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.