maritime Southeast Asia includes, The Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India are geographically considered part of Southeast Asia. Eastern Bangladesh and the Seven Sister States of India are culturally part of Southeast Asia, the eastern half of Indonesia and East Timor are considered to be biogeographically part of Oceania. Homo sapiens reached the region by around 45,000 years ago, homo floresiensis also lived in the area up until 12,000 years ago, when they became extinct. Austronesian people, who form the majority of the population in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, East Timor. Solheim and others have shown evidence for a Nusantao maritime trading network ranging from Vietnam to the rest of the archipelago as early as 5000 BC to 1 AD. The peoples of Southeast Asia, especially those of Austronesian descent, have been seafarers for thousands of years and their vessels, such as the vinta, were ocean-worthy. Magellans voyage records how much more manoeuvrable their vessels were, as compared to the European ships, Passage through the Indian Ocean aided the colonisation of Madagascar by the Austronesian people, as well as commerce between West Asia and Southeast Asia. Gold from Sumatra is thought to have reached as far west as Rome and this was later replaced by Hinduism. Theravada Buddhism soon followed in 525, in the 15th century, Islamic influences began to enter. This forced the last Hindu court in Indonesia to retreat to Bali, in Mainland Southeast Asia, Burma, Cambodia and Thailand retained the Theravada form of Buddhism, brought to them from Sri Lanka. This type of Buddhism was fused with the Hindu-influenced Khmer culture, very little is known about Southeast Asian religious beliefs and practices before the advent of Indian merchants and religious influences from the 2nd century BCE onwards. Prior to the 13th century CE, Hinduism and Buddhism were the religions in Southeast Asia
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Aceh
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Aceh, is a special region of Indonesia. The territory is located at the end of Sumatra. It is close to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India, there are 10 indigenous ethnic groups in this region, the largest being the Acehnese people, accounting for approximately 80% to 90% of the regions population. Aceh is thought to have been the place where the spread of Islam in Indonesia began, Islam reached Aceh around 1250 AD. In the early seventeenth century the Sultanate of Aceh was the most wealthy, powerful, Aceh has a history of political independence and resistance to control by outsiders, including the former Dutch colonists and the Indonesian government. Aceh has substantial natural resources, including oil and natural gas, relative to most of Indonesia, it is a religiously conservative area. It has the highest proportion of Muslims in Indonesia, who live according to Sharia customs. Aceh was the closest point of land to the epicenter of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, approximately 170,000 Indonesians were killed or went missing in the disaster. The disaster helped precipitate the peace agreement between the government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement, Aceh was first known as Aceh Darussalam and then later as the Daerah Istimewa Aceh, Nanggroë Aceh Darussalam and Aceh. Past spellings of Aceh include Acheh, Atjeh, and Achin, according to several archaeological findings, the first evidence of human habitation in Aceh is from a site near the Tamiang River where shell middens are present. Stone tools and faunal remains were found on the site. Archeologists believe the site was first occupied around 10,000 BC, historic names such as Indrapurba, Indrapurwa, Indrapatra, and Indrapuri gave some hint of Indian influence on this region. However, there are no archaeological findings that link this region with Hinduism, evidence concerning the initial coming and subsequent establishment of Islam in Southeast Asia is thin and inconclusive. The historian Anthony Reid has argued that the region of the Cham people on the south-central coast of Vietnam was one of the earliest Islamic centers in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, as the Cham people fled the Vietnamese, one of the earliest locations that they established a relationship with was Aceh, furthermore, it is thought that one of the earliest centers of Islam was in the Aceh region. When Venetian traveller Marco Polo passed by Sumatra on his way home from China in 1292 he found that Peureulak was a Muslim town while nearby Basma, Basma and Samara are often said to be Pasai and Samudra but evidence is inconclusive. The gravestone of Sultan Malik as-Salih, the first Muslim ruler of Samudra, has found and is dated AH696. This is the earliest clear evidence of a Muslim dynasty in the Indonesia-Malay area, ibn Batutah, a Moroccan traveller, passing through on his way to China in 1345 and 1346, found that the ruler of Samudra was a follower of the Shafii school of Islam
5.
Metroxylon sagu
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Metroxylon sagu is a species of palm in the genus Metroxylon, native to tropical southeastern Asia, namely Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia and possibly also the Philippines. It is also naturalised in Thailand, in the Indonesian islands of Java, Kalimantan, Sumatra, true sago palm is a suckering palm, each stem only flowering once with a large upright terminal inflorescence. A stem grows 7–25 m tall before it ends in an inflorescence, before flowering, a stem bears about 20 pinnate leaves up to 10 m long. Each leaf has about 150-180 leaflets up to 175 cm long, the inflorescence, 3-7.5 m tall and wide, consists of the continuation of the stem and 15-30 upwardly-curving branches spirally arranged on it. Each first-order branch has 15-25 rigid, distichously arranged second-order branches, each branch has 10-12 rigid. Flower pairs are arranged on the third-order branches, each pair consisting of one male. The fruit is drupe-like, about 5 cm in diameter, covered in scales which turn bright green to straw-coloured upon ripening. The tree is of importance as the main source of sago. This starch is used in cooking for puddings, noodles, breads, in the Sepik River region of New Guinea, pancakes made from sago are a staple food, often served with fresh fish. Its leaflets are used as thatching which can remain intact for up to five years. The dried petioles are used to make walls and ceilings, they are very light, the sago palm reproduces by fruiting. Each stem in a sago palm clump flowers and fruits at the end of its life, to harvest the starch in the stem, it is felled shortly before or early during this final flowering stage when starch content is highest. Sago palm is propagated by man by collecting and replanting young suckers rather than by seed, recent research indicates that the sago palm was an important food source for the ancient people of coastal China, in the period prior to the cultivation of rice
6.
