Wisindo, Indonesia Tourism

The Beach of Skouw Sae

Welcome to the website Wisindo. We always provide travel information in Indonesia until the city slightest. For us all the places in Indonesia are beautiful and can be sold as a tourism destination. Are all areas of Indonesia is tourism paradise? It depends on how we see it. This website invites you to explore all areas of Indonesia. We looked at the vast archipelago as a garden where we can be plant our "tourism tree" that will be fruitful to provide prosperity for its people. Therefore we are open if there is a local government who wants to promote tourism in his region on this website.

In addition, our website also do tourism education for anyone who wants to know what it is tourism. Therefore there are articles that is easily understood by everyone. We are always trying to simplify everything complicated and difficult to understand. Tourism theories understood by academics are transformed into a simple article and easy to read.

Remember, this site reveal more broadly about tourism planning. For us the problem is not only how to promote tourism, but also how they are prepared for marketing. A tourism planning is a multidisciplinary. For that we are in cooperation with leading universities to explain this.

We also present light post, easy to read and give tourism education. Our goal is every Indonesian has awareness to promote tourism. Thus it would be easy to plan and promote tourism. Tourism strength lies on the  public awareness to be a society  that "sell” tourism.

Welcome to Wisindo!

The Sun Over Batavia

The Chinese Hospital in Batavia

Klik Batavia is a complete website about Batavia. Therefore it is incomplete if no novel telling this old town, making it a stage of suspense a romantic.

This novel is based from a real life in Batavia, a historical research in the year 1737-1740 where the majority of its inhabitants was the Chinese and the ruler was the Dutch. Life among the Dutch in Batavia at that time was very religious and dominated by Calvinist. On the other hand out the life at Chinese quarter outside the city wall is dominated by Chinese temple activity.

This novel is telling a story of a Sinshe (Chinese Traditional Doctor) who worked in Chinese Hospital. However this hospital has been demolished, left no trace and forgotten. It is a story of the sinshe and a Dutch girl who half-bred Chinese. The background of their love is the tragedy of 1740 when the Chinese led by Khe Panjang attack the city and the Chinese were slaughtered.

Written by an historian Chen Ming Sien, this novel will tell in serial story. The novel has different form with one way communication of traditional novel. Oppose to that it is a two ways communication where the reader could give comment and having discussion to each other.

Welcome

Goodemorgen Batavian.

Welcome  to Old Jakarta! A place for discussing Batavia, the old town of Jakarta. As the admin I hope that you experience the past. Although many people talk about Batavia, there is no website that seriously focused discussing this old town.

The region of Batavia is only one square kilometer, very-very small compare to the area of Indonesia. However, as she is the old town of the capital city, she is the mirror of old town development in all Indonesia. A long history of the town beginning from VOC, when the town was built as an imitation of Amsterdam, until the era of Pak Ahok as the governor, she always shows her dynamics that never end. 

Old Jakarta is needed by all who loves the old town or those who do not care at all. For those who loves the old town the website is a home to express their concern, their collective memory on Batavia. For those who do not care about the old town, we have to make them interested in Batavia. Why? The old town Jakarta – Batavia is the identity of Jakarta in the Internet era. Do not look at beautiful Amsterdam from new papers or TV, we have encourage our devotion to old Jakarta – Batavia.

For the young, the student, the old town is the site to learn art, architecture, urban healt, even the urban economics. For researcher in the field mentioned above or other disciplines, the old town is an interesting object. For common people, the old town is memory of the past. The old town is a refreshing space form the sick modern city that is full of high rise building, traffic jam, and slum area, like any other city in developing country.

All about Batavia! Express what is in your mind about the old town Jakarta by writing in the blog, comment, as well as participating in a discussion forum. Even, reading the article in menu Klik Batavia is an important participation in being bound to the old town.

Let’s experience the mystery of Old Jakarta!

The Sun over Batavia

The Square In Front of City Hall

Klik Batavia is a complete website about Batavia. Therefore it is incomplete if no novel telling this old town, making it a stage of suspense a romantic.

This novel is based from a real life in Batavia, a historical research in the year 1737-1740 where the majority of its inhabitants was the Chinese and the ruler was the Dutch. Life among the Dutch in Batavia at that time was very religious and dominated by Calvinist. On the other hand out the life at Chinese quarter outside the city wall is dominated by Chinese temple activity.

This novel is telling a story of a Sinshe (Chinese Traditional Doctor) who worked in Chinese Hospital. However this hospital has been demolished, left no trace and forgotten. It is a story of the sinshe and a Dutch girl who half-bred Chinese. The background of their love is the tragedy of 1740 when the Chinese led by Khe Panjang attack the city and the Chinese were slaughtered.

Written by an historian Chen Ming Sien, this novel will tell in serial story. The novel has different form with one way communication of traditional novel. Oppose to that it is a two ways communication where the reader could give comment and having discussion to each other.

