Due to Indonesia’s emergence into an archipelago where its inhabitants, though of one similar ancestry, were separated by seas and therefore lost contacts, have caused the individual development of cultures, including their languages and their growing into diversification.

Nevertheless, the population of Indonesia has been reclassified, not so much on the basis of their racial origins, but more so on the basis of their linguistics identities caused by mentioned diversification, into four ethnic groups, A pure classification according to their racial origins is difficult to realize due to their inter-marriages. These four main ethnic groups are the Melanesians (the mixture between the Sub-Mongoloids with the Wajaks), the Proto-Austronesians (including the Wajaks), the Polynesians and the Micronesians.

These Melanesians are again sub-divided into the Acehnese of North Sumatra, the Batak in North East Sumatra, the Minangkabaus in West Sumatra, the Sundanese in West Java, the Javanese in Central and East Java, the Madurese on the island of Madura, the Balinese, the Sasaks on the island of Lombok, and Timorese on Timor Island. On the island of Borneo in Indonesia’s Kalimanthan, one finds the Dayaks. On the island of Sulawesi in the north are the Minahasas and in the center the Torajas, and in the southern part, the Makasarese and the Buginese. The Ambonese on the group of islands in the Maluku and the Irianese in Papua are classified into the Polynesians and the Proto-Austronesians, The Micronesians are found on tiny islets of Indonesia’s eastern borders.

Languages and Dialects.
Languages and dialects spoken and written over the whole of the Indonesian archipelago, 150 to 250 in number a usually classified according to the above mentioned ethnic denominations. The main district local languages of Indonesia are among others; the Acehnese, Batak, Sundanese, Javanese, Sasak, Tetum of Timor, Dayak, Minahasa, Toraja, Buginese, Halmahera, Ambonese, Ceramese, several Iranese languages and other such languages. In between these langugages there exist many other different dialects. Indonesia’s National Language is called the Bahasa Indonesia. In August 1973, Indonesia and Malaysia has signed a cultural agreement in which similar spelling of both the Malaysian “Bahasa Persatuan” and the Indonesian “Bahasa Indonesia” has been agreed upon.

Race, Culture and Ethnic Groups
The first inhabitant of Indonesia was the Javaman, who lived 500,000 years ago, named Pithecanthropus erectus by Eugene Dubois who found the fossils at several places on the islands of Java in the vicinity of the Bengawan Solo River. The fossils found in 1891 and 1892 in the village of Trinil, near Solo, were called Homo Soloensis, while those found in Wajak were called Wajakensis. Homo Soloensis with the same characteristics as the AustroMelanosoid people had roamed to the West and to the East.

In the period of 3,000 – 500 BC, Indonesia was inhabited by Sub-Mongoloid migrants from Asia, who later inter-married with the indigenous people. In 1000 BC, inter-marriage still occurred with Indo-Arian migrants form the South-Asian sub-continent of India.

The influx of the Indian settlers until the seventh century AD brought about the Hindu religion spread throughout the archipelago.

Moslem merchants from Gujarat and Persia began visiting Indonesia in the 13th Century and established trade links between this country and India and Persia. While conducting trade, the Gujarat and the Arab people also spread the Islamic religion in this area. The first to accept the Islam religion were the coastal kingdom, which before had embraced Hinduism.

In Aceh, Islam was widely accepted by the community with the Pasai and Perlak kingdoms becoming the first Moslem kingdoms in the archipelago.

First accepted by court circles, Islam found its way to the community at later stage. Particularly in Java, the “Wali Songo” (Islamic preacher) had played a very important role.

It was in 1511, that Portuguese arrived in Indonesia. The arrival of the Portuguese should be linked to the European demand for spices. They were followed by Spaniards, the Dutch and the British. Besides search for spices they propagated Christianity.

In the period preceding independence, Indonesia’s community was made up of a large variety of ethnic groups or rural communities. The member of each group are tied to each other by a sense of solidarity and identity which finds its roots in the land, language, art, culture and customs they share.

There are about 500 ethnic groups in Indonesia spread from Sabang (the northernmost tip of Sumatra) to Merauke in Papua. The Javanese community is the largest number of Indonesia’s total population, followed by the Sundanese, Madurese, Minangkabau, Buginese, Batak, and the Balinese. Other ethnic groups are among others the Ambonese, Sasaks, the Acehnese, etc.

Apart from the Indigenous communities, other sub communities of  foreign descent are the Chinese, Arabs and Indians.