In the Spotlight - Indonesia
Hazukashii
In the Spotlight – Indonesia
By Ed “Hazukashii” Howell
14 Oct 2022
Indonesia is an archipelago in South-East Asia, and one of the most geographically diverse nations on earth. According to the World Atlas, Indonesia stretches over 5,000 Kms east to west, and over 1,700 Kms north to south, with coastlines on both the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Mostly in the southern hemisphere, this nation also has considerable landmass above the equator, and is made up of over 17,500 islands of which roughly 6,000 are inhabited. Sumatra, Java, and Kalimantan are the largest islands, but the country shares borders with Malaysia on the island of Borneo, Papua New Guinea on the island of New Guinea, and Timor-Leste on Timor. If all that was not enough, Indonesia is also on the “Ring of Fire” overlapping three tectonic plates, and has more than 75 active volcanoes, the most for any one country on earth.
As the fourth most populated country (fifteenth in landmass), Indonesia has a population of over 275 million. The capital city of Jakarta is by far the most populated. Located on the north-west end of Java, and with over 10 million inhabitants, Jakarta is more than three times more populace than the second largest city of Bekasi. As described in the World Factbook, “The archipelago was once largely under the control of Buddhist and Hindu rulers. By around the 7th century, a Buddhist kingdom arose on Sumatra and expanded into Java and the Malay Peninsula until it was conquered in the late 13th century by the Hindu Majapahit Empire from Java. Majapahit (1290-1527) united most of modern-day Indonesia and Malaysia.” Occupied by Japan from 1942-1945, the current nation of Indonesia declared independence in 1945, and was granted full sovereignty in 1949.
The first recorded hash trail set in Indonesia was on 22 March 1971, when the Jakarta H3 was founded by Jeremy “Burong” Pidgeon and Gordon "Bent One" Benton. The Medan H3 would be next, beginning on 6 August 1973, followed by the Bandung H3 in 1974, and Surabaya H3, Balikpapan H3, and the Medan HH Harriettes all in 1975. Of note, the Jakarta H3 will be celebrating their 50th anniversary later this month, delayed 19 months due to the recent pandemic. The HHH Genealogy has documented 170 hash clubs throughout the past 50 plus years in Indonesia, and after spending over 10 hours reviewing each one, I can tell you that there are currently 37 active hash clubs with a presence on the internet. There may be more out there, coordinating their run starts via WhatsApp or some other process, but they are hard to track down. While hashing has been in significant decline in Indonesia since the heyday of the 1990s, much like the rest of the world, there is hope, as at least three new hash clubs have formed over the past couple years.
Located so close to Malaysia, hashing easily spread into Indonesia. Hashing is still very popular here, as the very popular Pan-Indo hash in a near yearly event. Indonesia has hosted INTERHASH four times; Jakarta in 1982, Bali in 1988, Borobudur in 2012, and most recently in Bali in 2016. Pan Asia Hash has also been hosted here five times; Bandung in 1991, Jakarta in 1997, Medan in 2007, Bandung in 2011, and just last weekend they hosted nearly 3000 hashers at a brilliant event in Pangandaran (delayed one year from 2021 due to the pandemic).
If you have a sense of adventure, and want to enjoy some excellent shiggy trails, put Indonesia in your travel plans. There are still many hash clubs to choose from, the food is delicious, and the cost of living is very reasonable. So, what are you waiting for?
For many more articles like this on the history of hashing, check out . . . http://gotothehash.net/history/inthespotlight.html