For reading the novel please visit www.klikbatavia.com.

Toko merah

Toko Merah

Toko Merah means “red-store”. The store was called Toko Merah because all frames were in red. Not only the frame was in red, the furniture inside was also in red. The red color is the characteristic of Chinese-ness similar to the Chinese temple. Because everything is red and its function as a store, then it was named Toko Merah. This house in the mid-19th century was owned by Oey Liaw Kong. He opened a shop in the next Kali Besar (Ciliwung River) which at that time was still crowded as the lifeblood of commerce. The New red brick was added in 1923 when Bank voor Indie owned the building. If we look at this building now, there are words Toko Merah, it is newly added.  Similarly, the frames, now they are not red but brown with golden color at the edge.
 

The building was built in 1730 by Gustaff Willem Baron van Imhoff before becoming governor general of VOC. Then it belonged to the daughter of the General Governor Mossel, Philippine Theodora. Due to the very old age, this building is haunted. Moreover, there is a story that this house was once the hideout of the Chinese to avoid a massacre in 1740. Regarding the latter story is dubious, but that's haunted stories about Toko Merah
 

This building is influenced by Dutch architecture in the early 18th century with large windows and glass in small boxes. The windows are a sliding up window like Old Dutch houses. The doors at front and center are also high.
If we get into Toko Merah, we will encounter empty buildings as antique furniture has been moved to various museums in Jakarta. Meanwhile the stairs from the second floor to the top was closed by the owner as the upstairs was a torture place. On the second floor of the rear of Toko Merah the doors are wide but low.
 

The back of Toko Merah is a wide open yard. Probably it used to be the place of maid because this house was a luxurious house inside the wall of Batavia. This yard is very private place. Unfortunately the buildings around are new and no relic.
 

In addition to the interior which is very spacious and has no furniture, on the north side of the first floor there are several counters for financial transactions. At the back of the second floor was the safe deposit box. This building was restored in 1923 when occupied by Bank Voor Indie.
 

This former house of the Van Imhoff was built in 1730, meaning a century after the western part of Batavia was constructed. The question is how the house form before 1730? Not known. Anyhow if we get into this house, we feel strange because it is actually two houses combined. Could it be before 1730 were two shop-houses like other houses in Batavia which later merged and renovated by Van Imhoff?
 

In addition to European influence there is also Chinese influence, may be the building contractor in old Batavia was Chinese. The influence was visible from the roof ridge that is parallel to the street different with houses in Amsterdam that are perpendicular. According to fengshui, Chinese geomancy, a roof ridge that is perpendicular to the street brings bad luck. So the Chinese always build a house with the roof ridge parallel to the street.
 

Toko Merah is an interesting object for architectural students to be written as a thesis or dissertation. Besides the space and form, the history of this building is the beginning of the architectural history study in Indonesia; it is a pity if not well studied.

Modern Reseach on Chinese Temple in Jakarta

Jin De Yuan Temple

The first research on the chinese temple in modern era was done by Denis Lombart and Claudine Salmon (Lombart and Salmon, 1985). They study around 70 temples in Jakarta from the side of Chinese social life. However, among 70 temples only less than 10 could be included old temples with unique architecture. Most of them are new temples built less than a century. They published their research in French with a summary in English. The summary was translated into Indonesian by Yayasan Cipta Loka caraka.   Although the research is in Jakarta, it represents almost all temple in Java. Since the work was concentrated in the social science, it lack of architectural analysis that was not the purpose of the book. Lombart and Salmon systematically divided the temple of Jakarta into historical periodization from17th century to after 1945. They describe a glance of the architecture. Most of the discussion is focusing on the iconographic that is part of the architecture. From the historical analysis, the study faced difficulty to define the temple built in the 17th century or previously. Many Chinese temple of Jakarta built in that era had gone because of the political turbulence that burn the whole building and left no trace. Hence to define the temple in 17th century we have to see the area along the northern coast Java where Chinese has settled before 17th century. This research cannot depend on the manuscript that normally not as old as 17th century, but it should be studied through comparative architecture. The oldest temple of Jakarta is located at the end of Gang Petak Sembilan in Glodok area. The temple was built in 1650 outside of the city wall and gradually became very important temple (Lombart and Salmon , 1985: 16). 

