Mataram in West Nusa Tenggara is a city and a province of the Republic Indonesia. Just like the other island in the Indonesia Mataram is an archipelago island. It is because Indonesia is mostly archipelago island in its every region. The name of Mataram is taken from the Mataram Kingdom in java. Because the first people who named the Mataram were the people who escaped from the Dutch, they were mostly from java, and the greatest Kingdom in java is Mataram. Mataram city is located in Lombok island, in the Lombok island, the population is dominated by Sasak ethnic, while the Bima ethnic and Sumbawa ethnic is the biggest ethnic in the Sumbawa island. Long way before the Dutch with his military, VOC, came to Mataram, there was a kingdom named Manggarai Kingdom, but with the famous political step of Dutch in Dutch indie which was very successfully to create the chaos among local people, Devide et Empera, Mataram and other regions in West Nusa Tenggara fell under the power of VOC Dutch. And for many years, Dutch explored the Mataram natural sources along with the other regions in West Nusa Tenggara until the independence of Indonesia in the 1945.
The most famous traditional culture in Mataram is the dance. The most famous dance in the Mataram is Gendang Beleq dance. It is named so, because of the using of the dance is by huge drum. This Gendang Beleq dance was performed when the army of the kingdom was going home from the battle, and now it is used to welcome the important guest and to perform in the traditional ceremony, some call it Oncer dance. Besides, there are many traditional cultures in Mataram. And from the tourism attraction, Rinjani Mountain is a very popular mountain in the Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara. Rinjani mountain is stood as the second highest mountain in the Indonesia right after the highest mountain Jayapura, Puncak Jaya. This is the famous mountain in Mataram, Lombok Island. And there is traditional ceremony that is held every year, that is Hanta Ua Pua ceremony, it is held to celebrate the prophet Muhammad birth by the Mataram’s Muslims, and many more tourism spots. And the international airport of the West Nusa Tenggara is Lombok International Airport and it is located in the central Lombok, in the south west of the capital city, Mataram. It is the new airport since the older one was removed from Mataram because of the location was too near with the downtown.