About Sumatra
Sumatra(Indonesia): Sumatera) is an island in western Indonesia n Indonesia and part of the Sunda
Islands. It is the
largest island that is entirely in Indonesia (two larger islands, Borneo
and New Guinea, are shared between Indonesia and
other countries) and the sixth
largest island in the
world at 473,481 km2 (including adjacent islands such as the
Riau Islands and Bangga Belitung Islands).
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 island chain of Simeulue, Nias and Mentwai bordering the
southwestern coast. On the northeast side the narrow Strait of Malacca separates the island from the Malay Peninsula, an extension of the Eurasian
continent. On the southeast the narrow Sunda
Strait separates Sumatra
from Java. The northern tip of Sumatra borders the Andaman Islands, while on the lower eastern side are
the islands of Bangka and Belitung, Karimata
Strait and the Java Sea. The Bukit Barisan mountains, which contain several
active volcanoes, form the backbone of the island, while the northeast sides
are outlying lowlands with swamps, mangrove and complex river systems. The equator crosses the island at its center on West Sumatra and Riau provinces. The climate of the island
is tropical, hot and humid with lush tropical rain forest once dominating the landscape.
Sumatra
has a wide range of plant and animal species but has lost almost 50% of its
tropical rainforest in the last 35 years, and many species are critically endangered such as the Sumatran Ground-cuckoo, Sumatran tiger,
Sumatran elephant, Sumatran rhinoceros,
and Sumatran orangutan. Deforestation on the island has also
resulted in serious haze over neighbouring countries, such as the 2013 Southeast Asian haze causing considerable tensions with
affected countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.
Srivijaya
was a Buddhist monarchy centred in what is now Palembang. Dominating the region through trade and conquest
throughout the 7th to 9th centuries, the empire helped spread the Malay
culture throughout Nusantara. 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 and writing two manuscripts.
Batak Warriors, 1870
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 and Indian
traders in the 6th and 7th centuries AD. 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 gradually fell
under their control. Aceh, in the north, was the major obstacle, as the Dutch
were involved in the long and costly Aceh War (1873–1903).
Sumatra
came under the control of the Dutch East
Indies and became a major
producer of pepper, rubber, and oil. In the early and mid-twentieth century,
Sumatran academics and leaders were important figures in Indonesia's independence movements, such as: Mohammad Hatta (the first vice-president) and Sutan
Sjahrir (the first prime minister).
The
Free Aceh Movement fought against Indonesian government
forces in the Aceh Insurgency from 1976 to 2005. Security
crackdowns in 2001 and 2002 resulted in several thousand civilian deaths
The Great Sumatran fault (a strike-slip fault),
and the Sunda Megathrust (a subduction zone) subduction zone), run the entire
length of the island along its west coast. On 26 December 2004, the western
coast and islands of Sumatra, particularly Aceh province, were struck by a tsunami
following the Indian Ocean earthquake. More than 170,000 Indonesians were killed,
primarily in Aceh. Other recent earthquakes to strike Sumatra include the 2005
Sumatra Earthquake and the October 2010 Sumatra earthquake