Besides explaining the general spatial hierarchy of the temple in Jakarta as the front yard, main room where the main god or goddess located, side rooms and other additional rooms, Lombart and Salmon mentioned architectural form of temple. However, they explained the form without meaning behind it that is important in architecture. Although it is clear that the Chinese Jakarta are several dialect groups, their temple can not be classified into their dialect group. Only the family temple would probably have specific gods such as the Chen temple where god Chen Yuan Guang is venerated. Temple of the Lin family is Tian Hou who is the family patron. Both are included the oldest family temples in Java (Lombart and Salmon, 1985: 22). From the historical periodization the writers explained that each period temples were built under influence of political situation. In the beginning of 20th century when the Qing dynasty was declined followed by Chinese nationalist under Sun Yat Sen, the Chinese of Jakarta, and also in other part of Java prefered to build school rather than temple. There are more-and more people having western education and avoid any superstitious veneration. Instead of the superstitious veneration the Chinese tended to embrace Buddhism rather than Taoism (Lombard and Salmon, 1985: 30). In the independent Indonesia, the Chinese face very difficult political problem. However there were 20 temples were built since 1950 (Lombard and Salmon, 1985: 37). From their analysis, the writers classified kelenteng into public temples, temples for group of people, private temple, ancestral temple, and temple of the market and trading. The last description is interesting to be compare to other temples in Java that are located at the market or the end of market such as Kelenteng Kanoman of Cirebon, Kelenteng Kranggan of Yogyakarta, and many other temples.

Lombart and Salmon interestingly explain the influence of god and goddess from Fujian and Guang Dong to gods and goddess venerated in Jakarta. At the iconographic section they explained the history of gods and goddesses in the temples of Jakarta related to their origin in China. There are also local gods such as Sampo, Kwe Lak Kwa and Mbah Jugo. The writers referred that there are different gods and goddesses between the Hakka and the Hokkien. Will there be difference form in their temple?

Salmon’s writing in 2001 is on the relation between Indonesian Chinese temple and social history (Salmon 2001). Her analysis by comparing between temples in Java and Bali is really an important work in constructing the history of the Chinese. She use the temple to uncover the history. The historical material such as epigraphic in the temple is the research object to assemble the history. She placed the architecture of the temple as object of the history. Salmon’s work is trying to uncover local history of the Chinese in Indonesia, she relates people, as historical subject, with the place where they live. It is an important writing on the social history of the Chinese but not the Chinese temples themselves as source of incription she used.  

Writing on the Chinese temple

Interior Kelenteng Jin De Yuan

Chinese temple in Indonesia is called Kelenteng. It is a word that came from Guan Yin Ting or temple of Guan Yin (Lombart and Salmon, 1985: 10). According to Ezerman the word kelenteng comes from the sound of a bell that came out from the temple when there is a ceremony (Ezerman 1922). Kelenteng is the centre of religious and cultural activity of Chinese community. There are 70 of temple in Jakarta scattered in the cities manifest Chinese role in the setlement that makes common value of the inhabitants.

Writings on the Chinese temple in Java are scatered in several paper that are focusing on the ritual, epigraphic, iconography and history of the Chinese community as a whole. The oldest writing on temple was done by a western scholar I.W.Young with title Sam Po Tong La Grotte de Sam Po. The article published in Tung Pao in 1890. Young  describe the history of Chengho that becomes the spirit of the temple Gedong Batu in Semarang. At present all of these buildings are gone, a completely new building was erected. Young did not tell the architecture of the temple, however, he desribed the manuscript in the temple. According to Liem Thian Joe the temple was widened in 1724 by building a pavilion (Liem 1933: 20). The temple that was originally a cave then was covered with building. The architecture of this building is different to other Chinese temple, it is a pyramidal roof. Young did not mention this temple enlargement.

It is Ezerman, who was writing the architecture of Tay Kak Sie Temple in Ceribon, described the architecture of the temple in detail and interestingly he compared with the temple architecture in China. He also described the painting at the temple wall and the inscription. For him Tay Kak Sie temple of Ceribon as very beautiful, however, he admired that the temples in China are more beautiful. he did not wrote the meaning behind the spatial dan formal configuration of the temple (Ezerman, 1922).

A book compiled the Chinese temple of Java and several part outside of Java was written by an astrologer Empeh Wong Kam Fu. As Chinese culture was prohibited at the time of new order, the publisher should ask permit from the inteligent of police department. The book is as thick as 365 pages, but 139 pages is about confucius and Buddhism that has been adapted to the condition of one god almighty as it is according to the nation’ foundation Pancasila. Wong collected 63 kelenteng and 32 lithang. Lithang is a place where confusian have a hall and it is normally located in new building built less than 50 years. However, there are also Lithang at old kelenteng. Besides Wong expained the gods and goddess of the kelentengs, he also wrote spatial function of the temple. As he wrote a great number of temple, he did not explain the kelenteng in detail.

There is also a book published in 1986 as part of the 240 year anniversary of tay kak Sie Temple in Semarang, in which there are story on the gods and goddesses normally venerated in Java. The book is focusing on the case of Tay Kak Sie temple in Semarang, and quoted the history of the Chinese settlement in Semarang from Liem Thian Joe’ Riwayat Semarang.