Banjarmasin
Encyclopedia
Banjarmasin is the capital of South Kalimantan
South Kalimantan
South Kalimantan/South Borneo is one of the thirty-three Provinces of Indonesia and one of four Indonesian provinces in the Indonesian part of Borneo. The provincial capital is Banjarmasin...

, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

. It is located on a delta
River delta
A delta is a landform that is formed at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river. Deltas are formed from the deposition of the sediment carried by the river as the flow leaves the mouth of the river...

 island near the junction of the Barito
Barito River
Barito is a 890 km long river, located in South Kalimantan, Indonesia. It originates in the Muller Mountain Range from where it flows southward into the Java Sea...

 and Martapura
Martapura River
Martapura River is a river of Borneo, Indonesia.It is a tributary of the Barito River....

 rivers. As a result, Banjarmasin is sometimes called the "River City". Its population was 625,395 at the 2010 Census.

Banjarmasin is served by the Syamsudin Noor Airport
Syamsudin Noor Airport
Syamsudin Noor Airport is an airport serving Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is located 10km south-west of Banjarbaru and 25km south-east of Banjarmasin, the largest city in Kalimantan. The airport has two distinctive apron. One in front of the terminal capable of hosting 4 medium...

, located about 25 km outside the town. The town is also served by a port, named Trisakti Harbour. A fairly important deepwater port, Pelabuhan Trisakti Banjarmasin is the trade center of the Barito basin; exports include rubber
Rubber
Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...

, pepper
Black pepper
Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is approximately in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed...

, timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

, petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

, coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

, gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

, and diamond
Diamond
In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...

s. Passenger ships and ferries to and from Java also carry their operation here.

Main economic sectors in order of their contribution to Banjarmasin’s GDP (2005): transportation and communication (26.1%), processing industries (24.9%) and trade and commerce (16.5%). Main processing industries are: plywood
Plywood
Plywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...

, rattan
Rattan
Rattan is the name for the roughly 600 species of palms in the tribe Calameae, native to tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Australasia.- Structure :...

 and rubber manufacturing.

The city is laced with flood-prone waterways, and many houses are built on rafts or stilts over the water. Many of such waterways are also used for travel, using relatively small rowboats (only major rivers are accessible by larger speedboats, tugboats, longboats, and barges).

The large majority of the population is Muslim (96%). Other religions include Protestants, Catholics, Hindus and Buddhists. The city is the home of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Banjarmasin.

History

Nan Serunai was an ancient kingdom in South Kalimantan, but soon it was replaced by Buddhist kingdom of Tanjungpuri. In the fourteenth century, Banjarmasin was part of the Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 kingdom of Negara Dipa and Negara Daha
Negara Daha
Negara Daha was a Hindu kingdom now located in the Regency of Hulu Sungai Selatan, Province of South Kalimantan, Republic of Indonesia.-List of rulers:# Raden Sekarsungsang# Maharaja Sari Kaburangan# Maharaja Sukarama# Maharaja Mangkubumi...

 respectfully, a vassal of Majapahit. But Pangeran Samudera converted to become a Muslim
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 in the fifteenth century. Following this Banjarmasin was founded at the junction of the Barito and Martapura Rivers on September 24, 1526. The Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 opened trade there in 1606. The British controlled the city for several brief periods, and in 1787 it became a Dutch protectorate. Banjarmasin remained the region's capital until the onset of the Banjarmasin War
Bandjermasin War
The Banjarmasin War was a colonial war for the restoration of Dutch authority in the eastern and southern section of Borneo.-Sources:...

 in 1859, when the Dutch headquarters were moved to Martapura
Martapura
Martapura is capital of the Banjar Regency divided into 3 subdistricts, such as Martapura, West Martapura, and East Martapura. This town is famous as santri city in Kalimantan, because of Darussalam pesantren. Originally this town was named Kayutangi which was the last capital of Sultanate of Banjar...

.

