VATICAN - Catholic prayers in the languages of the world: Indonesian (1)

Tuesday, 10 July 2007

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - To speak of the daily prayers of Indonesian Catholics we must first of all consider the size of the country, the impressive number of official, regional and local languages and many dialects. Here is a brief presentation of Indonesia: its geography, languages, peoples and religions, evangelisation and the Catholic community.
Geography. Indonesia has an area of 1,904,443sq km (Italy 301,338sq km) which means it is the world's 15th largest country, and it capital is Jakarta.
The Republik Indonesia was formed in 1945 with independence from the Dutch Indies. Situated between the peninsula of South East Asia and Australia on one hand and the Indian and Pacific Oceans on the other, Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world with 17,000 islands (of which 6.000 are inhabited) set around the equator, giving this country a tropical climate.
The largest islands are Java, (60% of the population), Sumatra, Borneo, shared with the Federation of Malaysia Brunei, West Papuasia (Papua, previously called Irian Java, which corresponds to the west half of Papua New New Guinea) and Celebes.
Indonesia, except for New Guinea, is often considered part of the larger archipelago, Insulindia. The Island of Bali is Indonesia's only international tourist destination. Other islands include Timor and Flores (where a new species of hominid was discovered in 2003: homo florensis). (to be continued) (J.M.) (Agenzia Fides 10/7/2007 - righe 26, parole 352)


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