Faith put Kampung Sawah on the map

Faith put Kampung Sawah on the map

By Ida Indawati Khouw

Most cities have enclaves where people sharing the same
beliefs, ethnic backgrounds or values come together. In
predominantly Muslim Old Batavia, the Dutch colonial government
established an area especially for the minority local Christian
population. This is the 80th article in our series on old
Jakarta.

KAMPUNG SAWAH, Bekasi (JP): We can sometimes tell the
religious affiliation of someone by their family name, a truism
in many parts of the world including in the Kampung Sawah
community about 20 kilometers east of the capital.

People there are called Baiin, Kadiman, Sairin, Tibin, Saian,
Empi, Kuding, Napiun, Pepe or Rikin, which are in keeping with
the Sundanese culture of West Java but also identify them as
Christians, having been passed on from generation to generation
as family names.

There are also Sanglir, Peking, Sabajan, Baidan, Niman,
Kadiman, Yaman, Penjol, Noron, Jaim, Natanael, Koeli, Lampung,
Saiman, Kaiin, Dantjie, Bone, Sandang, Biran and Ubeng.

Other names have their origins in similar Christian kampongs
like Gunung Putri in Bogor and Pondok Melati, about two
kilometers from Kampung Sawah.

Some of the names, however, have disappeared because people
were afraid of being considered too "provincial", said one local,
Ishak Sairin, 59.

According to Debora Napiun, 75, before the people became
Christians children were given simple names according to
identifying characteristics.

"Thus, we often heard of strange names like si Centong (the
rice ladle), si Pungut (the adopted one), si Buang (thrown away)
or si Pengki (a basket for carrying garbage)," she said.

In the past, Kampung Sawah was part of the Meester Cornelis
administrative area, now Jatinegara in East Jakarta, but now it
is included in the mayoralty of Bekasi on the capital's
outskirts.

The area is about 20 kilometers from hectic East Jakarta but
the ambience is more like a remote village, with large trees,
gardens and plants everywhere.

There is only one road into and out of the community and it is
full of potholes even though it was just paved about five years
ago. And the area is only served by one public transportation
service.

But for elderly residents like Sulaeman Kadiman, born in 1919,
the quiet in the eyes of most Jakartans is a din to his ears.

"There are cars and motorcycles going back and forth, it's
quite noisy. It was happier for me when the surroundings were
still like a forest."

Oppressed

Kampung Sawah is one of several Christian kampongs located in
Jakarta's suburbs and in bordering West Java which were
established by the Dutch in the 19th century.

They were meant to protect the indigenous people who were
expelled and oppressed by other members of their ethnic group
because they chose the "religion of the colonists".

Residents find it difficult to identify their ethnic roots.
Some claim they are Betawi, the native people of Jakarta, but
others acknowledge Sundanese descent. There also say the best
description of them is "Jakarta Malay".

"We often just identify ourselves as the people of Kampung
Sawah," said Ishak.

Sulaeman said that his ancestors came from Jepara, Central
Java.

"Following divine inspiration, my Christian ancestors migrated
to Kampung Sawah and Gunung Putri," he said.

Before Kampung Sawah, indigenous Christian communities had
already been established in Central and East Java by Javanese
evangelists Kyai Ibrahim Tunggal Wulung and Kyai Sadrach (who
taught Christianity mixed with Javanese mysticism), according to
R. Kurris SJ in Terpencil di Pinggiran Jakarta, Satu Abad Umat
Katolik Betawi (Isolated in Jakarta's Outskirts, A Century of
Betawi Catholic Congregation).

"So in Kampung Sawah was established a unique Christian
community. The Javanese-speaking newcomers had to adapt
themselves with the Betawi community who speak Malay and (there
came about) a mix of various cultures and ancestors," said
Kurris.

Today, the Kampung Sawah community speaks Indonesian mixed
with Sundanese and Betawi dialects. The hodgepodge of language is
shown in how they address their relatives. Aunts are called Nce
and uncles Mamang, which are Sundanese words. The Betawi
influence is clearly shown when they address older sisters with
Mpok and older brothers as Abang.

Kurris said that the family names, which are usually used as
nicknames by the Sundanese, were rooted in the Dutch legal system
in which indigenous Christians were subject to regulations
similar to in Western civil law.

"As in the marriage law for the westerners in which people
register their family name and baptismal name, the Kampung Sawah
community, some of whom are the descendants of slaves and
plantation workers, were also registered with their family names
even if they didn't have them. Thus, nicknames were then adopted
as family names," Kurris said.

Christianity was introduced to the area in the 1800s by F.L.
Anthing, a Protestant Christian who worked as the deputy chief
justice in Batavia, and Kyai Ibrahim Tunggal Wulung.

At first Anthing evangelized to the convicts who came from
private land areas like Pondok Gede, which had become a hiding
place for criminals.

Converted convicts

The converted convicts then became evangelists "who
distributed brochures on Christian teachings and sold books at
public places", said Koernia Atje Soejana in his book Benih Yang
Tumbuh 2, Suatu Survey Mengenai Gereja Kristen Pasundan (The
Growing Seed 2: A Survey of the Pasundan Christian Church).

Adopting the local belief in "sacred" things, mostly kris,
Anthing's "disciples" spread the religious word using mysticism.

Teachings like the Lord's Prayer and the Apostolic Creed were
made into spells to cure illness and to conquer "darkness".

Their evangelism was so effective that in 1874 some were
baptized as the first Christians at Pondok Melati, followed by
Kampung Sawah.

Only after the congregation was taken over by the Netherlandse
Zendings Vereniging (the Association of the Netherlands'
Evangelism) following Anthing's death in 1883 was the teaching of
the religion changed to conform to conventions.

However, it led to dissension among members and the adoption
of Catholicism by some.

Today there is the Pasundan Christian Church for Protestants
and a Catholic church in the area.

Until the Japanese occupation in 1942, locals in Kampung Sawah
worked on land belonging to the landlord of the Pondok Gede
mansion, about seven kilometers away.

Sulaeman still vividly remembers how his family and other
local residents had to always hand over a fifth of their crops
to the landlord.

"Farmers usually divided the rice crops into bundles. The
fifth bundle would eventually go to the landlord," he said,
adding that the allotment was increased to 50 percent during the
Japanese era.

"Everything we planted on the land was also subject to
taxation. For example, the tax for each coconut, rambutan and
petai (a type of bean with a pungent odor) tree was 10 cents per
year, while there was also a regulation that people couldn't fell
trees to their roots to allow them to grow again."

The father of six and grandfather of 13 said that he never saw
the landlord because the tax payments were collected by
indigenous foremen.

"Wearing white apparel with a (typically Javanese) headscarf,
they usually went around the kampong every month," he said.

Those who ignored the tax were subjected to the punishment of
obligatory work at Pondok Gede, like sapping rubber trees or
doing household work for a period of time based on how far they
were in arrears.

Unfortunately, the Pondok Gede mansion, built in 1775 as an
extraordinarily long building with an enormous roof, was
demolished to make way for the construction of a department store
some 10 years ago. The only reminder is the street name, Jl.
Pondok Gede.