Names of Indonesia

The region that today identified as Indonesia was also referred in different names, such as "East Indies" in this 1855 map.

Indonesia is the common and official name to refer the Republic of Indonesia or Indonesian archipelago; however, other names, such as Nusantara and East Indies are also known. Some of these names are considered obsolete and confined only on certain period of history, while some might be more geographically specific or general.

History

On identifying geographical names of their lands, the Indonesian natives seldom transcend their traditional boundaries, which is relatively small confined in their tribal environs. There are around 300 distinct native ethnic groups in Indonesia, and 742 different languages and dialects,^[1][2] which add to the complexity and unconformity on the naming of the region. The notions to identify the whole archipelagic region that today forming Indonesia was unknown then. Geographical names usually applied to individual islands, such as Java, one of the earliest identified island in the Indonesian archipelago. It was foreign traders and explorers from India, China, Middle East, and Europe that finally identify the names of this archipelagic region.

Yavadvipa and Suvarnadvipa

The island of Java was the earliest island within Indonesia that being identified by the geographer of the known world. "Yavadvipa" is mentioned in India's earliest epic, the Ramayana dating to approximately the 5th to 4th century BC. It was mentioned that Sugriva, the chief of Rama's army dispatched his men to Yawadvipa, the island of Java, in search of Sita.^[3]

Suvarnadvipa which means the "Golden Island" may have been used primarily as a vague general designation of an extensive region in Southeast Asia, but, over time, different parts of it came to be designated by the additional epithets of island, peninsula or city.^[4] In contrast the ancient name for the Indian subcontinent is Jambudvipa. In ancient Indonesia, the name Suvarnadvipa is used to designate Sumatra island; as counterpart of neighboring Javadvipa or Bhumijava (Java island). Both, Java and Sumatra are the principal islands in Indonesian history.

Jawi

The 8th century Arabs geographers identify the whole Maritime Southeast Asian region as "Jawi" (Arabic:جاوي). The word "Jawi" (جاوي) is an adjective for the Arabic noun Jawah (جاوة). Both terms may originated from Indian source, the term "Javadvipa", the ancient name for Java. "Jawah" and "Jawi" may have been used by the Arabs as the catch-all terms in referring to the entire Maritime Southeast Asia and its peoples.^[5] Today, the term Jawi is also used to describe Jawi alphabet, the Arabic script that have been used and modified to write in Southeast Asian languages, especially Malay language. In Javanese language, the term also means Java (geographically: tanah Jawi ꦠꦤꦃꦗꦮꦶ, or ethnically: tiyang Jawi ꦠꦶꦪꦁꦗꦮꦶ)

Nanyang

Nanyang (南洋) (literally meaning "Southern Ocean"), is a Chinese term denoting the greater Maritime Southeast Asia region not only Indonesia, but also including Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Brunei, but usually excluding other mainland Southeast Asian nations, especially the other nations on the Indochinese peninsula. It came into common usage in self-reference to the large ethnic Chinese migrant population in Southeast Asia. Nanyang is contrasted with Dongyang (Eastern Ocean), which refers to Japan.

East Indies

The name "the Indies" are derived from the Indus River flowing through modern-day Pakistan, India and western Tibet and were applied by the ancient Greeks to most of the regions of Asia that lay further to the east than Persia. This usage dates at least from the time of Herodotus, in the 5th century BC (see Names of India). The term "Indies" was first used by European geographer to identify geographic region not only Indian Subcontinent, but also includes the islands beyond.

After the discovery of America, it was later changed to East Indies to distinguished it with West Indies. During the age of exploration in the 16th century, "East Indies" is a term used by Europeans to identify what is now known as Indian subcontinent or South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and the islands of Oceania and Maritime Southeast Asia.^[6] The East Indies portion that today become Indonesia was fell under Dutch colonial control and named Dutch East Indies.

Insulindia

Insulindia or Insulinde, is a somewhat archaic geographical term^[7][8][9] for Maritime Southeast Asia, encompassing the entire area situated between Australasia and Indochina.^[10] More common in Portuguese and Spanish,^[11][12][13] it is combined word from insula ("island") and india (India).

