Blueprint prepared for Yogya's heritage
Blueprint prepared for Yogya's heritage
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
The Yogyakarta administration is preparing a detailed plan for
the preservation of heritage areas in the city, which, it is
hoped, will later serve as a pilot project for heritage sites
nationwide.
Once completed, the blueprint, claimed to be the first of its
kind in the country, will be implemented in Gamelan heritage area
in Panembahan village, Kraton.
"We hope the blueprint will be supported by a bylaw," head of
the Yogyakarta Development Planning Board (Bappeda) Tri Djoko
Susanto said at the opening of a four-day workshop on Monday to
prepare the blueprint.
The workshop, jointly organized by Bappeda, the Jogja Heritage
Society (JHS) and the International City/County Management
Association (ICMA), is also expected to come up with a draft
bylaw on the guidelines.
The workshop also involves local villagers, heritage activists
and related government officials. Delegates from the City of
Savannah, Georgia, the U.S. -- as the partner city of Yogyakarta
-- are also attending the workshop to share their experience in
successfully managing Savannah's heritage areas.
"Yogyakarta is very unique in many ways. It's one of the
world's remarkable assets. But it will all be gone if we do
nothing to preserve and develop it," Savannah's city manager
Michael B. Brown told The Jakarta Post.
He said that apart from preparing regulations, the success of
preservation efforts very much depended on local people's
knowledge on the need to preserve and develop in the right way.
Therefore, he said, it was important to disseminate
information on the need to preserve and develop heritage areas to
provide people with sufficient knowledge on the matter.
Gamelan is located inside the Yogyakarta Palace fortress,
which is popularly known as Njeron Benteng. Compared to other
areas in Njeron Benteng, it retains the most authenticity as a
heritage area.
The structure of most of the buildings in this residential
area, for instance, has remained unchanged, with some maintaining
their original function.
The 200-year-old Siliran House on Jl. Siliran, Njeron Benteng,
is one of the region's most frequently visited tourist sites.
The site comprises four hamlets -- Mantrigawen, Namburan,
Gamelan and Siliran, which were named after the abdi dalem (royal
servants) who once resided there.
However, some of the buildings have been renovated without
taking their historical significance into account, while others
have been replaced with new buildings.
"We see the need to make a detailed plan, agreed upon by the
residents and the local government, to ensure (heritage areas) do
not lose their character, and also generate income through
tourism," JHS director Titi Handayani said.