Both are true, but greater resources and a much warmer beauty can be found in the people of this vast land. The motivating force behind the decision to create Indonesian : Stories from an archipelago is the wish to share, particularly with non-Indonesian readers, this as yet unrecognized but abundantly visible wealth.
This stories about people, the many different peoples who live on the islands of the Indonesian archipelago. It offers a composite stories of the many different environments and cultural backgrounds that co-exist here, as well as the underlying traditions that bind these differing cultures together.
These common traditions are based on simplicity, belief in the Good, tolerance, and respect for others. Most important is an all-pervading spiritual sensitivity, and a strong belief in God. Many different religions exist side by side in Indonesia, and most people participate in at least one.
The stories aims at giving the reader an understanding of the country and people as they are today, with their long traditions in tenuous balance with the demands and intrusions of the modern world.
Although their ethnological characteristic will not change in foreseeable future, attitudes, behavior and way of life are likely to be greatly influenced by the tide of western-style modernization sweeping the country.
No-one can predict what effect this modernization will have on peoples with a traditional culture strongly rooted in rural, agricultural society, but certain changers in living patterns are already visible.
Thirty years from now this stories may tell only the Indonesia of the “Good Old Days”.
