Lampung is one of the less known provinces of Indonesia, but that doesn't make it less interesting. It consists of the southern tip of Sumatera and is separated from Jawa by the shallow Selat Sunda, of which the most narrow part is only 30 km wide. Because of this strategical position, the social and economical influence from the densely populated and politically powerfull Jawa in Lampung bigger than elsewhere in Indonesia.
Until the first decades of the 20th century Lampung was very low populated. The flood of Jawanese migrants caused a tremendous growth of the population, and Lampung currently is the most densely populated part of Sumatera, but it's also the poorest province. The last 15 year the population grew from 3 milion to over six milion, in an area of approximately 33,000 sq.km.
Only one out of ten people originates from the original population, which consists of three groups: the Orang Abung or mountain people, headhunters which lived isolated until the 19th century; the Orang Pubian from the lowlands and the Orang Peminggir fron the southen coast around Teluk Lampung and Semangka. This last group came under the rule of Srivijaya and was later on islamic under the influence of Jawa. Local legends tell all these people originated from one ancestor, Si Lampung, which named the province as well. His descendants currently speak two closely related languages, Komering and Lampung. The unequal growth of transmigrants from Jawa caused Jawanese and Sundanese to rule for what the languages is concerned.
Life in Lampung has always been kind of untidy, especially along the coast, which suffered dramatically under the illegal slave hunting. Two inscriptions from the mighty Srivijaya proove direct relations in the 7th century, undoubtly because of the richness of gold and damar ( tree raisin ) in Lampung. In the 16th century, islamic sultans from Banten ( Jawa Barat ), took power. They gave the leaders of the province the title punggawa ( representative ), in trade for delivering pepper, which was grown in the hinterlands. And when not too long after that the Europeans arrived, Banten had became the biggest and most rich pepper harbour of the entire archipelago. Eventually the Dutch took this trade at the end of the 17th century.
The traditional culture of Lampung mirrors a local religion with hinduist-buddhist and islamic influences. Until a short while ago there were strong megalith traditions; the pepadon or ritual throne whoch was used by de leaders of Lampung seems to be of megalith origine, and old stonesculptures show ancestors with symbolic motives. The influence of the bronze Dongson drums also shows up in the spirals, curbs and stylish motives of humans and animals on the remarkable little ship-towels of Lampung. These played an important role in every interchange rite and are seen as one of the most refined and remarkable traditional textiles in the world.
In the 20th century, rapid changes took place. Already since the Dutch rule, a start was being made with the transmigration to reliefe the overpopulated island of Jawa. After the independence, transmigration was enforced, not only by the Orde Baru ( New Order ), but already under Soekarno. Lampung however, got overpopulated very soon and transmigration to this province has been halted a long time ago already. From the original forests only 20 % remains. Some, like Way Kambas, are now turned into a wildlife reserve. On other grounds rice, rubber and coffee is grown.