About Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta— despite the official spelling, the name is usually pronounced and not uncommonly written Jogjakarta or just Jogja (JOGH-jah) — is a major tourist destination in Indonesia. It is the capital city of the province of Yogyakarta Special Region which is in the southern part of the Central Java province, Indonesia.

Yogyakarta is a bustling town of some 500,000 people and the most popular tourist destination on Java, largely thanks to its proximity to the temples of Borobudur and Prambanan. The town is a center of art and education, offers some good shopping and has a wide range of tourist facilities.

Strictly speaking, the city (kota) of Yogyakarta is only one of five districts within the semi-autonomous province of Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (DIY), literally the “Yogyakarta Special Region”. (The other districts are Sleman on the slopes of fiery Mount Merapi to the North, Bantul all the way to the sea to the South, the hills of Gunungkidul to the East and the low lands of Kulon Progo to the West.) This special status is thanks to the Sultanate of Hamengkubuwono, which has ruled the area since 1749 and steered the state through difficult times of occupation and revolution. During the Indonesian war of independence, Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX offered the fledgling Indonesian government his enclave as capital city, thus Yogyakarta became the revolutionary capital city of the republic from 1946 to 1949 when Jakarta was still occupied by the Dutch. As a result, the central government recognized the Sultan of Yogyakarta as the appointed governor of the province of DIY; the only one in Indonesia that is not elected directly by the people. The Indonesian central government has tried to weaken the sultan’s power by calling for direct election for the governor, however the present sultan Hamengkubuwono X was chosen by an overwhelming majority.