Special Region of Yogyakarta in the context of "Diarchy"

Central Java (Indonesian: Jawa Tengah, Javanese: ꦗꦮꦶꦩꦢꦾ, romanized: Jawi Tengah) is a province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogyakarta in the south, East Java in the east, and the Java Sea in the north. It has a total area of 33,750.37 km, with a population of 36,516,035 at the 2020 Census making it the third-most populous province in both Java and Indonesia after West Java and East Java. The official population estimate in mid-2024 was 37,892,280 (comprising 19,037,740 males and 18,854,540 females). The province also includes a number of offshore islands, including the island of Nusakambangan in the south (close to the border of West Java), and the Karimun Jawa Islands in the Java Sea.

Central Java is also a cultural concept that includes the Yogyakarta Special Region, in turn including the city of Yogyakarta; however, administratively that city and its surrounding regencies have formed a separate special region (equivalent to a province) since the country's independence, and is administered separately. Although known as the "heart" of Javanese culture, there are several other non-Javanese ethnic groups, such as the Sundanese on the border with West Java. Chinese Indonesians, Arab Indonesians, and Indian Indonesians are also scattered throughout the province.

The Javanese (Javanese: ꦮꦺꦴꦁꦗꦮ, romanized: Wong Jåwå (in the ngoko register), ꦠꦶꦪꦁꦗꦮꦶ, Tiyang Jawi (in the krama register); Indonesian: Orang Jawa) are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the central and eastern part of Java island, which covers most of the administrative areas of the provinces of Central Java, East Java, and Special Region of Yogyakarta. With more than 100 million people, Javanese people are the largest ethnic group in both Indonesia and in Southeast Asia as a whole. Their native language is Javanese, it is the largest of the Austronesian languages in number of native speakers and also the largest regional language in Southeast Asia. As the largest ethnic group in the region, the Javanese have historically dominated the social, political, and cultural landscape of both Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

There are significant numbers of Javanese diaspora outside of central and eastern Java regions, including the other provinces of Indonesia, as well as other countries such as Suriname, Singapore, Malaysia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Yemen and the Netherlands. The Javanese ethnic group has many sub-groups (based on native Javanese community on the island of Java) that can be distinguished based on their characteristics, customs, traditions, dialects, or even their respective ways of life. These include Banyumasan, Cirebonese, Mataram, Osing, and Tenggerese. The majority of the Javanese people identify themselves as Sunni Muslims, with a small minority identifying as Christians and Hindus. With a large global population, the Javanese are considered significant as they are the largest Muslim ethnic group in the Far East and the fifth largest in the world after the Arabs, Bengalis, Punjabis, and Turks.

Yogyakarta is the capital city of the Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, Yogyakarta is regarded as an important centre for classical Javanese fine arts and culture such as ballet, batik textiles, drama, literature, music, poetry, silversmithing, visual arts, and wayang puppetry. Renowned as a centre of Indonesian education, Yogyakarta is home to a large student population and dozens of schools and universities, including Gadjah Mada University, the country's largest institute of higher education and one of its most prestigious.

Yogyakarta is the capital of the Yogyakarta Sultanate and served as the Indonesian capital from 1946 to 1948 during the Indonesian National Revolution, with Gedung Agung as the president's office. One of the districts in southeastern Yogyakarta, Kota, was the capital of the Mataram Sultanate between 1587 and 1613.

Prambanan (Indonesian: Candi Prambanan, Javanese: Rara Jonggrang, Hanacaraka: ꦫꦫꦗꦺꦴꦁꦒꦿꦁ) is a 9th-century Hindu temple compound in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, in southern Java, Indonesia, dedicated to the Trimūrti, the expression of God as the Creator (Brahma), the Preserver (Vishnu) and the Destroyer (Shiva). The temple compound is located approximately 17 kilometres (11 mi) northeast of the city of Yogyakarta on the boundary between Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces.

The temple compound, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the largest Hindu temple site in Indonesia and the second-largest in Southeast Asia after Angkor Wat. It is characterized by its tall and pointed architecture, typical of Hindu architecture, and by the towering 47-metre-high (154 ft) central building inside a large complex of individual temples. Prambanan temple compounds originally consisted of 240 temple structures, which represented the grandeur of ancient Java's Hindu art and architecture, and is also considered as a masterpiece of the classical period in Indonesia. Prambanan attracts many visitors from around the world.

Regencies (kabupaten) and cities (kota) are the second-level administrative subdivision in Indonesia, immediately below the provinces, and above the districts. Regencies are roughly equivalent to American counties, although most cities in the United States are below the counties. Following the implementation of decentralization beginning on 1 January 2001, regencies and city municipalities became the key administrative units responsible for providing most governmental services. Each of regencies and cities has their own local government and legislative body.

