Jepara is a town in the province of

Central Java Central Java ( id, Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogyakarta in t ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. Jepara is on the north coast of Java, north-east of

Semarang Semarang ( jv, ꦏꦸꦛꦯꦼꦩꦫꦁ , Pegon: سماراڠ) is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Dutch colonial era, and is still an important regional center and port today. ...

, not far from

Mount Muria Mount Muria or Gunung Muria is a dormant volcano on the north coast of Java, Indonesia. It is located in the center of the Muria peninsula, which juts northward into the Java Sea on the north coast of Central Java, Indonesia east of Semarang, t ...

, with a population of 92,967 in mid 2019. It is also the main town of

Jepara Regency Jepara ( jv, ꦗꦼꦥꦫ) is a Regencies of Indonesia, regency in the northeast of the Indonesian province of Central Java. It covers an area of 1,004.13 km2 and had a population of 1,097,280 at the 2010 census and 1,184,947 at the 2020 cen ...

, which has a population of about 1,258,000 (in 2019). Jepara is known for the Javanese

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...

wood carving Wood carving is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation ...

art as well as the birthplace of

Kartini ''Raden Adjeng'' Kartini (21 April 1879 – 17 September 1904), also known as '' Raden Ayu'' Kartini, was a prominent Indonesian activist who advocated for women's rights and female education. She was born into an aristocratic Javanese fa ...

, a pioneer in the area of women's rights for Indonesians.

Demographics

The population of Jepara regency approximately reaches 1.5 million people, 49.86% male and 50.14% female. On the productivity age basis, the considered working-group age (between 15 and 64 yo) dominates Jepara' number population at 67.90%, meanwhile the rest of 25.55% and 6.55% belongs to the children and retired-people group, respectively. Jepara people is originally rooted as Javanese and religiously speaking, over 98% are

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

. The village of Plajan and the village of Tempur have a comparatively multi-religious population.Central Java Village Shows That Unity in Diversity Is Possible
" ''

Jakarta Globe The ''Jakarta Globe'' is a daily online English-language newspaper in Indonesia, launched in November 2008. The paper initially came out as a print newspaper with an average of 48 pages a day, and published Monday to Saturday. It had three sect ...

''. Retrieved on August 26, 2015.

Economy

Jepara is known for its furniture industry, notably the teak furniture. The trade has brought considerable prosperity to Jepara, well above the average for Central Java. Since there is a large export trade, the fall in the value of the

rupiah The rupiah (symbol: Rp; currency code: IDR) is the official currency of Indonesia. It is issued and controlled by Bank Indonesia. The name "rupiah" is derived from the Sanskrit word for silver, (). Sometimes, Indonesians also informally use the ...

against the U.S. dollar and other currencies has probably led to an increase in income for the urniture makers

History

People believed to have come from South

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

region migrated into the northern tip of

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

during a time when Jepara was still separated by the Juwana Strait. Map japara 1858

In the 16th century, Jepara was an important port; in early 1513, its king, Yunnus (Pati Unus) led an attack against

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...

. His force is said to have been made up of one hundred ships and 5000 men from Jepara and

Palembang Palembang () is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River on the eastern lowland of southern Sumatra. It had a population of 1,668,848 at the 2020 Census. Palembang ...

but was defeated. Between 1518 and 1521 he apparently ruled over

Demak Demak is on the north coast of Central Java province, on the island of Java, Indonesia. * Demak, Demak, modern-day large town * Demak Sultanate, sixteenth century sultanate * Demak Regency Demak ( jv, ꦢꦼꦩꦏ꧀) is a regency located in t ...

. The rule of Ratu ('Queen')

Kalinyamat Kalinyamat Sultanate or Kalinyamat Kingdom, was a 16th-century Javanese Islamic polity in the northern part of the island of Java, centred in modern-day Jepara, Central Java, Indonesia. Both Jepara and Kalinyamat was first established as a ...

in the latter 16th century was, however, Jepara's most influential. Jepara again attacked Malacca in 1551 this time with

Johor Johor (; ), also spelled as Johore, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. Johor has land borders with the Malaysian states of Pahang to the north and Malacca and Negeri Sembilan ...

but was defeated, and in 1574 besieged Malacca for three months. It was the site of an English Fort in the 17th century. It is the birthplace of Indonesian national heroine

Contemporary Jepara

The population is almost entirely Javanese and over 95%

. As a ''pesisir'' ('coastal') area many traders from around the world landed in Jepara centuries ago. As a result, some of Jepara's resident have at part European, Chinese, Arabs, Malay or Bugis ancestry. The town is renowned its furniture industry. The trade has brought considerable prosperity to Jepara, well above the average for Central Java.

Climate

Jepara has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...

(Am) with moderate to little rainfall from May to October and heavy to very heavy rainfall from November to April.

Kingdoms

Kalingga Kingdom Kalingga ( jv, Karajan Kalingga; 訶陵 ''Hēlíng'' or 闍婆 ''She-pó / She-bó'' in Chinese sources) was a 6th-century Indianized kingdom on the north coast of Central Java, Indonesia. It was the earliest Hindu-Buddhist kingdom in Central ...

Kalinyamat Kingdom Kalinyamat Sultanate or Kalinyamat Kingdom, was a 16th-century Javanese Islamic polity in the northern part of the island of Java, centred in modern-day Jepara, Central Java, Indonesia. Both Jepara and Kalinyamat was first established as a Du ...

Gallery

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Moskee Indonesië TMnr 10016740.jpg, Mosque in Jepara, Pati Regency

Notes

References

*
Blie.Info Places To Go in Jepara
{{portal, Indonesia Populated places in Central Java