Chain of Lands

An immense number of "surface lands" is certainly a natural phenomenon, attracting curiosity among globetrotters since humans began to travel the world, including scientists, anthropologists and volcanologists...

Photo by Gustra

Some of our readers may be wondering about our cover byline, "the sun, the sand, the surf, the culture of Paradise and over 18,000 surrounding islands", which suggests that the island of Bali has over 18,000 neighboring islands under the sovereignty of one country known as Indonesia.

Indeed, a recent satellite photo released by the country’s Ministry of Research and Technology confirmed that the country consists of exactly 18,110 islands; over a thousand more than the figure often published in various media, guide books and scientific records. Undoubtedly this is the world’s largest country in terms of numbers of islands, much larger than the combined archipelago countries of Japan, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

Such an immense number of "surface lands" is certainly a natural phenomenon, attracting curiosity among globe-trotters since the beginning of human beings traveling the world over, including scientists, anthropologists, historians, oceanologists, geologists and more recently and controversially volcanologists.

The latest are a group of enthusiasts who have found that forty percent of the worlds active volcanoes exist in Indonesia. They have also discovered that the world’s largest volcanic eruptions, historically as well as prehistorically, took place in this country. So was the fundamental basis for the term "Ring of Fire."

Movies based on the volcanic activities or eruptions in Indonesia have always attracted an audience, including the Hollywood based Krakatoa 1883 and UK-based Lawrence Blair’s Ring of Fire. Currently, a movie script based on the spectacular and super massive eruption of Toba in Sumatra that happened some 75 years ago (and scientists believe had a worldwide impact causing the weather to change significantly to the degree that it reduced the human population to as low as 1,000 the world over, and wiped out all the missing link human-type apes, not to mention other species of animals) is reportedly being made.

Below the volcanic summits, the thousands of islands naturally feature a composition of many elements, each with their own colors and character, partially as the direct result of the varied active volcanic activity in each different land. The impact of such is why British naturalist Alfred C. Wallace, who spent almost a decade of his study in Indonesia in the 1850s, called the archipelago "pieces of most fertile land on earth". This natural wonder taught its inhabitants the fantastic farming tradition that it is famous for the world over.

Some of the end results are valuable rare fruits, flowers, leaves, and root products like nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, and java, which the Western traders in the15th century simply called spices. British, Portuguese and Dutch traders fought each other to control these expensive commodities, and the latter was the winner to plant their hegemony for the next three and a half centuries. This spice monopoly helped the Netherlands modernize their country in a relatively short time.

A millennium earlier though, the global trade environment that connected the archipelago to the rest of the world did take place in a similar manner.

The Cinnamon Route, a legendary ocean route connecting Indonesia to the rest of the world, was a popular term to describe the sea trade connection between Southeast Asia, India and Africa in contrast to the Silk Road, the overland road connecting China to India and the Middle East.

Scenes of the trade are well documented in a relief at Borobudur, an eighth century grand Buddhist stuppa. Its massive architectural design conveys the success of those who were in the power of the trade monopoly. The relief features mono-hulled ships made of bamboo, yet proven to be capable of traveling the harsh Indian Oceans to carry goods from the Spice Islands to as far away as Madagascar and the Ivory Coast.

Four years ago, the Indonesian tourism office working together with an English boat expert made a prototype of that ship. The no-engine prototype indeed succeeded in a memorial trip across to Western Africa. It is now kept in a museum near the Borobudur temple in Central Java.

Like its name, the Cinnamon Route suggested that in the sixth, seventh and eight centuries, cinnamon was among the major commodities in high demand by the Indian and African markets, just like spices that were sold to Europe in the colonial era.

Sriwijaya, another strong dynasty from South Sumatra, was the next power to control the archipalego, to be followed next by the powerful dynasty of East Java’s Hindu Majapahit in the 13th until the 15th century, the final era of the local kingdoms when their traditional weaponry was easily defeated by the gunpowder technology of the European cavalry.

The truth is that whoever controls the Indonesia Ocean, with its 18,000 islands, controls the economy and therefore the power and political hegemony. This was the background of the various kinds of traditional boats, especially the simple wooden ones that abound on every beach.

Even so, many of the natural attractions in this massive chain of lands actually lay beneath the surface. Indonesia is situated between two continents, Asia and Australia, and two oceans, the Pacific and the Indian. Little known is that the archipelago is split in the middle by a deep trench that existed even when most of the areas were not "flooded" by ocean water as they are now.

Bali, Java, Sumatra and Borneo were all once part of the Asia continent, while the eastern half belonged to the Australia continent. This natural phenomenon dictates the natural habitats and faunas now existing in the two opposing areas.

Even more interesting is the fact that the shallow water, especially in the eastern half, is the perfect habitat for various corals and fishes, making the triangle area between Bali, The Philippines and Irian Jaya (Papua) a paradise for divers worldwide. So fascinating are these underwater wonders that oceanologists worldwide agreed to name this the world’s finest — the Coral Triangle Center.

By Supardi Asmorobangun, photos by Marthen Welly , copyright by Bali and Beyond magazine