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The Glossary

kecak - "monkey dance"

From Indonesia Glossary

The mineral-rich Sumatra is Indonesia's "land of gold and coal." From the ancient times, the island has spoiled its people not only with bullions but also with the largest harvest of Indonesian coffee, over a thousand kinds of unique birds and mammals, and an assorted terrain of mountains, volcanoes, plateaus and coral-ringed beaches that facilitate different modes of fun and adventure.

Sumatra is the world's sixth largest island but it is the biggest one entirely of Indonesia's own (Borneo and New Guinea are shared with other countries). The island is easily accessible from Singapore and Malaysia through Medan, Sumatra's largest city and main airplane hub.

The island's spine is the Barisan mountains chain, with the volcano Mount Kerinci as the highest point. Mt. Kerinci is a climbers' paradise inside the Kerinci Seblat National Park, one of the island's 10 national parks and one of the three listed as World Heritage Sites as the "Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra." The other two are the Gunung Leuser National Park and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park. These rainforest parks are conservation areas as the natural habitats for the endemic Sumatran Pine, the world's largest flower (Rafflesia arnoldii) and the world's tallest and largest inflorescence flower (Titan arum).

Sumatra is home to over 200 mammals and more than 500 bird types, most of which are endemic to the nearby Mentawai Islands. These species include varieties of tigers, elephants, rabbits, cloud bears, leopards and the Sumatran Orangutan, which was first successfully bred in captivity at Bukit Lawang.

Frequent volcanic activity in the island has produced a fertile landscape and beautiful scenery such as the world's largest crater lake, Danau Toba, and its central island, Samosir; the pleasant mountain treks of Bukitinggi; the gaseous volcanic craters of Berastagi; and the dive and snorkel sites of Pulau Weh, which has some of the world's richest collection of marine species.

The Sumatrans are mostly Muslims divided into different ethnicities with different languages. Matrilineal, animistic societies like the Acehs, the Lampungs and the Minangkabaus respectively dominate the northernmost coast and the southern and central territories, while the northern highlands are home to the Bataks, who live in big, peaked-roof huts and indulge in jungle juice parties.

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