Jambi

Mosque in Jambi, during the colonial period. ca 1900-1939.

Jambi was the site of the Srivijayan kingdom that engaged in trade throughout the Strait of Malacca and beyond. Jambi succeeded Palembang, its southern economic and military rival, as the capital of the kingdom. The movement of the capital to Jambi was partly induced by the 1025 raid by pirates from the Chola region of southern India, which destroyed much of Palembang.

In the early decades of the Dutch presence in the region (see Dutch East India Company in Indonesia), when the Dutch were one of several traders competing with the British, Chinese, Arabs, and Malays, the Jambi Sultanate profited from trade in pepper with the Dutch. This relationship declined by about 1770, and the sultanate had little contact with the Dutch for about sixty years.

In 1833, minor conflicts with the Dutch (the Indonesian colonial possessions of which were now nationalised as the Dutch East Indies) who were well established in Palembang, meant the Dutch increasingly felt the need to control the actions of Jambi. They coerced Sultan Facharudin to agree to greater Dutch presence in the region and control over trade, although the sultanate remained nominally independent. In 1858 the Dutch, apparently concerned over the risk of competition for control from other foreign powers, invaded Jambi with a force from their capital Batavia. They met little resistance, and Sultan Taha fled upriver, to the inland regions of Jambi. The Dutch installed a puppet ruler, Nazarudin, in the lower region, which included the capital city. For the next forty years Taha maintained the upriver kingdom, and slowly reextended his influence over the lower regions through political agreements and marriage connections. In 1904, however, the Dutch were stronger and, as a part of a larger campaign to consolidate control over the entire archipelago, soldiers finally managed to capture and kill Taha, and in 1906, the entire area was brought under direct colonial management.

Following the death of Jambi sultan, Taha Saifuddin, on 27 April 1904 and the success of the Dutch controlled areas of the Sultanate of Jambi, Jambi then set as the Residency and entry into the territory Nederlandsch Indie. Jambi's first Resident OL Helfrich was appointed by the Governor General under Dutch Decree No. 20, dated 4 May 1906 with his inauguration held on 2 July 1906.

Jambi province is divided into nine regencies (kabupaten) and two cities (kota), listed below with their areas and their populations at the 2010 Census and according to the latest (2018) estimates.

Mount Kerinci, the tallest mountain in Sumatra

Muaro Jambi Temples

• Kerinci Seblat National Park

The largest of the three national parks comprising the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra, Kerinci Seblat has the distinction of being the second-largest national park in all of Southeast Asia, only after Lorentz National Park on Papua. It is one of the Sumatran Tiger's last strongholds on the island, and within its borders sits the highest active volcano in Southeast Asia - Mount Kerinci.

• Muaro Jambi Temple Compounds

May 2011: The Jambi provincial administration is striving to have the ancient Muaro Jambi temple site at Muaro Jambi village in Maro Sebo District, Muaro Jambi Regency, recognized as a world heritage site.

The site was a Buddhist education centre that flourished during the 7th and 8th centuries and is made from bricks similar to those used in Buddhist temples in India.[6]

The official language of Jambi province is Indonesian as in all parts of Indonesia. However Jambi is also home to several indigenous languages and dialects such as Jambi Malay, Kerinci language, Kubu language, Lempur Malay, and Rantau Panjang Malay, all of which are Malayan languages.[7]

Due to transmigration policy, many ethnic groups from various parts of Indonesia, especially Java, Borneo, Sulawesi and other parts of Sumatra brought their native languages as well. The non-Pribumi people such as the Chinese Indonesians speak several varieties of Chinese.

Ethnically, the population comprises:

• 38% Malay
• 20% Javanese
• 10.2% Chinese
• 10% Kerinci
• 5.2% Minangkabau
• 3.4% Batak
• 3.3% Banjarese
• 3.1% Buginese
• 2.6% Sundanese, and
• 4.4% other[8]

Islam is the largest religion in Jambi, being practised by 96.5% of the population. Minority religions are Christianity with 3%, Buddhism 0.97%, Confucianism 0.05% and Hinduism 0.25% of the population.[9]

• Putri Tangguk, a Malay traditional folklore originated from Jambi

• Locher-Scholten, Elsbeth. 1993. Rivals and rituals in Jambi, South Sumatra. Modern Asian Studies 27(3):573-591.

• (in Indonesian) Official government site
• (in Indonesian) Fan site