Villages of Indonesia

The kelurahan office of Gelora, Central Jakarta, Jakarta

Kelurahan is an urban village terminology primarily used in cities, but also tiny parts of regencies. All provinces with the exception of Aceh has kelurahan.[2][3] It is commonly translated to English as subdistrict. The leader of kelurahan is called lurah. Major cities in Indonesia such as Jakarta, Surabaya and Medan are entirely urbanised and thus no rural villages. However, in the case of the province of Aceh, there is exactly no kelurahan and all five cities in the province is entirely rural. A lurah is a civil servant appointed by the district head. According to the Regulation of the Minister of Home Affairs Number 31 of 2006, a kelurahan can be created with the following criteria:

• Java and Bali: having at least 4,500 residents or 900 families within an area of at least 3 km².
• Sumatra and Sulawesi: having at least 2,000 residents or 400 families within an area of at least 5 km².
• Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, and Papua: having at least 900 residents or 180 families within an area of at least 7 km².

A kelurahan must have a government office, an established transportation network, adequate communication facilities, and public facilities. If it no longer meets the above conditions it can be abolished or combined with other kelurahans based on the results of research and studies conducted by the city/regency government.[4]

The desa office of Boludawa, Bone Bolango Regency, Gorontalo

Desa is a rural village terminology used in the majority of regencies in Indonesia, but also in tiny parts of cities.[3] However, several provinces have adopted their own terminology for their traditional villages (desa adat). The leader of a desa does not have a civil servant status and is chosen by the public through an election. According to the Law Number 6 of 2014, desa and desa adat are legal community units that have territorial boundaries that are authorized to regulate and administer government affairs, community interests based on community initiatives, original rights, and/or traditional rights recognized and respected in the government system of the Republic of Indonesia.[5]

Variations of desa terminology in Indonesia include:

• Gampong in Aceh[6]
• Nagari in West Sumatra (except Mentawai Islands Regency)[7]
• Dusun in Bungo Regency (Jambi)^[a]
• Nagori in Simalungun Regency (North Sumatra)
• Kampung in some places in Indonesia:^[b]
  • Lampung (in Central Lampung, Tulang Bawang, Way Kanan, and West Tulangbawang regencies)
  • East Kalimantan (in Berau and West Kutai regencies)
  • Provinces in Western New Guinea
• Pekon in Pringsewu, Tanggamus, and West Lampung regencies (Lampung)
• Tiyuh in West Tulang Bawang Regency (Lampung)
• In Bali, there are two forms of desa, i.e. desa dinas (service village) and desa adat (cultural village). Desa dinas deals with administrative functions, while desa adat deals with religious and cultural functions.[8]
• Lembang in Tana Toraja and North Toraja regencies (South Sulawesi)[9]
• Kalurahan in Special Region of Yogyakarta.[10]