Written on Sunday 11 October 2015
Whilst working we had started independent 'backpacker' Asian travel in Nepal, several times in Thailand and Sarawak in Borneo. We needed a real challenge and Sumatra, entirely off the tourist trail, armed with a little Malaysian language provided such a project.
The total population of Indonesia is around 235 million. Sumatra was the biggest of the islands comprising the archipelago of Indonesia with a population in 1996 just over 40 million, now 50 million in part due to planned transmigration from the far smaller over populated island of Java. The island of Borneo is bigger but split into several countries of which only the largest part by area is Indonesian (Kalimantan).
Indonesia is 86% Muslim almost entirely Sunni except for the most northerly province of Acheh in Sumatra about 2 million of whom are Shia. Acheh is the home of large gas and oil resources and a had been struggling since 1976 to become independent. No authority seemed certain that it was safe for independent tourists to visit because of the armed Freedom Struggle which did not finish until President Suharto of Indonesia resigned in 1998, two years after our visit. As a precaution we avoided the east coast road with the major oil and gas resources and only towards the end of our stay ventured into Acheh proper.
We had come across Buddhist areas in Nepal and Thailand but had no experience whatever of travelling in a Muslim country. It didn't seem a big deal at the time. How much the world has changed in twenty years!!
Our pre-conceptions such as they were led us to expect a dull society, after all Muslims don't drink alcohol so presumably don't party, and we thought all women in Arab countries were suppressed and had to cover their heads in public. We could not have been so wrong! Sumatra set all those misconceptions into context.
It took a little time since the Batak peoples, centered on Lake Toba, had been converted into Protestant Christians, though clearly many retained elements of traditional religions, including animism.
We first became aware of Islam in Bukit Tinggi when we started to mix with school children of both sexes full of high spirits on local buses, anxious to make very friendly welcoming contact. Less daunting than many Muslim cultures the attractive girls simply wore colourful headscarves, similar to identical experiences we found fifteen years later travelling in Turkey, also mainly Sunni - though I read nothing into that.
According to a BBC website around 85 - 90 percent of world Muslims are Sunni, with Shia majorities only in Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and under some estimates in Yemen.
Nevertheless there are substantial Shia communities in many Islamic countries including of current note Syria, Afganistan, Lebanon, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan. Where ruled by Sunnis they tend to be the poorer sections of the population.
Sunni Muslims recognize all the prophets of the Koran, that is up to Muhammad and all others as temporal leaders. But Shia recognise Ali the son-in-law of Muhammad and following descendants, hence the diversity of religious beliefs. "There is a distinctive messianic element to the faith and Shia have a hierarchy of clerics who practice independent and ongoing interpretation of Islamic texts" (BBC).
It is worth noting that Iraq under Saddam Hussein was ruled by Sunnis, although in population terms the Shia majority was 4 times greater. The Taliban and al-Qaeda are Sunni organisations, whereas Hezbollah in Lebanon is Shia.
Kurds have their language (often suppressed) a population of around 30 million, and are mainly Sunni Muslims. Kurds are around 20% of the population in south eastern Turkey and northern Iraq and about 10% of the populations of western Iran and northern Syria. Kurdistan is the interconnected area of those four countries, but is not a country hence the ongoing struggle to be recognised as a single state. Currently struggling with Turkey and earlier in a bitter struggle with Saddam Hussein in northern Iraq.
Whilst working we had started independent 'backpacker' Asian travel in Nepal, several times in Thailand and Sarawak in Borneo. We needed a real challenge and Sumatra, entirely off the tourist trail, armed with a little Malaysian language provided such a project.
The total population of Indonesia is around 235 million. Sumatra was the biggest of the islands comprising the archipelago of Indonesia with a population in 1996 just over 40 million, now 50 million in part due to planned transmigration from the far smaller over populated island of Java. The island of Borneo is bigger but split into several countries of which only the largest part by area is Indonesian (Kalimantan).
Indonesia is 86% Muslim almost entirely Sunni except for the most northerly province of Acheh in Sumatra about 2 million of whom are Shia. Acheh is the home of large gas and oil resources and a had been struggling since 1976 to become independent. No authority seemed certain that it was safe for independent tourists to visit because of the armed Freedom Struggle which did not finish until President Suharto of Indonesia resigned in 1998, two years after our visit. As a precaution we avoided the east coast road with the major oil and gas resources and only towards the end of our stay ventured into Acheh proper.
We had come across Buddhist areas in Nepal and Thailand but had no experience whatever of travelling in a Muslim country. It didn't seem a big deal at the time. How much the world has changed in twenty years!!
Our pre-conceptions such as they were led us to expect a dull society, after all Muslims don't drink alcohol so presumably don't party, and we thought all women in Arab countries were suppressed and had to cover their heads in public. We could not have been so wrong! Sumatra set all those misconceptions into context.
It took a little time since the Batak peoples, centered on Lake Toba, had been converted into Protestant Christians, though clearly many retained elements of traditional religions, including animism.
We first became aware of Islam in Bukit Tinggi when we started to mix with school children of both sexes full of high spirits on local buses, anxious to make very friendly welcoming contact. Less daunting than many Muslim cultures the attractive girls simply wore colourful headscarves, similar to identical experiences we found fifteen years later travelling in Turkey, also mainly Sunni - though I read nothing into that.
According to a BBC website around 85 - 90 percent of world Muslims are Sunni, with Shia majorities only in Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and under some estimates in Yemen.
Nevertheless there are substantial Shia communities in many Islamic countries including of current note Syria, Afganistan, Lebanon, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan. Where ruled by Sunnis they tend to be the poorer sections of the population.
Sunni Muslims recognize all the prophets of the Koran, that is up to Muhammad and all others as temporal leaders. But Shia recognise Ali the son-in-law of Muhammad and following descendants, hence the diversity of religious beliefs. "There is a distinctive messianic element to the faith and Shia have a hierarchy of clerics who practice independent and ongoing interpretation of Islamic texts" (BBC).
It is worth noting that Iraq under Saddam Hussein was ruled by Sunnis, although in population terms the Shia majority was 4 times greater. The Taliban and al-Qaeda are Sunni organisations, whereas Hezbollah in Lebanon is Shia.
Kurds have their language (often suppressed) a population of around 30 million, and are mainly Sunni Muslims. Kurds are around 20% of the population in south eastern Turkey and northern Iraq and about 10% of the populations of western Iran and northern Syria. Kurdistan is the interconnected area of those four countries, but is not a country hence the ongoing struggle to be recognised as a single state. Currently struggling with Turkey and earlier in a bitter struggle with Saddam Hussein in northern Iraq.
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