The difference between a regency and a city lies in demography, size, and economy. Generally, a regency comprises a rural area larger than a city, but also often includes various towns. A city usually has non-agricultural economic activities. A regency is headed by a regent (bupati), while a city is headed by a mayor (wali kota). All regents, mayors, and members of legislatures are directly elected via elections to serve for a five-year term which can be renewed once. Each regency or city is divided further into districts more commonly known as kecamatan (except in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, where kapanewon and kemantren are used, and Western New Guinea (Papua), where distrik is used).

Magelang (Javanese: ꦩꦒꦼꦭꦁ) is a regency in Central Java, Indonesia, famous for its 9th century Buddhist temple of Borobudur. Its capital is Mungkid. It covers an area of 1,129.98 km and had a population of 1,181,723 at the 2010 Census and 1,299,859 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as at mid 2024 was 1,341,447 (comprising 674,347 males and 667,100 females). These figures exclude the autonomous city of Magelang, which is separately administered but is geographically enclaved within the regency, which borders Temanggung Regency to the north, Semarang Regency to the northeast, Boyolali Regency to the east, the Special Region of Yogyakarta to the south and southeast, Purworejo Regency to the southwest, and Wonosobo Regency to the west.

A regency (Indonesian: kabupaten; Indonesian pronunciation: [kabuˈpat̪ɛn]), sometimes incorrectly referred to as a district and previously known as second-level region regency, is an administrative division of Indonesia, directly under a province and on the same level with city (kota). Regencies are divided into districts (Kecamatan, Distrik in Papua region, or Kapanewon and Kemantren in the Special Region of Yogyakarta). The average area of Indonesian regencies is about 4,578.29 km (1,767.69 sq mi), with an average population of 670,958 people. Most regencies on the island of Java has their regency capitals as the titular name of their regency.

The English name "regency" comes from the Dutch colonial period, when regencies were ruled by bupati (or regents) and were known as regentschap in Dutch (kabupaten in Javanese and subsequently Indonesian). Bupati had been regional lords under the precolonial monarchies of Java. When the Dutch abolished or curtailed those monarchies, the bupati were left as the most senior indigenous authority. They were not, strictly speaking, "native rulers" because the Dutch claimed full sovereignty over their territory, but in practice, they had many of the attributes of petty kings, including elaborate regalia and palaces and a high degree of impunity.

Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X (Javanese: ꦯꦿꦶꦯꦸꦭ꧀ꦡꦟ꧀ꦲꦩꦼꦁꦑꦸꦨꦮꦟ꧇꧑꧐꧇, also spelled as Hamengkubuwana X, often abbreviated as HB X; born Bendara Raden Mas Herjuno Darpito, 2 April 1946) is the Sultan of the historic Yogyakarta Sultanate in Indonesia. Since 1998, he has also served as Governor of the Special Region of Yogyakarta (Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta).

Hamengkubuwono X succeeded his father, Hamengkubuwono IX, as the Sultan of Yogyakarta when Hamengkubuwono IX died on 3 October 1988. Hamengkubuwono X was formally installed as Sultan on 7 March 1989. However, the position of the Governor of the Yogyakarta Special Region did not go to Hamengkubuwono X. Vice Governor Sri Paku Alam VIII, prince of the subordinate enclave of Paku Alaman within Yogyakarta, was instead controversially elevated to the position of governor. This was contrary to the agreement made at the time of Indonesia's independence in recognition of Hamengkubuwono IX's support and role in the Indonesian War of Independence. Under the agreement, the Sultan holds the position of governor in the Yogyakarta Special Region, and the Paku Alam holds the position of vice governor.

Javanese script (Javanese: ꦄꦏ꧀ꦱꦫ ꦗꦮ, romanized: aksara Jawa), also known as hanacaraka, carakan, and dentawyanjana is one of Indonesia's traditional scripts developed on the island of Java. The script is primarily used to write the Javanese language and has also been used to write several other regional languages such as Sundanese and Madurese, the regional lingua franca Malay, as well as the historical languages Kawi and Sanskrit. It heavily influenced the Balinese script from which the writing system for Sasak developed. Javanese script was actively used by the Javanese people for writing day-to-day and literary texts from at least the mid-16th century CE until the mid-20th century CE, before it was gradually supplanted by the Latin alphabet. Today, the script is taught in the Yogyakarta Special Region as well as the provinces of Central Java and East Java as part of the local curriculum, but with very limited function in everyday use.

Javanese script is an abugida writing system which consists of 20 to 33 basic letters, depending on the language being written. Like other Brahmic scripts, each letter (called an aksara) represents a syllable with the inherent vowel /a/ or /ɔ/ which can be changed with the placement of diacritics around the letter. Each letter has a conjunct form called pasangan, which nullifies the inherent vowel of the previous letter. Traditionally, the script is written without spaces between words (scriptio continua) but is interspersed with a group of decorative punctuation.