Indonesia consists of more than 17.000 islands, of these about 6.000 which are permanently inhabited. About 80 percent of the archipelago is water. The country stretches across some 5.150 km from Sumatra in the west to Irian Jaya in the east, almost one eighth of the Earth's circumference. The distance from north to south is about 1.931 km. Indonesia lies at the junction of the Asian and the Australian continental plates, which is the reason for the high volcanic activity in this region.

The world's largest archipelago, Indonesia achieved independence from the Netherlands in 1949. Current issues include: alleviating widespread poverty, implementing IMF-mandated reforms of the banking sector, effecting a transition to a popularly-elected government after four decades of authoritarianism, addressing charges of cronyism and corruption, holding the military and police accountable for human rights violations, and resolving growing separatist pressures in Aceh and Irian Jaya.

Sumatra is the fifth largest island in the world and the third largest in Indonesia. Population is about 40 million. The island is divided in the Aceh, Riau, Jambi, Bengkulu and Lampung provinces, and North, South and West Sumatra. It borders the Indian Ocean to the west and Malaysia to the east, separated from the Malay peninsula by the Malacca strait. Area is about 425.000 square kilometers. A volcanic chain of mountains, Bukit Barisan, stretches from the south to the northwest part of the island.

Sulawesi is located east of Borneo, west of Maluku and has a common border with the Philippines to the north. The odd shape of the island naturally divides it into four provinces; South, Southeast, Central and North Sulawesi. The coastline is totally 5.630 km and the area about 189.070 sq. km. Highest mountain is Rantekombola, stretching to an altitude of 3.455 m above sea level. Unlike the other regions of Indonesia there are few active volcanoes here, just a few on the north east and south east parts.

The Nusa Tenggara islands are mostly poor and sparsely populated. Especially on the eastern islands the climate is dry and the landscape mountainous. Nusa Tenggara is different from the rest of Indonesia both geographically, ethnically and culturally. The main reason for this is the deep waters dividing Nusa Tenggara and the western parts of Indonesia (Sumatra, Java and Borneo). The islands have therefore effectively been separated from the rest of Indonesia and the Asian mainland, even in the ice age there were no connection between this area and other parts of Asia.

Kalimantan is the name of the Indonesian part of Borneo, the third largest island in the world. This province alone makes up for 28 percent of the area of Indonesia (539.000 sq. km), but only 5 percent of the population (about 10 million). Two thirds of Borneo belong to Indonesia, the northern region is part of Malaysia and includes the Sabah and Sarawak provinces. The last part belong to the small sultanate of Brunei Darussalam.

Total area of Bali is 5.623 square kilometers, the island is 145 km long and 80 km wide. The capital is Denpasar on the southern part, the second largest city is Singaraja on the north side of the island. Parts of Bali consist of several large volcanoes, according to old beliefs home of the Gods. The largest is Gunung Agung, 3.142 meters, for long considered to be the center of the universe. At the foot of this mountain sits the main temple on Bali, Pura Besakih.

The province of Riau include parts of central east Sumatra and the Riau islands south to the Berhala strait, north to the Singapore strait and east including the Natuna islands. The provincial capital is Pekanbaru on mainland Sumatra. Population is about 2.7 million, of which a third lives on the islands. Riau is the largest province on the island of Sumatra, but with more than 3.000 islands spread over more than 1.000 km of sea it is often considered as a separate region.

The archipelago of Maluku cover almost 1.5 million sq. km, and stretches 1.200 km from north to south and about the same from east to west. Within this huge area there aren about 1.027 smaller and larger islands, of which more than 600 is uninhabited, total land area is about 87.000 sq. km. The largest islands are Seram, Halmahera and Buru, these three islands alone makes up half of the total land area of Maluku.

About 75 percent of Irian Jaya, or West Papua, is covered with tropical forests. The northern part of the province is separated from the southern part by a massive chain of mountains known as Pegunungan Maoke. This is one of the highest groups of mountains in the world with the highest peaks in Indonesia, Puncak Jaya (4.884 m), Puncak Mandala (4.640m) and Puncak Trikora (4.730m) to mention a few.