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.