Indonesia Cultural Groups

The Chinese are Indonesia's most important ethnic minority and largest alien group. although they comprise only about 2 percent (5 million) of Indonesia's total population, the Chinese control about 75 percent of the country's private domestic captal.

Contacts were recorded between China and Western Java as early as the 5th century, and Chinese Muslims played a role in converting java to Island in the 15th century.

Resented and envied, the Chinese have been traditionally ostracized from the mainstream of Indonesian society, and periodic purges have been perpetrated against them. Indonesia and Korea are the only countries in Asia that base nationality entirely on paternal lineage. If your father is Chinese, you are chinese until you die.