Photo show a glimpse into the Jakarta of yore

Photo show a glimpse into the Jakarta of yore

By Myra Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): For most people living in Jakarta before World
War II the name Gambir Market may evoke images of beautiful
buildings and fun. For business people it means business
promotion, such as happens in present day trade fairs. For others
again it is a time to see local craftsmen working and artists
performing their arts for the public.

Gambir Market was where a yearly trade fair was held from the
last days of August to the second week of September. It was
exclusive to Jakarta or rather Batavia, as the capital city was
called in those days, because of the location, which was Gambir,
now called Medan Merdeka. All similar fairs would simply be
called 'Pasar Malam' or 'night market'.

The first Gambir Market was held in 1906. The province of
Banten had the honor of displaying its handicrafts and local
performances. Prince Ario Achmad Djadjadiningrat wrote in his
memoirs about this event, which he helped to organize in his
capacity as the Regent of Serang, the capital city of the
province.

Craftsmen and women were brought to Batavia with their tools
and their craft and so were the people who could perform plays
from the regions. Prince Achmad knew that there was a full set of
gamelan instruments in the National Museum and decided to borrow
it for the event. But when the music was performed it turned out
that the instruments had not been used for many years and were in
dire need of tuning.

Thinking that the visitors from Batavia would not notice, they
decided to use the instruments anyway. But how great was the
Prince's surprise when among the visitors was a man who did
notice. This man was the great Dr Wahidin, one of the pioneers of
the Independence Movement. Although quite embarrassed, Prince
Achmad saw it as a blessing in disguise, because he became good
friends with this great man.

Gambir Market was nothing more than a night market in those
first years, but in 1920 beautiful buildings were designed and
executed from local material, such as bamboo, rattan and so on.

As such the buildings were not permanent, but were dismantled
after two weeks. The following year new buildings were designed
and built again.

From 1923 J.H. Antonisse, the city architect was responsible
for the designs, which were largely inspired by the local
architecture, such as houses from Toraja, Minangkabau and even a
fully fledged imitation of the city hall on Taman Fatahila.

Preparations

Preparations for the fair took much more than two weeks,
because each year there were different themes for the different
sections. Health care workers would make an exposition on malaria
one year and smallpox the next. Local craftsmen came from a
different province each year. The business world was encouraged
to promote their products at the fair.

Besides expositions there were competitions in athletics and
motor racing, and as entertainment there were wayang (shadow
puppet) performances, comedies -- usually by the Miss Riboet
Company -- clowns, acrobats and magicians. Enormous attractions
were the freaks such as the woman with the body of a crab, the
smallest man and the biggest woman.

People who were children and living in Batavia and
surroundings at that time can still remember Gambir Market as one
of the biggest excitements to look forward to. Peter who lived in
Bogor remembers that he could see the buildings from the train.

They would walk from the station to the fairgrounds and there
would be all the attractions: the merry-go round, the Ferris
Wheel, the games and the members of the family would all have
something to enjoy. He could also remember the food, restaurants
having opened on the site and roadside stalls that would sell
delicacies.

He could especially remember that the kueh krak, a special
semi-circular cookie, tasted better during that event, because
walking from one place to the other had made him hungry.

The last Gambir Market was held in 1939. In 1940 Holland was
occupied by the Nazis and celebrations were considered out of
place. After World War II Batavia became Jakarta and the
organizers called the fairs held at a different location on Medan
Merdeka, Jakarta Fair. In the late 1980s the fairground was moved
to Kemayoran where permanent buildings were erected.

Photographs of Gambir Market are now on display at the Erasmus
Huis until March 5. These photographs, only a small part of the
collection of Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam are of amazingly good
quality and clear.

Thanks to modern conservation methods they are also in very
good condition, Janneke van Dijk, head of the photograph
collection of the museum told us.

Ms Van Dijk accompanied the collection to Indonesia and has
also given a talk about the history and the contents of the
collection, which contain photographs of Indonesia and the West
Indies dating from the middle of the last century until the
present.

They may have been specially made for the museum but may also
have originated from albums bequeathed by families to the museum.
Books have been compiled from the photographs, such as 'Tempo
Doeloe' by Rob Nieuwenhuis and the series on the cities of
Indonesia, which are very popular in the Netherlands.

For the interested, these photographs can be seen in
Amsterdam, where small-scale exhibitions are held periodically.
Reproductions can be obtained on request but for publication
special permission is necessary.