An accidental hotelier<\/p>\n
In this busy era, we devise ways to make life easier for
\nourselves. We tend to place people in groups, and mentally put
\nthem in neat pigeon-holes in order for us to categorize them
\nquickly. We also tend to picture those in a particular group in
\nbulk: they have similar tastes, similar ambitions, and to a
\ndegree, even look alike.<\/p>\n
Whatever image you may have of an hotelier, it probably does
\nnot fit Anhar Setjadibrata, the founder of Indonesia's Tugu
\nHotels & Exotic Spas.<\/p>\n
To begin with, he is more preoccupied with what artifacts are
\ndisplayed, when and where they are placed, and whether they
\ntherefore represent the intended contexts and achieve the desired
\nthemes, than with the service of the hotel, a task which he
\nhappily relegates to his staff, including his daughter Lucienne.<\/p>\n
Is this all a new gimmick of the hospitality industry?<\/p>\n
You would not ask the question if you knew the genesis of the
\nbusiness.<\/p>\n
Setjadibrata, in a way, is an accidental hotelier. A keen
\nantique collector and a private historian, he found himself with
\nso many items he had lovingly collected over the decades that he
\nbegan thinking of acquiring buildings suitable to house them.<\/p>\n
And it was then that he thought of a unique way of sharing the
\ncollection with other people. In 1989 he built a grand house in
\nhis hometown of Malang in East Java, and with a combination of
\nlove and assiduousness, built his dream of antiquity into it, and
\na hotel around it.<\/p>\n
An inherent passion for history and a highly-tuned intuition
\nhave helped Setjadibrata spot and collect extremely rare
\nartifacts throughout his life. His daughter Lucienne recalls how,
\non a car journey across Central Java, they drove past an
\nordinary-looking house which anybody would miss if they blinked.
\nSetjadibrata suddenly stopped the car, turned around and parked
\noutside the house.<\/p>\n
Having asked the family to wait in the car, he went to the
\nfront door, knocked, then disappeared into the house. Two or
\nthree hours later, the family learned of him being taken to a
\ndusty store-room at the back of the house, where he found
\nnumerous priceless artifacts from the 12th century Javanese
\nkingdom of Majapahit.<\/p>\n
When he was a young medical graduate at a private university,
\nSetjadibrata's government regulated exams, a prerequisite to
\npractice in the country, were postponed indefinitely because of
\nthe political situation at the time. This mishap became a
\nblessing in disguise, as he suddenly found a lot of time to
\nindulge in his passion for art and history.<\/p>\n
As luck would have it, the young doctor quickly landed a job
\nas a medical representative for an international pharmaceutical
\ncompany, which required him to visit medical centers in far-flung
\nand remote villages around and outside Java. In these places he
\ninvariably met people who discarded old and disused items they
\nhad inherited but had not appreciated, which to Setjadibrata were
\nirreplaceable cultural representation. He began to collect them.<\/p>\n
Setjadibrata also started studying law in 1973, abandoning his
\nmedical career altogether. And after his graduation in 1977, he
\nembarked on a career as a legal consultant, while never stopping
\nhis search for tangible evidence of the region's rich history.<\/p>\n
The realization that his collection needed to be given
\nappropriate houses and preferably shared, drove him to build Tugu
\nPark in Malang. The feature of the hotel is a replica of the
\nroyal court of Jayawarman II of Cambodia, the Apsara Suite.<\/p>\n
Tugu Park turned out to be a great success, as it won a
\nnational award for architectural excellence, and was named one of
\nthe world's 101 Best Hotels.<\/p>\n
The success encouraged him to build the second hotel in Bali,
\nin the coastal village of Canggu, in 1997, where Lucienne, as the
\ndirector of strategies and development, regularly takes their
\nguests for a tour, while entertaining them with invaluable inside
\nstories.<\/p>\n
Several kilometers away from the hotel in Canggu is also Vila
\nCanggu, a spacious house where Setjadibrata constantly changes
\nthe furniture and the artifacts displayed to achieve the
\ndifferent themes and contexts he wants the place to have at
\ndifferent times. This house is only available to rent to selected
\nguests.<\/p>\n
The third and most recent Tugu Hotel was built in Blitar, East
\nJava, where Setjadibrata was born.<\/p>\n
The latest business venture of the Setjadibrata family is a
\nnew restaurant in Jalan Veteran, inaugurated last month by former
\npresident Megawati Sukarnoputri, housing historical artifacts
\nfrom various corners of the region.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/an-accidental-hotelier-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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