Discovering the ancient charms of old Jakarta

Discovering the ancient charms of old Jakarta

By Izabel Deuff

JAKARTA (JP): Pollution and traffic jams have buried the
centuries-old historical charms of the megacity of 10 million
people.

Although it is not as old as ancient cities in Europe, the Far
East or Middle East, Jakarta boasts innumerous historical
edifices from past centuries.

The oldest part of Jakarta is downtown Kota, a Sanskrit word
for "fortified place" given in remembrance of the walled city of
Batavia that the Dutch colonial rulers built in 1619.

Jakarta was first known as Sunda Kelapa, the harbor of the
Hindu-Javanese Pajajaran kingdom from the 12th century to the
16th century. Ships used to come from Palembang, Tanjungpura,
Malacca, Macassar (now Ujungpandang) and Madura and also from
India, South China and later Portugal and Holland. The foreigners
came to by pepper, rice and gold.

Sunda Kelapa has been retained as an area that stretches along
one side of a canal in which several 17-meter-long schooners
called pinisi moor.

"Those traditional sailing boats come from Kalimantan,
Sulawesi and Sumatra carrying timber for West Java. They stay in
Jakarta for five days and then sail back," explained Rahim Bekend
from the Jakarta History Museum.

The pinisi give you a hint of sailors' rough lives in the past
and present.

In 1610, the prince of Jayakarta, the former sultan of Banten
in West Java, who had defeated Sunda Kelapa's rulers 83 years
before, signed an agreement with the Dutch to allow the Dutch
East India Company to build warehouses, which slowly became
forts.

To control them, the prince built a military post called the
Lookout Tower (Menara Sahbandar), which didn't help when the
Dutch army attacked and took over Jayakarta in May 1619.

The tower, on the corner of Jl. Pakin and Jl. Krapu, stands on
a bastion which is part of the old city bulwark of Batavia. This
coralstone edifice, called Culemborg, was the site where Dutch
soldiers were stationed to watch the city entrance.

From the current three-story tower built in 1839, you have a
perfect view of Kota: the harbor, the Kampung Luar Batang and
some Dutch buildings, including the old shipyard of the
Vereenigde Oosdt-Indische Compagnie (VOC) and the warehouses
built in 1652. The storehouses were expanded between 1663 and
1669 and from 1748 to 1774.

The company's shipyard, dating from the 18th century, is on
the other side of busy Jl. Pakin and the canal. The two-floor
building has an open wooden gallery with columns and balustrade.
This edifice was a shelter for drawers of sea maps, shipbuilders,
rope makers and coopers.

Now, the three long, two-story edifices overlook the Bahari
Museum featuring scale model maps of the city in different
periods of time. One of the edifices adjoins the northern 17th
century city wall as a sentry box. The huge wooden rooms with
many windows were used to stock nutmeg, cloves, China tea, silk
and local coffee.

Close to the maritime museum, Kampung Luar Batang reminds
visitors of the hard life of the old Batavia people. Kota was
only two square kilometers. So, in the late 17th century, the
population spilled out of the walls, especially in the northern
area.

Kampung Luar Batang (which means "outside the log") as well as
the innercity was lacking in cleanliness and was unhealthy.
Despite the drainage system the Dutch built, water was
contaminated and the settlement frequently flooded. Mortality was
high due to dysentery and typhoid, but the main curse was
malaria.

At present, the area is a slum that remains dirty and poor and
is notorious for crime.

The kampong residents take pride in the mosque built in 1739.
The building is still visited by many people wanting to see the
holy grave of an Arab missionary, Sayid Husain Abu Bakar al-
Aidrus, buried there in 1756.

Mosques as well as Catholic churches and Chinese temples were
built outside the walls because from 1619 to 1799, the VOC banned
places of worship except Protestant churches.

The Dutch city housing policy of old Batavia is still visible.
After passing "Chicken market bridge", the last Dutch drawbridge
dating back to the 17th century, there is an example of this
policy on Kali Besar Street. Traditional two-story houses close
to each other along the channel unveil the high-class residential
Old Batavia.

Built in 1730, the Toko Merah (Red Shop) was the home of the
Dutch governor-general (now it is owned by PT Dharma Niaga). It
was named so because it had red-brick facade and red woodwork and
furniture painted red. The mansion displays an austere facade
pierced by high rectangular square windows.

But the house is not as well-built as the current Jakarta
History Museum, originally the Town Hall of Batavia built in
1710. The whole setup, which has large windows, is quite solemn.
At its center, the simple porch above the entry projects over
Taman Fatahillah place, on which took place many executions. City
Hall had two functions: as the headquarters of Batavia and the
VOC administration.

On both sides of the edifice, the upper floor of the two-story
wings hosted the living quarters of the governors, while the
ground floor was a prison. Three hundred prisoners were kept in
there and some of them were condemned to the "Water Prison".

The museum's collection contains items from prehistoric times
to the beginning of the 20th century and is significant even if
it is not very well displayed.

Around Taman Fatahillah, you may also visit the Wayang Museum,
built on the site of the Dutch Church of Batavia, which was
destroyed by an earthquake in 1770, and the famous Cafe Batavia,
fitted in a Dutch house which has been renovated beautifully. A
few meters away is the Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics, the only
edifice in Kota built in a Greek classical style in the late 19th
century.

Traveling through centuries and walking around Kota is an
unceasing discovery trip. Kota offers many walkabouts because in
the surroundings of the Old Jakarta walls, most houses still have
traces of Chinese (in Glodok), Portuguese, Arab and even Spanish
influences.