Sumatra

Sumatra's first great power was Srivijaya, a Buddhist maritime kingdom centred on Palembang from the late 7th century, which controlled trade through the Strait of Malacca for centuries; the brick temple complex of Muara Jambi belongs to the same world. On the northern coast, Samudera Pasai became one of the first Muslim states in the archipelago around the 13th century, and the Sultanate of Aceh, at its height under Iskandar Muda in the early 17th century, competed for control of the pepper trade. In the western highlands the Minangkabau kingdom of Pagaruyung ruled the gold-rich uplands.

The Dutch took Sumatra piece by piece. The Padri War in the Minangkabau highlands, which they entered in 1821, drew them inland, and tobacco estates turned Medan into a boom town in the late 19th century, worked by labourers brought from China and Java. The Aceh War, begun in 1873, lasted for about three decades and left a lasting suspicion of central power. Bangka and Belitung were mined for tin from the 17th century.

After independence, West Sumatra was the base of the PRRI rebellion of 1958. In Aceh, the Free Aceh Movement fought for independence from 1976. The Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami of 26 December 2004 killed around 170,000 people in Indonesia, most of them in Aceh; together with other factors, the disaster helped bring about the Helsinki peace agreement of 2005, which ended the insurgency and gave Aceh special autonomy. The Riau Islands became a separate province in 2002, and Batam grew into an industrial zone tied to Singapore.

Sumatra's peoples are among the most distinct in Indonesia. The Acehnese are known for their devout Islam and for the seated Saman dance, which is on UNESCO's intangible heritage list. The Batak of North Sumatra, divided into groups such as the Toba, Karo and Mandailing, are largely Protestant or Catholic around Lake Toba following 19th-century German missions, organise their lives through patrilineal clans, and are known for powerful hymn singing, the tor-tor dance and ulos cloth given at weddings and funerals.

The Minangkabau of West Sumatra are Muslim yet matrilineal: land and houses pass through the female line, and the great rumah gadang houses with their buffalo-horn roofs belong to the women of a clan. The tradition of merantau, young men leaving home to make their fortune, spread Minang restaurants across the country. In the Riau Islands and Riau, the Malay courts shaped the language from which modern Indonesian developed, and the island of Penyengat was a centre of Malay culture.

Festivals include Tabuik at Pariaman, an Ashura procession ending with towers thrown into the sea, and the Pacu Jalur long-boat races in Riau. Palembang is known for gold-threaded songket weaving. Sumatra also has large Chinese communities in Medan, Bangka and Batam, and the Mentawai islanders, famous for their tattoos, keep an animist tradition.

Around 60 million people live on Sumatra and its islands. Medan, the largest city, has about 2.5 million people and a busy mix of Batak, Malay, Javanese, Chinese and Indian communities. Palembang has about 1.7 million, Batam and Bandar Lampung each have over a million, and Pekanbaru and Padang are close behind; Banda Aceh is a much smaller city of about 250,000.

The economy rests on plantations and extraction. Oil palm and rubber cover huge areas of Riau, Jambi and North Sumatra, Riau's oilfields were long among the country's most productive, and coal, gas and tin matter elsewhere. Sumatra is also a major coffee producer, with the Gayo highlands of Aceh and the Mandailing and Lintong districts famous names. Batam runs on factories and shipyards serving Singapore.

The rhythm is set by prayer times, markets and coffee shops, where men gather in the morning and evening. Rapid plantation expansion has cost much of the lowland rainforest and brought conflicts over land, and seasonal peat fires cause haze that affects neighbouring countries. In the Minangkabau and Batak highlands, many young people leave for Jakarta, Medan or Malaysia.

West Sumatra gave Indonesia its most exported cuisine. Rendang, beef simmered for hours in coconut milk and spices until almost dry, is its centrepiece, served in nasi Padang restaurants alongside gulai curries, dendeng balado, thin crisp beef with red chilli, and ayam pop, pale boiled-then-fried chicken. Sate Padang comes in a thick yellow sauce, and teh talua, tea whipped with egg yolk, is a highland breakfast drink.

Palembang's great dish is pempek, fish-and-sago cakes served with cuko, a dark sweet-sour vinegar sauce; tekwan, a fish-ball soup, is its cousin. Aceh cooks rich, spicy food with Indian influence: mie Aceh, thick spiced noodles often with seafood, and kuah beulangong, a meat curry cooked in huge pots for communal feasts. Gayo coffee is served in Aceh's countless coffee shops.

The Batak kitchen uses andaliman, a tingling relative of Sichuan pepper, in arsik, carp cooked with turmeric and spices, and, among Christian Batak, pork dishes and tuak, palm wine drunk in lapo taverns. Medan is known for its durian stalls and for bika ambon, a spongy yellow cake. The Riau Islands and Bangka favour seafood, including otak-otak, spiced fish paste grilled in leaves.

In the north, Banda Aceh has the black-domed Baiturrahman Grand Mosque, which survived the tsunami, the Aceh Tsunami Museum and a power-generating ship carried two to three kilometres inland by the wave. A short ferry ride away, Weh island has coral reefs and good diving off Iboih and Rubiah, and the Kilometre Zero monument marks the western end of the country.

North Sumatra centres on Lake Toba, formed by a colossal eruption about 74,000 years ago; Samosir island has Batak villages, royal tombs and stone chairs at Siallagan. Bukit Lawang, on the edge of Gunung Leuser National Park, is the base for trekking to see orangutans; the park is part of the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Berastagi, in the Karo highlands, sits below the Sibayak and Sinabung volcanoes.

West Sumatra has Padang on the coast, Bukittinggi above the Sianok canyon, the Harau valley's cliffs, Lake Maninjau and the Pagaruyung palace, a reconstruction of the royal house. Offshore, the Mentawai Islands draw surfers to their reef breaks. Further south, Kerinci Seblat National Park holds Mount Kerinci, the highest volcano in Indonesia, and Lampung's Way Kambas National Park is known for Sumatran elephants.

Palembang spreads along the Musi River, crossed by the Ampera Bridge, with floating houses and the Sriwijaya archaeological park. Bangka Belitung is known for Belitung's granite-strewn beaches, while the Riau Islands include Batam and Bintan, with beach resorts facing Singapore, and Penyengat's yellow royal mosque.