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Sports in Indonesia

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Sporting events in Indonesia are organised by the Indonesian National Sport Committee (Komite Olahraga Nasional Indonesia or KONI). The organisation, along with the Indonesian government, have set the National Sports Day on 9 September. Indonesia hosts the National Sports Week (Pekan Olahraga Nasional) multi-sport event every four years. Athletes from all provinces of Indonesia participate in this event, with hosting tally are distributed among Indonesian provinces.

History

Ancient era

In traditional Indonesian culture, there is no actual concept for physical exercise as the counterpart of modern sport. Native Indonesians usually linked the physical activities to tribal practices; mainly for ritual, art, physical fitness and martial purposes. The war dances and ritual combat among Indonesian tribes are the earliest example of ritualised physical exercise in Indonesia. Some of native Indonesian rituals are resembling sport, such as lompat batu (leaping the stone) tradition among Nias male youth as part of coming of age ritual, that resembles hurdling and long jump in athletics. Also Madurese karapan sapi and Minang pacu jawi (bull racing) that are similar to chariot race. Dragon boat, canoe and kayak race are virtually everyday activities among Indonesians that lives on the bank of major rivers or on distant islands.

In the 9th century the images of archery, described as princely court activities among nobility in ancient Java, can be found on bas-reliefs of Javanese candis. Archery is suggested as one of Indonesia's classical sport, and one of its famous rendering came from Prambanan temple as part of Ramayana story and later rendered as one of the icon of the Jakarta's 1962 Asian Games, also as the symbol of Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.

Pencak silat is the example of Indonesian native martial art that turned into competitive combat sport. Several Indonesian dances demonstrated repetitive movements that similar to physical exercise. Indonesian traditional social dances such as poco-poco dance from North Sulawesi and sajojo from Papua are adopted as senam kesegaran jasmani (musical calisthenics) today popular across Indonesia.

Modern era

The modern concept of sport was introduced during the colonial Dutch East Indies period. During these times football and badminton had reached Indonesia and became popular sports among Indonesian people ever since. After Indonesian independence, the National Sports Committee of Indonesia was established in 1946 to unite the various satellite sports associations that were created within the regencies. Sports facilities such as Ikada Stadium (1951—1962) were constructed throughout the country. During Sukarno's reign, there was a desire to use sport as the means of uniting the Indonesian people, establishing national pride as well as promoting sports in Indonesia. As a result, the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium and its surrounding sporting complex facilities were constructed in 1962 to host the fourth Asian Games held in Jakarta. Today on the international stage, Indonesia is successful in badminton and has also been one of the major multi-event sports powerhouse of Southeast Asia.

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