Sumatra is a natural wonderland of luxuriant forests, fast-flowing rivers, vast swamps, cool highland lakes and imposing volcanoes. It encompasses a panoply of trees, flowers, mammals, birds, reptiles and insects to satisfy the most demanding naturalist - among them the worlds largest flower, the Rafflesia, the orang-utan, Asian elephant, Sumatran rhinoceros and tiger, the sunbear, three species of gibbon, ten species of hornbill and the (occasionally) man-eating estuarine crocodile. But the islands fascination lies in its interplay of nature and culture. Strikingly beautiful, Sumatra is also home to an array of cultures that have maintained their identity even in the face of Jakartas modernizing tendencies