They speak both their native tongue, Sundanese, and the Indonesian national language. Like other Indonesians, most Sundanese are bilingual. The central area is mountainous and is marked by some spectacular volcanoes. The northern coast is flat, and the southern coast is hilly. West Java spreads over an area of 16,670 square miles (43,177 square kilometers), about half the size of greater metropolitan Los Angeles, California. The Sundanese constitute a majority in West Java. The larger Javanese ethnic group forms the majority in Java’s central and eastern provinces. Java is a small island, but it is the administrative and economic center of the Indonesian archipelago (chain of islands). The vast majority live on the island of Java. The Sundanese number more than thirty million people. Called West Java, it is one of the nation’s richest provinces. By the late-1950s, “Sunda-land” had been fully integrated into Indonesia. These efforts were suppressed by Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno (1901–70). Even after independence, however, some Sundanese worked to establish a separate, autonomous (self-ruled) territory.
In the twentieth century, the Sundanese joined in the struggle for an independent, united Indonesian nation, which was established on August 17, 1945.
During this time Sundanese lands became an important source of spices, coffee, quinine, rubber, and tea for export. A succession of Sundanese kingdoms was followed by 350 years of Dutch colonization. This history can be traced back to the fifth century AD and the Tarumanagara dynasty, which established trade links extending as far as China. There is a complex history behind their rich cultural traditions. The Sundanese are the second-largest ethnic group in Indonesia.
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