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.