Indonesia

The name Indonesia derives from the Latin and Greek Indus, and the Greek nèsos, meaning "island".^[14] The name dates to the 18th century, far predating the formation of independent Indonesia.^[15] In 1850, George Windsor Earl, an English ethnologist, proposed the terms Indunesians — and, his preference, Malayunesians — for the inhabitants of the "Indian Archipelago or Malayan Archipelago".^[16] In the same publication, a student of Earl's, James Richardson Logan, used Indonesia as a synonym for Indian Archipelago.^[17][18] However, Dutch academics writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use Indonesia. Instead, they used the terms Malay Archipelago (Maleische Archipel); the Netherlands East Indies (Nederlandsch Oost Indië), popularly Indië; the East (de Oost); and Insulinde.^[19]

After 1900, the name Indonesia became more common in academic circles outside the Netherlands, and Indonesian nationalist groups adopted it for political expression.^[19] Adolf Bastian, of the University of Berlin, popularized the name through his book Indonesien oder die Inseln des Malayischen Archipels, 1884–1894. The first Indonesian scholar to use the name was Suwardi Suryaningrat (Ki Hajar Dewantara), when he established a press bureau in the Netherlands with the name Indonesisch Pers-bureau in 1913.^[15] Although the name was originally meant for scientific purposes, on 28 October 1928, the name "Indonesia" gained more political significance when the native pro-independence nationalist youth in Dutch East Indies declared the Youth Pledge; acknowledge Indonesia as one motherland, one nation, and uphold Indonesian as the language of unity.^[20]

Nusantara

Nusantara is an Indonesian word for the Indonesian archipelago.^[21] It is originated from Old Javanese and literally means "archipelago".^[22] The name derived from Old Javanese word of sanskrit origin nusa ("island") and antara ("in between") or antero ("the whole of" or "the collection of"), both combined word means "the collection of islands" or simply means "archipelago".

The word Nusantara was taken from an oath by Gajah Mada in 1336, as written on an old Javanese manuscript Pararaton and Negarakertagama.^[23] Gajah Mada was a powerful military leader and prime minister of the Majapahit Empire who was credited with bringing the empire to its peak of glory. Gajah Mada delivered an oath called Sumpah Palapa, in which he vowed not to eat any food containing spices until he had conquered all of Nusantara under Majapahit.

In 1920, Ernest Francois Eugene Douwes Dekker (1879–1950), proposed "Nusantara" as a new name for this country instead of "Indonesia". He argued that the name was more indigenously developed, which did not contain any words etymologically inherited from the name Indies, Indus or India.^[24] This is the first instance of the term Nusantara appearing after it had been written in Pararaton manuscript.

The definition of Nusantara introduced by Douwes Dekker is different from the 14th century definition of the term. During the Majapahit era, Nusantara was described as vassal areas to be conquered, the overseas possessions of Majapahit, in contrast with Negara Agung or the core of Majapahit. However, Douwes Dekker did not want this aggressive connotation, so he defined Nusantara as all the Indonesian regions from Sabang as far as Merauke. Although Douwes Dekker's proposal did not succeed and the name "Indonesia" remain used for the nation's name, the name "Nusantara" has been widely used within literatures, printed and broadcast news materials and popular publications thus it has become the synonym for Indonesia.

Poetic literature names

Some of literature works and poems often describes Indonesia in eloquent poetic names. Such as Zamrud Khatulistiwa ("Emerald of the Equator"), which refer to Indonesian green and lush tropical rainforest as the emeralds, as well as the geographic position of Indonesia that stretch west-east along equator. It was coined by Multatuli, a 19th-century Dutch writer. He described Dutch East Indies as "Insulinde, das sich schlingt um den Äquator wie ein Gürtel von Smaragd" ("a girdle of emerald flung across the equator").^[25]

Other names such as Bumi Pertiwi ("Land of Pertiwi or Mother Earth"), refer to Indonesia through its national personification, Ibu Pertiwi, and Tanah Air (Indonesian lit: "soil and water"), an Indonesian word for "homeland".

See also

• Malay Archipelago
• Sunda islands

Notes