Quake takes toll on historical sites

The Jakarta Post, Sunday 28 May 2006

Archaeologists surveying the Prambanan Temple complex in Yogyakarta hours after Saturday’s devastating earthquake found extensive damage to the ancient site.

Stone blocks and statues lay scattered about the ground; decades of patient restoration work undone in less than a minute.

“Our initial survey of the site found wreckage at the Siwa, Wisnu and Brahma temples, as well as at several minor temples,” Yogyakarta Archaeological Conservation Agency head Agus Waluyo told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

He said a thorough study was necessary to determine if the temples’ foundations were damaged in the quake.

“We need to make sure the earth under the temples will not cause the structures to subside,” Agus said.

Prambanan Temple was constructed by the rulers of the Sanjaya Dynasty, in a display of their power and influence in the ninth century.

But power struggles, volcanic explosions and earthquakes took their toll on the complex, so when the Dutch “discovered” the site in 1733 it was in urgent need of restoration. Work on the temples began in 1903 and continued until 1991.

“This time around, I don’t think the restoration will be finished in six months,” Agus said.

The land around Yogyakarta is also home to Borobudur, Kalasan, Sari and other holy temples, constructed by the rulers of the ancient Javanese kingdoms.

Yogyakarta and its people are the keepers of ancient traditions, and the city is home to a royal family that can trace its line back to the Mataram era in the 16th century.

The city survived with most of its culture and traditions intact through Dutch colonial rule, and served as the capital of a newly independent Indonesia between 1945 and 1950.

Saturday’s earthquake has left this usually laid-back city in shambles, with many of its residents left without homes or afraid to return to their houses.

There is no friendly banter between shoppers and vendors along Jl. Malioboro, a favorite shopping destination for both locals and tourists alike. Only the rubble of collapsed buildings and smashed glass from shops.

Near Malioboro, the ground is littered with slate from the roof of the former Dutch fort Vredeburg, though its thick walls stand undamaged.

Yogyakarta Palace was not totally spared. While the residence of the current sultan, Hamengku Buwono X, who is also the governor, escaped with only minor cracks to its walls, part of the Hamengku Buwono IX Museum collapsed during the quake.

The collapsed building housed an ancient set of gamelan instruments used for weddings. In the same compound, a building housing carriages used by former rulers suffered cracks to its walls.

Agus said a more extensive survey of the damage to the city’s ancient heritage would be conducted Monday.

“We are still in shock after the earthquake,” he said.

Yogyakartans face post-quake fears

The Jakarta Post, Sunday 28 May 2006

Night fell on a grieving population. Homes lost, loved ones dead, somber crowds of people were unable to imagine what tomorrow might bring.

Makeshift tents were built in front of ruins, and even in front of the homes that survived. Their occupants were wary of spending the night under roofs.

“We’re afraid to go inside,” Sardjono, a resident of Srigading, Sanden district, Bantul told The Jakarta Post Saturday.

Saturday’s earthquake had razed more than 80 percent of the buildings in Yogyakarta and Bantul, leaving thousands homeless.

Others found solace in practicalities, organizing security for houses left empty by their owners.

“This night, we have to carefully question strangers who enter the village. For all we know they could be burglars trying to profit from the empty houses,” another Srigading resident, Suwondo, told a group of youths, adding that an electrical blackout made the situation even more precarious.

Fearing aftershocks, hotels in downtown Yogyakarta were turning people away, while guests checking out formed long lines in their lobbies.

“If there’s an aftershock it’s important to be out in the open air, not inside a high-rise hotel,” said Hendi, who had been staying at Melia Purosani Hotel in Yogyakarta.

Yogyakarta’s great mosque and public square were filled with refugees, most having only the clothes on their backs. Many who came believed they would be safer near their sultan, Hamengkubuwono X.

“We feel at peace just from being near our Ngarso Dalem (royal highness),” said Sambudi, a resident of Palbapang, Bantul.

Faced with the continuous flow of incoming victims, and fearing aftershocks, hospitals set up emergency wards in the open. The street in front of the Muhammadiyah Hospital in Bantul was even closed off to allow victims to be treated there.

