Central Java
Central Java is a province of Indonesia. It forms the middle portion of the island of Java. The administrative capital is Semarang.
Central Java is also a cultural concept that includes the Special Region and city of Yogyakarta. However, administratively the city and surrounding region has been part of a separate special region since Indonesian independence.
Located in the middle of the island of Java, the
Central Java province is bordered by West Java and East Java provinces. A small portion of its south region is the Yogyakarta Special Region province, fully enclosed on the landward side by the
Central Java province. To the north and the south, the
Central Java province faces the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Central Java includes offshore islands such as Karimun Jawa Islands in the north, and Nusakambangan in the southwest. Yogyakarta is historically and culturally part of the
Central Java region, although it is now a separate administrative entity.
The geography of
Central Java is regular with small strips of lowlands near the northern and southern coast with mountain ranges in the centre of the region. To the west lies an active stratovolcano Mount Slamet, and further east is the Dieng Volcanic Complex on Dieng Plateau. Southeast of Dieng lies the Kedu Plain, which is bordered to the east side by the twin volcanoes of Mount Merapi and Mount Merbabu. South of Semarang, lies Mount Ungaran, and to the north-east of the city lies Mount Muria on the most northern tip of Java. To the east near the border with East Java lies Mount Lawu, where its eastern slopes are in the East Java province.
Due to its active volcanic history, volcanic ash makes
Central Java highly fertile agriculture land. Paddy fields are extensive, except in the southeastern Gunung Kidul region partly due to the high concentration of limestone and its location in a rain shadow from the prevailing weather.
The largest rivers are the Serayu in the west, which empties into the Indian Ocean, and the Solo which flows into East Java.
On the eve of the World War II in 1942,
Central Java was subdivided into 7 residencies which corresponded more or less with the main regions of this area. These residencies were Banjoemas, Kedoe, Pekalongan, Semarang, and Djapara-Rembang plus the so-called Gouvernement Soerakarta and Gouvernement Jogjakarta. However after the local elections in 1957 the role of these residencies were reduced until they finally disappeared.
Nowadays
Central Java is divided into 29 regencies (kabupaten) and 6 cities (kota, previously kotamadya and kota pradja), the latter being independent of any regency. These contemporary regencies and cities can further be subdivided into 565 districts (kecamatan). These districts are further subdivided into 7,804 rural communes or "villages" (desa) and 764 urban communes (kelurahan).
Java has been inhabited by humans or their ancestors since prehistorical times. In
Central Java and the adjacent territories in East Java remains known as "Java Man" were discovered in the 1890s by the Dutch anatomist and geologist Eugxne Dubois. Java Man belongs to the species Homo erectus. They are believed to be about 1.7 millions years old.
Then about 40,000 years ago, Australoid peoples related to modern Australian Aboriginals and Melanesians colonised
Central Java. They were assimilated or replaced by Mongoloid Austronesians by about 3000 BC, who brought with them technologies of pottery, outrigger canoes, the bow and arrow, and introduced domesticated pigs, fowls, and dogs. They also introduced cultivated rice and millet.
Recorded history began in
Central Java in the 7th century AD. The writing, as well as Hinduism and Buddhism, were brought to
Central Java by Indians from South Asia.
Central Java was a centre of power in Java back then.
In 664 AD, the Chinese monk Hui-neng visited the Javanese port city he called HÄ"lxng or Ho-ling, where he translated various Buddhist scriptures into Chinese with the assistance of the Javanese Buddhist monk JxÄnabhadra. It isn't precisely known what is meant by the name HÄ"lxng. It used to be considered the Chinese transcription of Kalinga but it now most commonly thought of as a rendering of the name Areng. HÄ"lxng is believed to be located somewhere between Semarang and Jepara.
The 1st dated inscription in
Central Java is the Inscription of Canggal which is from 732 AD. This inscription which hailed from Kedu, is written in Sanskrit in Pallava script. In this inscription it is written that a Shaivite king named Sri Sanjaya established a kingdom called Mataram. Under the reign of Sanjaya's dynasty several monuments such as the Prambanan temple complex were built.
In the meantime a competing dynasty arose, which adhered to Buddhism. This was the Sailendra dynasty, also from Kedu, which built the Borobudur temple.
After 820 there is no more mention of HÄ"lxng in Chinese records. This fact coincides with the overthrow of the Sailendras by the Sanjayas who restored Shaivism as the dominant religion. Then in the middle of the 10th century, for unknown reason, the centre of power moved to Eastern Java.
A few centuries later, after the destruction of the great Hindu Majapahit Empire in the 15th - 16th centuries by the
Central Javanese Muslim kingdom of Demak, the Javanese centre of power moved back to
Central Java. In the meanwhile European traders began to frequent
Central Javanese ports. The Dutch established a presence in the region through their East India Company.
After Demak itself collapsed, a new kingdom on the Kedu Plain emerged. This new kingdom, which was also a sultanate, bore the old name of Mataram. Under the reign of Sultan Agung, Mataram was able to conquer almost all of Java and beyond by the 17th century, but internal disputes and Dutch intrigues forced Mataram to cede more and more land to the Dutch. These cessions finally led to several partitions of Mataram. The 1st partition was after the 1755 Treaty of Giyanti. This treaty divided the old kingdom in two, the Sultanate of Surakarta and the Sultanate of Yogyakarta. Then few years later Surakarta was divided again with the establishment of the Mangkunegaran after the Treaty of Salatiga.
During the Napoleonic Wars in Europe,
Central Java, as part of the Netherlands East-Indies, a Dutch colony, was handed over to the British. In 1813, the Sultanate of Yogyakarta was also divided with the establishment of the Pakualamanan.
After the British left, the Dutch came back, as decided by the Congress of Vienna. Between 1825 - 1830 the Java War ravaged
Central Java. The result of the war was a consolidation of the Dutch power. The power and the territories of the divided kingdom of Mataram were greatly reduced.
However Dutch rule brought modernization to
Central Java. In the 1900s the modern province of
Central Java, the predecessor of the current one was created. It consisted of five regions or gewesten in Dutch. Surakarta and Yogyakarta were autonomous regions called Vorstenlanden. Then after the Indonesian independence the province of
Central Java was formalized on August 15, 1950, excluding Yogyakarta but including Surakarta. Since then there have been no (major) changes in the administrative division of
Central Java.
In 1998, preluding the downfall of president Suharto, anti Chinese violence broke out in Surakarta and surrounding areas. Much Chinese property and other buildings were burnt down. In 1999, public buildings in Surakarta were burnt again by supporters of Megawati Soekarnoputri after the Indonesia parliament chose Abdurrahman Wahid instead of Soekarnoputri. They carried out 'sweeping actions' against Western foreigners who reside in this city after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The May 2006 Java earthquake in the south and Yogyakarta devastated many buildings and caused thousands of deaths and more than 37,000 injuries. Today, some areas are still under reconstruction.
As of the 2010 census,
Central Java's population stood at some 32,380,687. As of the 1990 census, the population was 28,516,786. So the population has increased approximately 13.5% in 20 years.
The three biggest regencies in terms of population are: Brebes, Banyumas and Cilacap. Together these regencies make up approximately 16% of the
Central Javanese population. Major urban population centres are Greater Semarang, Greater Surakarta and the Brebes-Tegal-Slawi area in the north-west of the province.
Related Sites for Central Java
