culture
Religion
Of the 253 899 536 people living in Indonesia, 88% are Muslim, 5% are Protestants, 3% are Roman Catholic, 1% are Buddhists and the remaining 1% are of other religions.
Language
Bahasa Indonesia is the official language which is a modified version of the Malay dialect. Other languages such as English, Dutch and local languages are also spoken by some people, but the language that is spoken the most in Indonesia is Javanese.
Ethnic Groups
There are many ethnic groups in Indonesia - Javanese (45%), Sudanese (14%), Madurese (7.5%), Coastal Malay (7.5%) and many others (26%).
Food & Drinks
The fact that Indonesia is made up of so many separate islands is the reason why the food that people of different regions eat is different - in Sumatra, beef is the main meat source, in Bali, the food is peppery and spicy, in Java, meals generally consist of vegetables and meat which is usually chicken, and in the eastern region, seafood is commonly eaten.
Rice is the staple food.
Some unique drinks in Indonesia are bajigur which is from the West Java region (a sweet and savoury hot drink made from coconut milk and brown sugar), bandrek which is suitable in cold weather as it warms up the body (made from ginger and brown sugar, sometimes spices such as cinnamon, cloves and pandan leaves are added), sekoteng which is a drink native to Central Java (a hot gingery drink that is popular among the Indonesian people and sold in a cart), and cendol (a sweet and savoury beverage made from rice flour, served with grated ice, liquid palm sugar and coconut milk).
There are various kinds of fruit eaten by the Indonesian such as durian, mangoes, banana, coconut, papaya and jack-fruit.
Clothing
Each region of Indonesia has its own unique traditional dress that is worn on special occasions such as religious festivals and weddings. On normal days, people wear clothes of the western style - men wear pants and shirts, they wear ties for business, and women wear dresses, skirts and blouses.
The climate in Indonesia is hot, therefore the clothing that they wear is loose and use light fabric to make them.
Their are different traditional clothings for the different genders.
Men's traditional clothes is a sarong which is worn at home or when attending the mosque on Fridays to pray. On more formal and important occasions, men wear batik shirts with trousers or a teluk beskap, a combination of the Javanese sarong and jacket.
For formal occasions, Indonesian women wear the kebaya, a beautiful, tight, embroidered blouse worn with a batik sarong which is usually bright in colour and ornamented. On these occasions, women would tie their hair in a bun or attach hair decorations.