The people of Indonesia & their culture, politics, economy and environment - Inside Indonesia: The peoples and cultures of Indonesia

Ethnicity

Exhibited as losers

A new artwork holds up a mirror to physical anthropology and its baseless racial categorisations

Beauty and belonging in West Papua

Papuan waria draw on foreign ideals of beauty in their quest for a sense of belonging in their local communities

Bhinneka Tunggal Ika?

Reality often falls short of expectations

Essay: Celebrating Imlek, Catholic style

Practices such as Imlek masses are a welcome example of tolerance and plurality

Review: Bicultural leader Siauw Giok Tjhan

A showcase of harmony

Celebrating Indonesia’s birthday with the Mandarin choirs of Jakarta

Sectarianism, culture and politics

An emerging conservative Muslim coalition is a force to be reckoned with in Indonesian politics

‘We are natural-born children, you are adopted’

A small wooden boat is docked on the shore, with two others in the background, in Malifut, North Halmahera. (Yefta Christiono)

Locals contest national citizenship rights in North Maluku

When ‘home’ is not home

The worn-down, wooden-plank exterior of a house, bare but for a mural of a bull on a red background - PDI-P's symbol. (Laila Kholid Alfirdaus)

Locals react coolly to ex-transmigrants who return to Java after fleeing violence elsewhere

A post-colonial subversive

Like Toer’s tetralogy before it, Semua Untuk Hindia turns Indonesia’s national history narrative on its head

My eyes may be blue, but I am Indonesian

The different and difficult experiences of Eurasian Indonesians

Chinese whispers: The art of reflection

Essays and Fiction is a new series of writing in Inside Indonesia that aims to give voice to more personal stories about Indonesia. We welcome submissions in the form of reflective pieces, fiction, artwork, or essays about travel and fieldwork experiences.

Driving under the New Order

The tumultuous events of 1965 thwarted Liong Tjie Tjong’s writing aspirations

Celebrating community

A temple procession brings Chinese culture to life in Jakarta’s streets

Marketing the Chinese face of Islam

Chinese Muslim preachers are popular, but they don’t always promote greater pluralism

Locating culture in the church

Minahasan Christians reinterpret their cultural history and identity through religion

Land, ethnicity and politics

Direct local elections have led to new developments in the struggle for land rights in East Kalimantan

Struggling to be young

Brotherhood among the poor urban youth of Jakarta

Against the grain

Two Chinese-Indonesian women are role models for the younger generation

In memory of martyrs

A Chinese community constructs and preserves the memory of their loved ones, the victims of racial and political violence in Banyuwangi

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Lontar Modern Indonesia

A selection of stories from the Indonesian classics and modern writers, periodically published free for Inside Indonesia readers, courtesy of Lontar.