Sumatra Sumatra is an island in the world located in Indonesia, with an area of 443,065.8 km2. The population of the island is approximately 52,210,926 (2010 Census). The island is also known by other names the island Is, Andalas, or Suvarnadvipa (Sanskrit, meaning "island of gold"). Later in the year 1286 Roco Pasture Inscription carved swarnnabhūmi (Sanskrit, meaning "land of gold") and mālayu bhūmi ("Malay") to refer to the island. Next in the manuscript of Negarakertagama 14th century also returning "Earth Melayu" (Malay) for the island.

The origin of the name Sumatra started from keberadaaan Samudera (located on the East coast of Aceh). Beginning with the visit of the original adventurer Ibn Battuta, Morocco to the country in the year 1345, he pronounced the word Samatrah into the ocean, and then into Sumatra of Sumatra, then this name listed in the maps of the 16th century artificial The Portuguese, for the island is referred to, so then extends to the present.

The original name of Sumatra, as recorded in historical sources and folk stories, is "the Golden Island". The term Island Ameh (Minangkabau language, meaning Golden Island) we encounter in the Cindua Mato from Minangkabau. In the folklore of the Lampung listed name tanoh mas refers to the island of Sumatra. A traveller from China named I-tsing (634-713), which is many years settle at Srivijaya (Kilkenny) in the 7th century by the name of Sumatra, called chin-chou, meaning "land of gold".

In inscriptions, Sumatra is called in Sanskrit terms: Suvarnadvipa ("island of gold") or Suwarnabhumi ("land of gold"). These names already used in India before the manuscripts ad. The Buddhist texts include the oldest, the Jataka, telling Mariners India across the Bay of Bengal to the Suwarnabhumi. In the Ramayana story is told of the search Goddess Sita, wife of Rama, Ravana abducted up to Suvarnadvipa.

The Arab traveler mentions Sumatra with the name "Serendib" (to be precise: "Suwarandib"), the transliteration of the name Suvarnadvipa. Abu Raihan Al-Biruni, a Persian geographer who visited Srivijaya in 1030, say that the State of Srivijaya on the island of Suwarandib. But there are also people who identify with Sri Lanka Serendib, which never called Suwarnadwipa.

Among the ancient Greece, Sumatra has been known by the name of Taprobana. The name has been used by Insula Taprobana Klaudios Greece geographer Ptolemy, the second century AD, exactly 165 years, when he outlines the Southeast Asian region in his Geographike Hyphegesis. Ptolemy writes that on the island there are country Barousai Taprobana. It is likely that the land in question is Barus in the West coast of Sumatra, known since antiquity as a producer of camphor.

Greece 70 year script, Periplous Erythras Thalasses, tests revealed that Taprobana also called chryse nesos, meaning ' island of gold '. Since ancient times the merchants from the area around the Mediterranean Sea have already come to Indonesia, especially Sumatra. In addition to searching for gold, they are looking for incense (Styrax sumatrana) and camphor (Dryobalanops aromatica) exists only in Sumatra. Instead, the traders Nusantara had peddled their commodities through to West Asia and East Africa, as stated on the manuscript Historia Naturalis Plini works of the first century CE.

In the book of the Jews, Melakim (Kings), Chapter 9, explained that the Prophet Sulaiman a.s. King of Israel accept the 420 talents of gold from Hiram, King of tyre who became subordinate to him. The gold obtained from the land of Ophir. Al-Qur'an, Surat Al-Anbiya ' 81, explained that the ships of Prophet Sulaiman sailed to "land which we bless it" (al-ardha l-barak-lati Na fiha).

Many historians argue that the land of Ophir was located in Sumatra (Mount Ophir in Western West Pasaman, West Sumatra which is now called Mount Talakmau?). It should be noted, the city of Tyre is central to the marketing of goods from the far East. Ptolemy ever write Geographike Hyphegesis based on information from a dealer named Marinus of tyre. And many European adventurers in the 15th century and 16th century in search of gold to Sumatra and assuming that's where lies the land of Ophir Prophet Sulaiman a.s.

The word was first mentioned the name of Sumatra is derived from the title of a King of the Srivijayan Haji (King) Sumatrabhumi ("King of the land of Sumatra"), based on the news, he sent messengers to the Chinese China in 1017. Other accounts mention the name Sumatra comes from the ocean, the Kingdom of Aceh in the 13th century and 14th century. The traveler to Europe since the 15th century the Kingdom used the name to refer to the entire island. Same thing with Kalimantan island called the Borneo, Brunei, the name of the northern part of the island was first visited by Europeans. Similarly the Lombok island was once called Liberating, while Lombok is the name of the area on the East coast of the island of Liberating the first stopover of Portuguese sailors.

The transition of the Ocean (the name of the Kingdom) to Sumatra (Island) is interesting to be traced. Odoric of Pordenone in acts during the year 1318 mentions that he sailed East from Coromandel, India, for 20 days, and then to the Kingdom of Sumoltra. Ibn Bathutah in Al-Rihlah storytelling ila l-Masyriq (a journey to the East) that in 1345 he stopped at the Kingdom of Samatrah. In the next century, the name of the country or Kingdom in Aceh was taken over by another Traveller-traveller to mention all over the island.

In the year 1490 Ibn Majid made a map of the area around the Indian Ocean and written in the island of "Samatrah". Map of Ibn Majid is copied by Roteiro year 1498 and there the name "Camatarra". Artificial Amerigo Vespucci maps the year 1501 lists the names of "Samatara", whereas the year 1506 Masser map gave rise to the name "Samatra". Ruy d'Araujo years 1510 mentions the island "Camatra", and Alfonso Albuquerque year 1512 write it "Camatora". Antonio Pigafetta year 1521 use names that somewhat ' true ': "Somatra". But very much more traveler records ' chaotic ' write it: "Samoterra", "Samotra", "Sumotra", even "Zamatra" and "Zamatora".

Notes people Netherlands and United Kingdom, as of Jan Huygen van Linschoten and Sir Francis Drake, the 16th century is always consistent in writing. It is this form that became raw, and then adjusted with the tongue Indonesia: Sumatra.