Thousand-island dressing

摘要

It is impossible to exaggerate Indonesia's diversity. The country stretches for 5, 20okm (3, 200 miles) from west to east-further than from Los Angeles to New York, or from London to Baghdad. It consists of more islands than anyone has been able to count. Most estimates put the number at over 17, 000, ranging from tiny coral atolls to vast, mountainous landmasses like Sumatra, Borneo and New Guinea. Indonesians speak perhaps 500 different languages-although, again, the exact figure is anybody's guess. They practise five religions officially, and many more on the side, with innumerable sub-sects and variations. Racial differences, between lighter-skinned Austronesians and darker Melanesians, for example, or between indigenous groups and immigrants from China, India and Arabia, are obvious. Many ethnic divides, for example between the Sundanese of western Java and the Javanese of the centre and east, are equally strongly felt. Not many outsiders have ever heard of Buginese, Banjarese or Bante-nese, yet Indonesia has millions of all three. And in places such as Borneo and Papua, ethnic labels subsume a host of smaller, often hostile tribes and clans.