Trade-name of a programming language devised to create networking applications that will run on any computer, whatever operating system the computer uses. The name derives from Java coffee, whose strong, rich properties were thought by its devisers to be just as applicable to their new language. It has proved to be of special value to people wanting to manipulate data on pages of the World Wide Web. A tag naming a short program (applet) is embedded in a Web page and when that page is accessed by a user, either over the Internet or corporate intranet, the applet automatically downloads from the server and runs on the user's machine.
| Java | |
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| Locality | Sunda Islands |
| Population | 124 million (2005 est.) |
| Area | 126,700 km² |
| Density | 981/km² |
| Province(s) | Banten, Jakarta Special Capital City District, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Yogyakarta Special Region |
Java (Indonesian, Javanese, and Sundanese: Jawa) is an island of Indonesia and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. Once the centre of powerful Hindu kingdoms and the core of the colonial Dutch East Indies, Java now plays a dominant role in the economic and political life of Indonesia.
Formed mostly as the result of volcanic events Java is the 13th largest island in the world and the second largest island of Indonesia. While the majority of Javanese are Muslim, Java has a diverse mixture of religious beliefs and cultures.
History
Paleontology
The island of Java is known for several important finds of early hominid specimens . In particular, the 1891 discovery of cranial fossil remains commonly known as "Java man" (now designated as Trinil 2, after the Trinil site on the Bengawan Solo River) is notable as the first early hominid specimen found outside Europe.
Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms
Much evidence of Java's past kingdoms remains; In the sixth and seventh centuries, many maritime kingdoms arose in Sumatra and Java, which controlled the waters in the Straits of Malacca, and flourished with the increasing sea-trade between China and India and beyond.
The most prominent of the Hindu kingdoms was the Majapahit empire based in East Java, from where it held sway over a large part of what is now Indonesia.
Muslim kingdoms and the Dutch colonization
The earliest Muslim "evangelists" were called the Wali Songo, the "nine ambassadors". Most of the brand of Islam that is adopted in Java is mixed with long-standing indigenous beliefs, and has a decidedly "local flavor". For example, the legend of Nyi Roro Kidul was invented as a mix of the beliefs common on the southern coast of Java, and Islamic influences.
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) established its trading and administrative headquarters in Batavia (now the capital city of Jakarta). The VOC maintained control over the mountainous interior of the island through indigenous client states, such as Mataram in central Java.
The nineteenth century saw the Dutch government take over administration of Indonesia from the VOC, and in the mid-nineteenth century, they implemented new policies, usually called the Cultivation System (Dutch: cultuurstelsel). This policy of increased investment in the colony gave many more Javanese elites access to a Dutch education, both in Java and in the Netherlands itself.
Republican era
With the establishment of Jakarta as the capital and the Javanese roots of the majority of Indonesian political figures, the island has a dominant role in the political and economic life of the nation. While parts of rural Java are among the poorest in the nation, the urban areas of the island are Indonesia's wealthiest and most urbanized areas. Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer once recommended that the Indonesian capital be moved outside the island of Java, in order to free the Indonesian nationalist movement from its Java-centric character.
Geography
Java (8° S 110° E) is part of the Sunda Island Arc, which includes Sumatra to the northwest and Bali to the east.
Java is almost entirely of volcanic origin; The most active volcano in Java and also in Indonesia is Mount Merapi (2,914 m). The river rises from its source in central Java at the Tawu volcano, flows north then eastwards to its mouth in the Java Sea, near the city of Surabaya.
The island is administratively divided into four provinces (Banten, West Java, Central Java, and East Java), one special region (Yogyakarta), and one special capital district (Jakarta).
Popular tourist destinations include the city of Yogyakarta, the huge Buddhist stupa complex of Borobudur, the Hindu temples at Prambanan, and Mount Bromo in East Java.
Demographics
Java is by far the most populous island in Indonesia, with approximately 62% of the country's population.
Since the 1970s, the Indonesian government has run transmigration programs aimed at resettling the population of Java on other less-populated islands of Indonesia.
Culture
Generally speaking, the three major cultures of Java are the Sundanese culture of West Java, the Central Javanese culture, and the Eastern Javanese culture. In the southwestern part of Central Java, usually named the Banyumasan region, a cultural mingling occurred;
In the central Javanese court cities of Yogyakarta and Surakarta, contemporary kings trace their lineages back to the pre-colonial Islamic kingdoms that ruled the region, making those places especially strong repositories of classical Javanese culture.
Java was the site of many influential kingdoms in the Southeast Asian region, and as a result, many literary works have been written by Javanese authors. Pramoedya Ananta Toer is a famous contemporary Indonesian author, who has written many stories based on his own experiences of having grown up in Java, and takes many elements from Javanese folklore and historical legends.
See also: Culture of Indonesia
Languages
The three major languages spoken on Java are Javanese, Sundanese and Madurese.
Religion
Most Javanese (90+%) are Muslims, on a broad continuum between abangan (more nominal or syncretic) and santri (more orthodox). Small Hindu enclaves are scattered throughout Java, but there is a large Hindu population along the eastern coast nearest Bali, especially around the town of Banyuwangi. There are also Christian communities, mostly in the larger cities, though some rural areas of south-central Java are strongly Catholic. (See Religion in Indonesia.)
Java has been a melting pot of religions and cultures, which has created a broad range of religious belief.
Pre-Islamic Javanese traditions have encouraged Islam in a mystical direction. There emerged in Java a loosely structured society of religious leadership, revolving around kyais, possessing various degrees of proficiency in pre-Islamic and Islamic lore, dogma and practice. In the middle of 1956, the Department of Religious Affairs in Yogyakarta reported 63 religious sects in Java other than the official Indonesian religions. Of these, 35 were in Central Java, 22 in West Java and 6 in East Java.
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