The Hikayat Banjar
Hikayat Banjar
The Hikayat Banjar is the chronicle of Banjarmasin, Indonesia. This text, also called the History of Lambung Mangkurat, contains the history of the kings of Banjar and of Kota Waringin in southeast and south Borneo respectively....

 is the chronicle of Banjarmasin. This text, also called the History of Lambung Mangkurat, contains the history of the kings of Banjar and of Kota Waringin in South-east and South Borneo respectively.

At the beginning of the 20th century Banjarmasin was the largest city in Borneo. In 1930 its population was 66,000 and grew rapidly reaching 444,000 in 1990.

Banjarmasin was the capital of Dutch Borneo. It was therefore an objective for the Japanese during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Banjarmasin was occupied on 10 February 1942.

Climate

Under the Koppen climate classification
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...

, Banjarmasin features a tropical rainforest climate
Tropical rainforest climate
A tropical rainforest climate, also known as an equatorial climate, is a tropical climate usually found along the equator...

. Temperatures are relatively constant throughout the year, averaging about 27 degrees Celsius, and the city has no real dry season
Dry season
The dry season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year...

. However Banjarmasin has noticeably wetter and drier times of the year. November through May forms the wettest part of the year while the remainder of the year is the drier part of the year. Banjarmasin on average sees just under 2600 mm of rain per year.

Local places of interest

The Sabilal Muhtadin Mosque, located along the Martapura riverfront, is a major landmark in the city. Completely built in 1979, the mosque accommodates thousands of worshippers on Friday prayers.

A state university (Universitas Lambung Mangkurat, UNLAM) is also located in the town.

Banjarmasin has long been renowned as a center for gem trading, particularly rare diamonds and rubies. An informal network with international connections exists, which also supports the large domestic Indonesian trade in rare diamonds. Banjar's diamonds are especially known for their exquisite brilliance. In recent times, however, many of Indonesia's large diamond stones have been traded out of the country.

A floating marketplace
Marketplace
A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...

, where buyers and sellers meet each other using boats, is located on the western outskirts of town. It is a traditional market and is considered one of city's identity mark for years.

Culinary

A famous local dish is "soto banjar", a soup served with lime. Another notable local dish is "Ketupat Kandangan", a ketupat
Ketupat
Ketupat or packed rice is a type of dumpling from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines , and Singapore.-History:It is made from rice that has been wrapped in a woven palm leaf pouch and boiled...

 dish with coconut milk soup (can be served with either chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...

 or snakehead
Channidae
The Snakeheads are members of the freshwater perciform fish family Channidae, native to Africa and Asia. These elongated predatory fish are distinguished by a long dorsal fin, large mouth and shiny teeth. They breathe air with a suprabranchial organ, a primitive form of a labyrinth organ...

 meat).

Twin Town and sister cities

Banjarmasin are twinned with the following cities :
  • Stockholm
    Stockholm
    Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

    , Sweden
  • Makassar
    Makassar
    Makassar, is the provincial capital of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, and the largest city on Sulawesi Island. From 1971 to 1999, the city was named Ujung Pandang, after a precolonial fort in the city, and the two names are often used interchangeably...

    , Indonesia
  • Frankfurt
    Frankfurt
    Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

    , Germany
  • Manaus
    Manaus
    Manaus is a city in Brazil, the capital of the state of Amazonas. It is situated at the confluence of the Negro and Solimões rivers. It is the most populous city of Amazonas, according to the statistics of Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, and is a popular ecotourist destination....

    , Brazil
  • Chongqing
    Chongqing
    Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...

    , China
  • Atlanta, United States
  • Guangzhou
    Guangzhou
    Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

    , China
  • Pattaya
    Pattaya
    Pattaya is a city in Thailand, located on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, about 165 km southeast of Bangkok located within but not part of Amphoe Bang Lamung in the province of Chonburi....

    , Thailand
  • Guadalajara
    Guadalajara
    Guadalajara may refer to:In Mexico:*Guadalajara, Jalisco, the capital of the state of Jalisco and second largest city in Mexico**Guadalajara Metropolitan Area*University of Guadalajara, a public university in Guadalajara, Jalisco...

    , Mexico

External links

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