Tours of Forgotten Heritage: Jakarta, West Java

The peeling cream exterior of state junior high school SMP Negeri 14 is the last remaining example of early 20th century art deco architecture in the Jatinegara area. The school building, with its sparely adorned facade, is still standing. But the courtyard in front has been cut down to the size of a small ragged basketball court to make way for the expansion of Jl. Jatinegara.

The building has never been named as a cultural heritage site. It’s only one of a number of buildings in the bustling Jatinegara district aging back to the Dutch colonial period which stand in disrepair.

“It’s very difficult because most of the old buildings here are privately owned and have very few historical records,” the Jakarta Cultural and Museum Agency‘s head of building supervising affairs, Candriyan Attahiyat, said while leading a public tour of historical Jatinegara buildings Sunday.

The event was part of the “Jakarta Trail” program, which is run by the Historia Community, a group for history and heritage enthusiasts.

Besides its fame as one of the busiest areas in Jakarta, where thousands of lower and middle-income Jakartans go to shop, Jatinegara also boasts historic Gothic and Chinese architecture as well as art deco and Dutch colonial buildings.

This rich architectural and cultural heritage, however, has not received the same conservation attention as posh Menteng or even Jakarta’s old town, Kota.

Jatinegara has eight subdistricts, including Bali Mester, Bidaracina, Cipinang Besar Utara, Cipinang Besar Selatan, Cipinang Cempedak, Cipinang Muara, Kampung Melayu, and Rawa Bunga, all of which have a history of development stretching back to the mid-17th century.

At that time, Cornelis Senen, a man of mixed Portuguese-Banda Island descent, was commissioned by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to open the then forested area.

The area was later named Meester Cornelis in honor of his efforts. Cornelis was granted ownership of much of the local land, opening a teak plantation to service the fledgling town of Batavia.

The name of the area was changed to Jatinegara during the Japanese occupation.

There are different accounts of the origin of the name Jatinegara. One version says that the area was named after pohon jati, the local term for teak trees.

Another version says prince Ahmad Jayakarta from the Banten Kingdom came up with the name Jatinegara, meaning genuine land, when he establish the Jatinegara Kaum village in Pulogadung, East Jakarta, after the Dutch destroyed his palace in Sunda Kelapa.

There are plenty of legends about the area, but very few clear physical historical records remain. This has hampered the preservation and conservation of historical buildings in the area.

“Even though there are a lot of old buildings here, this isn’t considered to be a cultural heritage area. People have forgotten about the history of Jatinegara and don’t see it as a cultural site,” the founder and chairman of the Historia Community, Asep Kambali, said.

“That’s why we want people to learn more about the old buildings in Jatinegara by setting up the Jatinegara tour,” he said.

Sunday’s foot tour started at the Jatinegara post office on Jl. Matraman Raya. Up to 50 tour participants crossed the pedestrian bridge in front of the post office to Jenderal Urip Sumohardjo soccer field, behind which lay a residential area with a number of Dutch colonial houses.

The participants continued to the art deco building of SMP Negeri 14, passing the Jatinegara bird market as a shortcut to the Jatinegara railway tracks. Those that were so inclined indulged their childhood interest in locomotives inside the area’s old train depot, where they helped the workers to turn a locomotive 180 degrees on a 1912 turning device.

A the device places the locomotive on a metal prop above a circular pit. The handles of the metal prop would then pushed by four men to rotate the locomotive.

From the Jatinegara Station, the tour continued to the abandoned neo-Gothic East Jakarta Military Command and on to the traditional Jatinegara Wholesale Market and the Koinonia Church on Jl. Matraman Raya.

“We hope this tour can bring more people to be concerned about the city’s history,” Asep said.

Prodita Sabarini