Chapter 4, Part 6 In 1512 the Portuguese successfully reached the fabled Spice Islands after decades of sea explorations and conquests in the Indian Ocean. Ambon (Amboina), Ternate, as well as the Banda Islands were the main ports of call for the Portuguese in the […]
Chapter 4, Part 5 The turboprop plane which brought us from the city of Manado in North Sulawesi almost an hour earlier started its descent. Strings of verdant small islands now appeared larger from the window, and soon enough the venerable Mount Gamalama rose straight from […]
Chapter 4, Part 4 As the Age of Discovery began in the 15th century, Portugal and Castille (Spain) sent a large number of maritime missions to seek direct sea route from Europe to India and the fabled Spice Islands, as well as to discover lands […]
Chapter 2, Part 10 In the highlands of western Sumatra live a society with a unique culture where house roof is anything but unimaginative and women own the family’s wealth. In spite of being Muslims, their life is very much dictated both by the Quran […]
Chapter 2, Part 9 The narrow road keeps going up, climbing the slopes of Mount Lawu, an active volcano rising more than 3,000 meters on the island of Java. We are more than 30 km away east of Solo, the city from which we departed […]
Chapter 2, Part 8 As Demak rose to prominence and became independent from Majapahit, another sultanate began to flourish on the northwestern coast of Java. Previously under the sphere of influence of the Hindu Galuh kingdom, the Sultanate of Cirebon became effectively independent under the […]
Chapter 2, Part 7 Since more than a thousand years ago, the island of Java has been an important economic and cultural center among the vast archipelago which today makes up most of Indonesia. The ports on the northern coasts of the island were strategically […]
Chapter 2, Part 6 Far from the heartland of Arabia where it was born, Islam reached the farthest side of the world known by the Arabs as Tsin, China. Muhammad himself in a popular but not necessarily reliable hadith (reports describing Muhammad’s words, actions, and […]
Chapter 2, Part 5 We were at Ulee Lheue, a mid-sized port on Mainland Aceh at the northern part of Sumatra where we would catch the boat to take us to Pulau Weh (Weh Island), one of the outer islands in the sprawling Indonesian archipelago […]
Chapter 2, Part 4 Centuries after the introduction of Islam by Muhammad to the people of Mecca and Hijaz (Medina), the new religion spread quickly from the Arabian peninsula to North Africa and the Iberian peninsula to the west, along with Persia, Central Asia and […]
Chapter 1, Part 11 Perched on a hill in the Kewu Plain, an unassuming compound of ancient structures made from andesite rocks is a beauty shrouded in mystery. Its roofed gate stood elegantly, in contrast with the austere walls surrounding the vast complex. Unassuming it […]
Chapter 1, Part 10 Pramodhawardhani, the daughter of Samaratungga of the Buddhist Sailendra dynasty, as well as the wife of Rakai Pikatan, the new Hindu king of Medang, ruled the kingdom in a conciliatory period between the two religions in the mid-ninth century AD. During […]
What an Amazing World! 