Jambi

Before what is now Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch East India Company, Jambi was the site of a well-established, powerful Srivijayan kingdom[citation needed] that engaged in trade throughout the Strait of Malacca and beyond.

It succeeded Palembang to the south, which was a frequent military and economic rival, as the later capital of the ancient kingdom. The move to Jambi was partly induced by the historic 1025 raid by pirates from the Chola region of southern India that destroyed much of Palembang.

In the early decades of the Dutch presence in the region, when the future colonizers were just one of several groups of traders competing with the British, Chinese, Arabs, and Malays, the Jambi sultanate profitably traded 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, 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 Batavia. They met little resistance, and Sultan Taha fled to the upriver, inland regions of Jambi. The Dutch installed a puppet ruler, Nazarudin, in the lower region, which included the capital city.

Kerinci Mountain

Exciting climax of a journey through Jambi is a visit to the magnificent, isolated Kerinci Valley along the western side of the island. The most nice part of the valley belongs to Kerinci-Seblat, with a total area of 15,000 sq.km, it's the biggest national park of Sumatera.

It consists of a 345 kilometre long stretch of the highlands of Bukit Barisan and it's located on the area of four provinces: Sumatera Barat, Jambi, Bengkulu and Sumatera Selatan. The administrative centre of the park is the small city of Sungai Penuh, which belongs to Jambi.

The Sumateran rhino is on the verge of extinction. On the entire world there are only 800 left, 700 of them on Sumatera itselt. For centuries the animal is the centre of hunt for it's ivory horns and other body parts which are very expensife because it's seen as a good medicine in Asia.

In his History of Sumatera, Marsden explained that 'the horn is seen as a poison and an antidote, and it's formed into mugs for that reason'. Nowadays the horn is used for fever lowering medication in China. The 'bad' habit of rhino's to follow the same trace every time makes them very vulnerable.



Source: Wikipedia Indonesia