Place:Banten, Indonesia

Watchers


NameBanten
TypeProvince
Located inIndonesia
Contained Places
Inhabited place
Cilegon
Merak
Tangerang
Unknown
Serang
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Banten (; Sundanese: , romanized: Banten) is the westernmost province on the island of Java, Indonesia. Its provincial capital city is Serang. The province borders West Java and the Special Capital Region of Jakarta to the east, the Java Sea to the north, the Indian Ocean to the south, and the Sunda Strait to the west, which separates Java from the neighbouring island of Sumatra. The province covers an area of and has a total population of over 11.9 million according to the 2020 Census, up from around 10.6 million during the 2010 census, with the official estimate for mid-2021 being 12.06 million. Formerly part of the province of West Java, Banten was declared a separate province in 2000. The Banten region is the homeland of the Sundanese Banten people (a subgroup of the Sundanese people) and has historically had a slightly different culture from the Sundanese people in the West Java region. In recent years, the northern half, particularly the areas near Jakarta and the Java Sea coast, have experienced rapid rises in population and urbanization, while the southern half, particularly that facing the Indian Ocean, maintains a more traditional character.

Centuries ago, the area in what is now Banten was ruled by the Sundanese Tarumanagara kingdom. After the fall of the Tarumanegara, Banten was controlled by Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms, such as the Srivijaya Empire and the Sunda Kingdom. The spread of Islam in the region began in the 15th century and by the late 16th century, Islam had replaced Hinduism and Buddhism as the dominant religion in the province, with the establishment of the Banten Sultanate. At that time, however, European traders started arriving in the region. The first of which was the Portuguese, followed by the British and finally the Dutch. In the end, through the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the Dutch controlled the economy in the region, causing a gradual decline of the Banten Sultanate in the region. On 22 November 1808, the Dutch Governor-General Herman Willem Daendels declared that the Sultanate of Banten had been absorbed into the territory of the Dutch East Indies. This marked the beginning of direct Dutch rule in the region for the next 150 years as the Bantam Residency. In March 1942, the Japanese invaded the Indies and occupied the region for 3 years, before they surrendered in August 1945. The area was returned to Dutch control for the next 5 years before they handed the region to the new Indonesian government when the Dutch left in 1950. Banten was then absorbed into the province of West Java. However, separatist efforts it ultimately led to the creation of the province of Banten in 2000.

Banten is a very diverse province populated by many ethnic groups, the most dominant being the Bantenese people. The Sundanese language forms the lingua franca of the province, although Indonesian is the main official language. The Javanese language is also spoken by many Javanese migrants from Central and East Java. In the Lebak Regency lives the semi-isolated Baduy people, who speak the Baduy language, an archaic form of the Sundanese language. Nonetheless, most of the people in Banten can speak Indonesian fluently as their second language.

Research Tips


This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Banten. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.