Rebuilding Kotagede Old City: Yogyakarta, Central Java

The Jogja Heritage Society is preparing a set of guidelines for the rebuilding of Yogyakarta’s Kotagede old city, which was devastated in the powerful earthquake that struck the area last May 27.

During a seminar held here Wednesday, the heritage society discussed the planned revitalization of the Kotagede Heritage District, which houses in its narrow streets silverworks, traditional buildings and other cultural treasures of the city.

One of the steps the heritage community plans is to issue conservation manuals to home and building owners in the district.

“This is a crucial time for Kotagede. Unless something is done, it is feared the city’s heritage will vanish forever,” heritage society director Titi Handayani said.

The earthquake that rocked Yogyakarta and parts of Central Java last year damaged or destroyed most of the buildings in Kotagede, including many of the traditional joglo-roofed houses.

Titi said a recent survey by the heritage society found more than 100 joglo buildings, each of which originally functioned as the front hall of a housing compound, suffered extensive damage in the quake.

“That figure is only from Jagalan, one of three villages in the district,” said Titi.

She said the other two villages were Prenggan and Purbayan. Jagalan is under the jurisdiction of Banguntapan district in Bantul regency, while Prenggan and Purbayan are in Kotagede district in Yogyakarta municipality.

Titi said one of the problems faced in rebuilding the heritage district was, ironically, the compensation funds given by the government to the owners of damaged houses.

Owners of heavily damaged or destroyed houses receive Rp 15 million (US$1,650) to Rp 20 million in assistance from the government.

This level of funding, Titi said, is insufficient to rebuild heritage homes properly.

She said in one case a former pendopo, a large open structure in front of a traditional joglo-roofed home, was simply turned into a bathroom.

Titi said some owners were selling teakwood joglo roofs more than 100 years old for as little as Rp 40 million, and then using the money to build modern houses.

“With the new guidelines we are preparing, hopefully, homeowners will have a guide that will help them reconstruct or renovate their houses.”

Another heritage society member, Laretna Adishakti, said to make the guidelines effective a binding regulation was needed.

“But only the respective local governments can pass necessary regulations,” said Laretna.

She reminded authorities that Kotagede was announced earlier this month by the World Monuments Fund as one of the 100 most endangered heritage sites in the world.

To help save Kotagede, Titi said, the heritage society had introduced two programs: “foster parents” and heritage investment.

Through the “foster parent” programs, individual or group donors are encouraged to help rebuild damaged joglo houses.

The heritage investment program encourages investors to preserve traditional buildings and turn them into commercial sites such as hotels, restaurants and boutiques.

“We are currently rebuilding four joglo houses with funding from the Netherlands government,” said Titi.

The guidelines for preserving houses in Kotagede, she said, were drawn up with funding by the Saudi Arabia government, through the UNESCO office in Jakarta.

She said the guidelines were drawn up only after a host of field studies and workshops involving the community were held.

“We plan to launch the guidelines by the end of July,” Titi said.

Sri Wahyuni