Indonesian Culture Takes Root in Hollywood : Community: Shops are flourishing on Sunset Boulevard, catering to the more than 20,000 island immigrants in L.A.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Indonesia is the largest archipelagic nation in the world, consisting of 13,670 islands.

Make that 13,671.

Along a once-dilapidated, given-up-for-good stretch of Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, a small oasis of Indonesia has gradually materialized. Clustered in an outdoor plaza around the Metropolitan Hotel, until recently the only Indonesian-owned hotel in the United States, the growing gaggle of shops, restaurants and businesses may be the beginning of what community activists hope will become Indonesian Town.

“There is Koreatown, Chinatown, Little Saigon and Little Tokyo,” said Niek Haridadi, who conceived the idea of a local center for Indonesian culture and commerce. “Why not a Little Indonesia?”

Compared to other Asian American groups, the local Indonesian and Indonesian American population of 20,000 to 25,000 people is relatively small. But Los Angeles’ number of immigrants is still the largest in any city nationwide, and the third-largest in the world after cities in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

Los Angeles is also the economic linchpin of Indonesian American trade. Of the more than $5.4 billion in exports the United States receives from the Southeast Asian nation, 75% of those goods pass through Southern California ports.

But as many Indonesians report, Southern Californians remain largely unaware of Indonesia even though it is the world’s fourth-most populous country with 180 million people and the world’s largest Muslim nation. Indonesian businesswoman and community activist Tilly Palar recalls taking an Indonesian friend to a local hospital, where a nurse asked if her friend bathed in a stream.

“The concept here is that all of Indonesia is a big jungle,” said Palar, who settled in Southern California 10 years ago. “It makes me very upset.”

Ajie Dinata, a hairdresser who immigrated from East Borneo, said: “People ask me where Indonesia is. We’re unrecognized in American eyes.”

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Haridadi came up with the idea of an Indonesian Town to combat such ignorance and to offer non-Indonesians a window into their society. Haridadi, whose husband is the Indonesian consul general in Los Angeles, said that although most Indonesians live in Alhambra or in the Inland Empire, the Metropolitan Hotel and the nearby plaza seem ideal because the property was bought 1 1/2 years ago by Indonesians.

In January, she approached the new owners and encouraged them to bring Indonesian-related businesses to the plaza on Sunset Boulevard between Bronson and Van Ness avenues. Since then, the newly renovated mall has gone from having a handful of tenants to being nearly 80% occupied, primarily by Indonesian-owned businesses. A gourmet Indonesian restaurant has opened and become an unofficial community gathering spot. In June, a one-day bazaar featuring Indonesian folk dancing was held to raise money for disabled children.

Plaza owners are negotiating to acquire land next to the mall. “When we got here, the plaza was pretty empty,” said Sandra Elnitiarta, who owns the hotel and plaza with her sister, Jessica. “There were many improvements that had to be done.”

Indonesians in Southern California are primarily students or middle-class business people who have recently immigrated. Unlike Indonesia, where more than 90% of the people are Muslims, about 90% of the immigrants are Christian Indonesians of Chinese ethnicity. There are nearly 30 Indonesian churches in Southern California and eight banks owned by Indonesians.

Palar says Indonesians are drawn here for economic opportunity and the climate, just like countless other immigrants. The area’s ever-burgeoning Asian population and the businesses that cater to them also make it attractive, she said. Also, the image of celebrity-studded Hollywood is a powerful lure for young Indonesians nurtured on American pop culture.

“Before Indonesians wanted to go to Europe because we were a colony,” Palar said. “Not anymore. Now everyone wants to come here.”

But Palar says Indonesians retain strong ties with their native country. The 6-year-old Indonesian Journal, based in West Covina, is read avidly by 7,000 Indonesians nationwide even though it treads lightly on issues such as human rights abuses and growing clampdowns on personal liberties at home, according to its publisher and editor, Emile D. Mailangkay.

Palar said Indonesians regularly make the $1,000, 18-hour flight home to visit relatives and friends. Also, many still cook Indonesian food, speak Bahasa, Indonesia’s native language, and wear batiks, the traditional shirts made of patterned cloth, she said. In addition, every August the community commemorates the anniversary of the formation of the Indonesian republic.

When Ajie Dinata, 33, arrived in Los Angeles in 1985, he saw few of his countrymen. But now he says there is a thriving community here and a heightened interest in Indonesia to immigrate to the United States. Despite the area’s lingering recession, he said, Indonesians still view Southern California as a place laden with opportunity. Dinata recently opened a hair salon in the plaza five months ago.

“It’s starting to feel like home again,” he said.

County Fair Highlights

This is the final day of the Los Angeles County Fair at the Fairplex in Pomona, two blocks north of the San Bernardino Freeway and accessible from the Fairplex Drive, White Avenue or Garey Avenue exits. Horse racing continues through Monday.

Today’s events:

Comidas Mexicanas contest--2 p.m., Bakers Square Home Arts Building.

Spinning contest--6 p.m., livestock ring No. 3.

Hours: 9 a.m.-10 p.m.

Admission: General, adults, $8; children 6-12, $4; over 60, $6.

Parking: General, $4; preferred, $6; premium preferred, $7; RVs, $8; valet, $10.

Information: (909) 623-3111.