Jakarta People and Culture

Jakarta has its own special Betawi culture, which the influences reached the city’s shores over the centuries.

Along process of selectively borrowing and uniquely blending Chinese, Arab, Portuguese and Dutch elements with native ingenuity has produces the colorful.

The word “Betawi” is derived from Batavia, the old name of the capital during the Dutch administration.

Java, Sumatra’s, Bali and Sulawesi, hailing from Papua and Kalimantan, home of the Dayaks and one of the largest rainforests in the world it is part of the city dominant populations.

Over the centuries, these groups have kept their cultural roots, yet some have also intermixed, including with non-Indonesians, to form a special group of their own known as Orang Betawi.