Historical places lure determined tourist
Historical places lure determined tourist
By Yoko N. Sari
JAKARTA (JP): Several elderly tourists from the Netherlands listened carefully to an explanation about the ruins on Onrust island provided by a guide. The ruins are all that remain of huge windmills built to cut logs to repair colonial ships.
"The windmills were used to cut logs to repair the merchant ships when the island was used as a dock by the Dutch trading company VOC," the guide told them.
The tourists were lucky to have an expert as their guide. His name is Lodewyk J. Wagenaar, a curator/conservator from the Amsterdam Historical Museum.
Then, the group headed to a Dutch graveyard where at least 41 people are buried. The cemetery is a mess, with tombstones scattered all around. Whatever marble markers once existed have been stolen from the graves.
Yet the tourists seemed to enjoy the trip there as Wagenaar drew them into the past with stories of life on the island when the Netherlands was still occupying Indonesia.
The tourists were participating in specially designed tour, called "historical tourism".
One tourist, who was born in Pasar Ikan, North Jakarta, and used to visit the island when he was a boy, said, "I smell the past."
It is a fact that Jakarta does not have as many interesting tourist sites as other places in the country, such as Bali or West Java and Central Java, but the city does have something that has the potential to attract tourists from around the world. Jakarta is rich in historical ruins. The city itself reflects a long and colorful history.
Historical tourism is a new approach which is expected to boost the tourist industry in the city. But much remains to be done by the municipal administration to promote the capital as an interesting place to see.
The Kota area in West Jakarta for example contains the roots of the very beginnings of this sprawling city. It used to be the center of the city and some of the historical and other old buildings located there are now museums. There are four major museums there.
Another place believed to have the potential to attract tourists is the Seribu Island chain, of which four of the isles have historical ruins: Onrust, Kelor, Cipir and Bidadari.
Onrust
Onrust island, about 50 minutes from Marina Ancol, has a lot of ruins from the Dutch colonial period, that if properly promoted could attract tourists wanting to know more about the history of Indonesia during that time.
The island was used by Dutch merchants as a dock in 1615 before the VOC developed the island and started to put up buildings. In 1671 a pentagon-shaped fort was established. The island was then used as a quarantine center for haj pilgrims from 1911 to 1933.
The ruins are in such a poorly preserved state at this time, however, that most people would not understand their function, nor their historical significance, if they visited the islands without expert tourist guides.
For most people, the island of Onrust, which means "always busy" in Dutch, seems an eerie, desolated place because most of the buildings are not there anymore. One hundred years ago the island was the center of the activities surrounding the vital merchant ships. Now little more than ruins and graves remain.
The City Museum and Historical Office recognizes the potential of the islands to attract tourists, especially those from the Netherlands. However, a tight budget has hampered its efforts to preserve or restore various elements of Jakarta's archeological heritage in the Seribu Islands.
Head of the Exhibition and Promotion Department of the Jakarta Tourism Office Tinia Budiati said recently that due to financial constraints her office has been able to do little to restore the historical sites. "All we can do is upgrade part of them gradually."
She explained that her office has asked the municipal administration to undertake a huge project expected to change the island into an open air museum. The administration has yet to respond to the proposal.
Budget
"The proposed project is aimed at restoring the buildings and facilities once standing there, so people can enjoy and understand the history of the island," Tinia said.
"We have to do this to make the island more attractive so more tourists, local and foreign, will visit it," she said.
She feared that the Jakarta administration simply has more important programs as priorities and can't focus on preserving the heritage. "My office may have to try to finance the project at its own expense."
From 1979 to 1990 the office did some excavation work on the island to find and expose the structures expected to expose elements of the way of life on the island between 1615 and 1800.
The excavation activities were mostly aimed at determining the locations of the main building on the island, the pentagon-shaped fort, and the two windmills which were built during that time.
"The excavation work was done on the basis of a map drawn by Heydt in 1740, which described the location of those buildings," Tinia said.
She explained that the results have not been as satisfactory as hoped. Her office has only been able to find the foundations of the main building and the windmills. These ruins mean nothing to visitors without the guidance and explanation of experts.
Onrust Island will only have adequate significance for the historical tourism program, if the city administration rebuilds the fort, barracks and windmills.
Even the Dutch historian Wagenaar said that it is important to revive this history to help younger generation to understand the historical importance of the island.
"It is true that to rebuild the island exactly like it was in the 17th century needs a lot of funds. But it should be done and I believe it is worth doing for the sake of history," Wagenaar said.