Culture of Indonesia in the context of "Minangkabau people"

Islamic cultures or Muslim cultures refers to the historic cultural practices that developed among the various peoples living in the Muslim world. These practices, while not always religious in nature, are generally influenced by aspects of Islam, particularly due to the religion serving as an effective conduit for the inter-mingling of people from different ethnic/national backgrounds in a way that enabled their cultures to come together on the basis of a common Muslim identity. The earliest forms of Muslim culture, from the Rashidun Caliphate to the Umayyad Caliphate and early Abbasid Caliphate, was predominantly based on the existing cultural practices of the Arabs, the Byzantines, and the Persians. However, as the Islamic empires expanded rapidly, Muslim culture was further influenced and assimilated much from the Iranic, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian, Caucasian, Turkic, Malay, Somali, Berber, and Indonesian cultures.

Owing to a variety of factors, there are variations in the application of Islamic beliefs in different cultures and traditions.

Batik plays multiple roles in the culture of Indonesia. The wax resist-dyeing technique has been used for centuries in Java, and has been adopted in varying forms in other parts of the country. Java is home to several batik museums.

On 2 October 2009, UNESCO inscribed written batik (batik tulis) and stamped batik (batik cap) as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity from Indonesia. Since then, Indonesia has celebrated a Batik Day (Hari Batik Nasional) annually on 2 October. In the same year, UNESCO recognized education and training in Indonesian Batik as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

The history of Indonesia has been shaped by its geographic position, natural resources, a series of human migrations and contacts, wars and conquests, as well as by trade, economics and politics. Indonesia is an archipelagic country of 17,000 to 18,000 islands stretching along the equator in Southeast Asia and Oceania. The country's strategic sea-lane position fostered inter-island and international trade; trade has since fundamentally shaped Indonesian history. The area of Indonesia is populated by peoples of various migrations, creating a diversity of cultures, ethnicities, and languages. The archipelago's landforms and climate significantly influenced agriculture and trade, and the formation of states. The boundaries of the state of Indonesia match the 20th-century borders of the Dutch East Indies.

Fossilised remains of Homo erectus, popularly known as "Java Man", and their tools suggest the Indonesian archipelago was inhabited at least 1.5 million years ago. Austronesian people, who form the majority of the modern population, are thought to have originally been from Taiwan and arrived in Indonesia around 2000 BCE. From the 7th century CE, the powerful Srivijaya naval kingdom flourished, bringing Hindu and Buddhist influences with it. The agricultural Buddhist Sailendra and Hindu Mataram dynasties subsequently thrived in inland Java. The last significant non-Muslim kingdom, the Hindu Majapahit kingdom, flourished from the late 13th century, and its influence stretched over much of Indonesia. The earliest evidence of Islamised populations in Indonesia dates to the 13th century in northern Sumatra; other Indonesian areas gradually adopted Islam, which became the dominant religion in Java and Sumatra by the end of the 16th century. Europeans such as the Portuguese arrived in Indonesia from the 16th century seeking to monopolise the sources of valuable nutmeg, cloves, and cubeb pepper in Maluku. In 1602, the Dutch established the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) and became the dominant European power by 1610. Following bankruptcy, the VOC was formally dissolved in 1800, and the government of the Netherlands established the Dutch East Indies under government control. By the early 20th century, Dutch dominance extended to the current boundaries. The Japanese invasion and occupation in 1942–1945 during WWII ended Dutch rule, and encouraged the previously suppressed Indonesian independence movement. Two days after the surrender of Japan in August 1945, nationalist leader Sukarno declared independence and became president. The Netherlands tried to reestablish its rule, but a bitter armed and diplomatic struggle ended in December 1949, when in the face of international pressure the Dutch formally recognised Indonesian independence.

The dhalang or dalang (Javanese: ꦝꦭꦁ, romanized: dhalang; Indonesian: dalang) is the puppeteer in an Indonesian wayang performance.

In a performance of wayang kulit, the dalang sits behind a screen (ꦏꦼꦭꦶꦂ, kelir) made of white cotton stretched on a wooden frame. Above his head, hanging from beams attached to the top of the screen is the lamp (ꦧ꧀ꦭꦺꦚ꧀ꦕꦺꦴꦁ, bléncong), which projects the shadows onto the screen. In front of the dhalang is a stage (ꦒꦼꦢꦼꦧꦺꦴꦒ꧀, gedebog), traditionally made from the trunk of a banana tree, into which the sharpened control rods of the puppets can be pushed to keep them in position during the performance. To his left is the puppet chest (ꦏꦺꦴꦛꦏ꧀, kothak), and to his right is the puppet chest's lid, on which the puppets sit ready for use.

Wayang beber (Javanese: ꦮꦪꦁꦧꦺꦧꦺꦂ, romanized: wayang bèbèr (in the ngoko register)) is an Indonesian wayang performance art whose presentation is manifested on stretched sheets of paper or cloth, with pictures in the stylized wayang accompanied by a narration by a dalang. Wayang beber performances emerged and developed in Java in pre-Islamic times but continued into the Islamic kingdoms (such as the Sultanate of Mataram). The stories shown are taken from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. After Islam became the main religion in Java, more Panji tales were performed. Wayang beber bears a strong resemblance to narrative in the form of pictorial ballads common at annual fairs in medieval and early modern Europe. They too suffered the same fate—nearly becoming extinct, although there are still groups of artists who support wayang beber in places like Surakarta (Solo) in Central Java.

Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (lit. 'Beautiful Indonesia Mini Park'; formerly Taman Mini "Indonesia Indah" with apostrophes—abbreviated as TMII) is a culture-based recreational area located in East Jakarta, Indonesia. Since July 2021, it is operated by InJourney Destination Management (PT Taman Wisata Candi Borobudur, Prambanan, dan Ratu Boko), a subsidiary of the state-owned tourism holding company InJourney. It was operated by Yayasan Harapan Kita, a foundation established by Siti Hartinah, the first lady during most of the New Order and wife of Suharto, and run by Suharto's descendants since his death until 2021. It has an area of about 147 hectares (363 acres). The project cost some US$26 million.

The park is a synopsis of Indonesian culture, with virtually all aspects of daily life in Indonesia's 26 (in 1975) provinces encapsulated in separate pavilions with the collections of rumah adat as the example of Indonesian vernacular architecture, clothing, dances and traditions are all depicted impeccably. The park mainly exhibites the physical culture of the nation. Apart from that, there is a lake with a miniature of the archipelago and dancing fountain in the middle of it, cable cars, museums, Keong Emas IMAX cinema (Indonesia's only IMAX cinema until the 2010s), a theater called the Theatre of My Homeland (Teater Tanah Airku) and other recreational facilities which make TMII one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city.

Tourism in Indonesia is an important component of the Indonesian economy as well as a significant source of its foreign exchange revenues. Indonesia was ranked at 20th in the world tourist industry in 2017, also ranked as the ninth-fastest growing tourist sector in the world, the third-fastest growing in Asia and fastest-growing in Southeast Asia. In 2018, Denpasar, Jakarta and Batam are among of 10 cities in the world with fastest growth in tourism, 32.7, 29.2 and 23.3 percent respectively. The tourism sector ranked as the 4th largest among goods and services export sectors.

In 2019, Indonesia recorded 16.10 million foreign tourist arrivals, seeing a 1.9% per cent increase than that of 2018. In 2015, 9.73 million international visitors entered Indonesia, staying in hotels for an average of 7.5 nights and spending an average of US$1,142 per person during their visit, or US$152.22 per person per day. Singapore, Malaysia, China, Australia, and Japan are the top five sources of visitors to Indonesia.