An extraordinary masterpiece of nature, famous since ancient times as a gem and pearl of the Orient and defined as an authentic garden of the East, Java is a fertile and luxuriant island, abounding in history, in myths, legends and with a fascinating cultural heritage.
The surface of the island extends to 119.780 square kilometres, and is covered with a superb tropical forest that often leaves space to green valleys divided into terraces for rice cultivation; and is crossed by a dense network of canals built during the centuries to ensure irrigation and drainage of waters and is towered by a chain of imposing volcanoes that gird it completely with a continuous threat of fire and destruction.
Its 121 volcanoes, of which 30 are active, are also the manna to this island and the true source of the extraordinary fertility of its soil as owing to the eruption of ash and lava, which benefit and replenish its lands with a nutritious blend of chemical fertilizers rich in calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and nitrogen which, mixed by torrential rains and carried everywhere by monsoon winds, allow bringing in several harvests during the year; for its soil produces in fact an exceptional abundance of plants and fruits of every variety and it can boast of having one of the most variegated fauna on earth.
The highest peak in Java is Mount Semeru (East Java) that reaches a height of 3,676 m. and towers over the entire area surrounded by adjacent volcanoes.
The most well-known of all, without any doubt, is the Krakatau, with its terrible explosion in 1883 which was one of the most devastating in seismic history; and the dramatic descriptions of that time remind us, of the chronicles on the last days of the cities of Herculaneum and Pompei.
A gigantic explosion discharged energies equivalent to a million times that of a hydrogen bomb, a blanket of ash darkened the atmosphere for eighteen hours, and the ashes of Krakatau fell on Singapore at about 840 kilometres away.
The cataclysmic explosion hurled almost 20 cubic kilometres of substances into the air and formed a column of detritus that reached a height of eighty kilometres, giving rise to spectacular sunsets from small particles of ash brought to an altitude of the stratosphere, and forming a kind of immense veil.
When the cones of the Krakatau collapsed into an enormous underwater caldera, a gigantic wave of forty metres devastated everything that was along its path. Coral blocks of 600 tons fell on the beaches while high billows reached Aden, at 3,800 nautical miles away, and the impact was felt also on the Australian coastline. Thousands lost their lives on the shores of Java and Sumatra and the villages and towns along the coasts were completely depopulated; the inhabitants never returned to some areas, such as the peninsula of Ujung Kulon, which was turned into a national game preserve where the Indonesian rhinoceros, a rare species, roams in a habitat undisturbed by human population.
Forty-four years after the Krakatau frenzy, the son of Krakatau, "Anak Krakatau", rose from the sea where the old volcano blew up. This young island grows every year by several metres and from its birth has been the subject of research both by scientists for its flora and fauna as well as geological activities, and by tourists drawn by the fascination and mystery of its waters.
Java is also the country of one of the first human species on earth, the Homo Erectus or Java Klan, and has been inhabited since very ancient times and is today one of the most densely populated islands in the world. In the span of this century, its population has risen from 28 million to the present figure of 110 million in-habitants; among these five cultural groups can be distinguished, who are different one from the other.
The most numerous group is that of Central and Eastern Java known as "Kejawen"; the population lives in the region of the great Hindu and Buddhist temples and around the ancient Courts of the Sultans; these Javanese can boast of a sophisticated culture, their social life is based on a refined etiquette and on complicated and well-defined inter-personal code of manners; the most tangible expression of the importance of social status and respect for the position of others in relations between Javanese, is represented by the language, sub-divided into three different levels: the low Javanese or "ngoko", a simple language used for dialogue between intimate friends, relatives or people of the same level; the high Javanese or "krama", a formal, elegant and refined language used in conversations with persons of high rank; and lastly, the middle Javanese, used by people in the cities or as informal language.
Between true Javanese, there is no room for spontaneousness or for truly confidential relations, nor for a neutral language, but, the language used maintains clearly the social status of the parties in dialogue and the respect due to them according to the circumstances.
The Javanese style is linked to rigid etiquettes which reject any expression of excess and any manifestation of sentiments or moods; and in this language even negative adverbs are not used, and in their place expressions and forms are used that may appear to a Westerner as positive affirmations or anyhow as interlocutory phrases.
The Javanese linguistic system is used, although less rigidly, by another cultural group, "the Sundanese", who inhabit the Western side of the island and who are distinguished by the strong attachment to the Islamic faith. Another cultural group easily identifiable, is represented by the "Tenggerese", a minority living along the slopes of Mount Bromo and Mount Semeru in Eastern Java, a people who after the fall of the Hindu Majapahit Empire, fled to the mountains, refusing subjection to Islam.
The "Madurese" deserve to be mentioned separately: they live in the nearby island of Madura and are a pugnacious people with a resolute character, who owing to the particular geographic position and dryness of the island, were compelled, since ancient times, to emigrate and find different occupations elsewhere.
The Madurese are able craftsmen and their colourful buffalo-races are well-known throughout the archipelago.
Another group is constituted by the "Pasisir", a people living on the Northern coast of the island and who in the course of the centuries had contacts with Malayan and Arab traders and navigators as well as others from other parts of the world; their frank and open style, without excessive etiquette is distinguishable from that of the pure Javanese; and the very gaudy colours of their batiks are different to the moderate colours used in Central Java.