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
7.
Sumatra
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Sumatra is a large island in western Indonesia that is part of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island that is entirely in Indonesia and the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2, Sumatra is an elongated landmass spanning a diagonal northwest-southeast axis. The Indian Ocean borders the west, northwest, and southwest sides of Sumatra with the chain of Simeulue, Nias. On the northeast side the narrow Strait of Malacca separates the island from the Malay Peninsula, on the southeast the narrow Sunda Strait separates Sumatra from Java. The northern tip of Sumatra borders the Andaman Islands, while on the eastern side are the islands of Bangka and Belitung, Karimata Strait. The Bukit Barisan mountains, which several active volcanoes, form the backbone of the island, while the northeast sides are outlying lowlands with swamps, mangrove. The equator crosses the island at its center on West Sumatra, the climate of the island is tropical, hot and humid with lush tropical rain forest once dominating the landscape. Sumatra was known in ancient times by the Sanskrit names of Swarnadwīpa and Swarnabhūmi, the first word mentioning the name of Sumatra was the name of Srivijayan Haji Sumatrabhumi, who sent an envoy to China in 1017. Arab geographers referred to the island as Lamri in the tenth through thirteenth centuries, late in the 14th century the name Sumatra became popular in reference to the kingdom of Samudra Pasai, which was a rising power until it was replaced by Sultanate of Aceh. Sultan Alauddin Shah of Aceh, on letters written in 1602 addressed to Queen Elizabeth I of England, referred to himself as king of Aceh, the word itself is from Sanskrit Samudra, meaning gathering together of waters, sea or ocean. European writers in the 19th century found that the inhabitants did not have a name for the island. The Melayu Kingdom was absorbed by Srivijaya, Srivijaya was a Buddhist monarchy centred in what is now Palembang. Dominating the region trade and conquest throughout the 7th to 9th centuries. The empire was a thalassocracy or maritime power that extended its influence from island to island, Palembang was a center for scholarly learning, and it was there the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim I Ching studied Sanskrit in 671 CE before departing for India. On his journey to China, he spent four years in Palembang translating Buddhist texts, Srivijayan influence waned in the 11th century after it was defeated by the Chola Empire of southern India. At the same time, Islam made its way to Sumatra through Arabs, by the late 13th century, the monarch of the Samudra kingdom had converted to Islam. Marco Polo visited the island in 1292, and Ibn Battuta visited twice during 1345–1346, Samudra was succeeded by the powerful Aceh Sultanate, which survived to the 20th century. With the coming of the Dutch, the many Sumatran princely states fell under their control
8.
West Aceh Regency
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West Aceh Regency is a regency in the Aceh special region of Indonesia. The regency currently covers an area of 2,927.95 square kilometres and according to the 2010 census had a population of 173,558, the latest estimate is 182,721. These figures include the city of Meulaboh, which was the seat of the government until 8 July 2013 when it was separated out as an independent city. The regency is an oil producing area. Some of the people of the regency are Minangkabau-descended Aneuk Jamee, the regency was among the hardest-hit areas during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The regency is bordered by the regencies of Aceh Jaya to the west, Pidie to the north, Central Aceh to the northeast, and Nagan Raya to the southeast, list of regencies and cities of Indonesia
9.
Nias
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Nīas is an island off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Nias is also the name of the archipelago, including the small Hinako Islands, Nias Island covers an area of 5,121.3 km2. It is mostly a lowland area rising to around 800 m above sea level, there were 756,338 inhabitants on the island at the 2010 Census. The latest estimate for January 2014 is 788,132 and it is located in a chain of islands parallel to the west coast of Sumatra, Simeulue is about 140 km northwest, and the Batu Islands are located about 80 km southeast. This chain, which resurfaces in Nusa Tenggara in the islands of Sumba. At Nias the oceanic plate is being subducted under the Asian Plate at the rapid rate of 52 mm a year. Nias is the largest of the islands off Sumatra that are part of North Sumatra province and this archipelago consists of 131 islands, of which Nias Island is the biggest. The population in area was 756,762 inhabitants at the 2010 Census, including Ono Niha, Malay, Batak. Until 2003 Nias was an administrative regency covering the entire island, in 2003 it was split into two regencies, Nias and Nias Selatan. Gunungsitoli remains the city of Nias regency and it is the center of administration. Teluk Dalam is the capital of Nias Selatan, all parties in the North Sumatra Legislative Council have agreed to the formation of a Nias Island province. It has been approved at a plenary session on 2 May 2011, but still awaits approval from Central government. The new province will thus cover an identical to the original Nias Regency prior to the latters division in 2003. Apart from Nias Island itself, the province include the smaller Batu Islands to the south. # the area of West Nias Regency is included in the figure for Nias Regency, the first ancestors of Nias were Austromelanesoid race from Hoabinth at 10,000 B. C. and then came more advance Austronesians from Taiwan which shifted the existence of the Austromelanesoids. The name of the island derives from the used by the islanders to describe themselves. The isolated Nias Island chain has been trading since prehistory with other cultures, other islands, some historians and archaeologists have cited the local culture as one of the few remaining Megalithic cultures in existence today. While this point of view is debated, there is no doubt that Nias relative geographic isolation has created a unique culture
Media related to Simeulue at Wikimedia Commons