Temporaktif website attempts to give glimpses of some of the marvels, ingenuities, dilemmas, social realities, diverse cultures and customs, and complex pasts and presents of the Indonesia.
Indonesian cultures include those of forest-dwelling hunters and foragers, rice growers, fisher folk, village artisans, urban office and factory workers, intellectuals, artists, wealthy industrialists, street vendors, and homeless people.
They involve villagers in customary societies, sophisticated and cosmopolitan urbanites, as well as people who struggle to survive on city streets. Moreover, waters engulfing all Indonesian islands support seafaring peoples in contrast to societies of the lands.
An extraordinary range of belief systems, material culture, and arts enliven
these thousands of islands – composing one of the most ethnographically rich and diverse countries in the world.
Majestic temples, complex poetry and literature, lavish theatrical performances, rich mythologies, sophisticated thinking, and splendid visual arts have distinguished Indonesia for centuries and continue into the present.
This Temporaktif webiste will expand the scope to other islands of the world’s largest archipelago, revealing something of the rich diversity of this nation.
Most general literature about Indonesia focuses upon the central islands of Bali and Java. Yet, aside from Bali’s exotic reputation as an “island paradise,” many Westerners are almost unaware of this country of 242 million people, the fourth most populous nation in the world.
Indonesia has suffered a tumultuous past in stages: under the oppression of local rulers, European colonists, Japanese invaders, and currently multinational corporations.
This history produced a permanent underclass of people, but also instilled strength of spirit and skill at survival in most ordinary Indonesians.
Indonesians carry on an artistic genius, constantly reinterpreting and refining their cultures in the modern world. In this new century, the future of Indonesia, as of much of the world, remains problematic and uncertain.