Suradji Hospital in Klaten, Central Java, opened makeshift hospitals in several districts in the area. The Indonesian Red Cross also set up emergency wards in the Dwi Windu field at its Bantul chapter, where about 1,500 people took refuge.

Thousands of others had to make do at mental hospitals and community health centers.

A shortage of ambulances in Klaten forced the injured to fend for themselves until 1 p.m., when vehicles finally arrived to take patients to hospitals in Surakarta, Karanganyar, Boyolali and other neighboring regencies in Central Java.

Both Yogyakarta Governor Hamengkubuwono X and Bantul Regent Idham Samawi said more medicine was needed.

“We even broke into our own pharmaceutical warehouses because we couldn’t get the keys quickly enough, but now the drugs have all been used up,” Idham said.

Earlier in the day, rumors of a tsunami caused traffic jams as people tried to flee to higher ground. Further chaos was created by vehicles lining up for gas before heading out of town.

Pickup trucks were filled with panicked people fleeing their homes, many without a clear idea of where to go.

“All we know is that we have to get as far away from Yogya as possible,” said Widodo, a refugee, from atop a truck leaving the area.

With additional reporting from Slamet Susanto in Bantul, Suherdjoko in Yogyakarta, Blontank Poer in Klaten.

Campaign spreads joy of reading

The Jakarta Post, Friday, May 26, 2006

The growing number of libraries and children’s education centers established by private individuals in recent years suggests more people are becoming aware of the importance of instilling the reading habit in children while they are still young.

This is good news, at least for the 18.4 million Indonesians identified as illiterate in UNESCO’s Education for All 2005 Global Monitoring Report.

Most of these people end up illiterate through a lack of access to reading materials — because books are expensive, or in the case of the blind, because Braille books are hard to come by.

This is where organizations such as Komunitas 1001buku (1001 Books Community), which distributes reading materials to private libraries across Indonesia, become important.

In its effort to obtain a large number of books for libraries, 1001buku has launched the Red Card for Illiteracy campaign.

“Literacy is the key to civilization, and it’s a basic human right. We believe that with equal access to reading materials and with society’s active participation, we will be able to reduce the number of illiterate people,” Komunitas 1001buku chairman M. Ariyo Faridh Zidni said in a statement Wednesday.

This active participation is encouraged in the form of book donations at the community’s book drop boxes at various locations across Greater Jakarta. A new one was launched Wednesday in the lobby of the Gran Melia Hotel in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

It’s a big box for books. There aren’t many books inside it right now, but more are expected from hotel guests, employees and people who stop by especially to donate.

“This is our effort to help eradicate illiteracy in Indonesia. The future depends on children and their education, and being able to read is a big part of that,” Gran Melia public relations manager Hana Hoed said.

She said the hotel’s close proximity to foreign embassies, elite housing complexes and offices made it ideal for people to drop by and contribute books.

“We mostly encourage our employees and people living around us to contribute to the drop box. It doesn’t matter what kind of books, 1001buku can identify and select target audiences for the books later on. But we do put a priority on children’s books,” Hana told The Jakarta Post.

Other Red Card for Illiteracy drop boxes are at the University of Indonesia’s School of Humanities in Depok, the Pembangunan Jaya kindergarten in Bintaro, Tangerang, and the Chelsea Soccer Shop at the Senayan Trade Center in Central Jakarta. In addition, there will be a drop box at the upcoming Jakarta Book Fair in June.

The books will be collected regularly by 1001buku volunteers and distributed across the country with the help of logistics companies under the Indonesian Logistics Association.

The nonprofit organization has organized drop boxes in 62 locations throughout Indonesia, and has distributed more than 100,000 books to 95 private libraries across the country.

Old Depok, the legacy of 12 families

The Jakarta Post, Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Bacas, Isakh, Jacob, Jonathans, Joseph, Laurens, Leander, Loen, Samuel, Sudira, Tholense and Zadokh. A litany of names, eerily reminiscent of a bygone era.

These 12 family names, which belonged to the first 150 slaves transported to Depok by landlord and evangelist Cornelis Chastelein at the end of the 17th century, were passed down from father to son to their descendants today.

The area where they live, aptly named Old Depok, is peppered with the legacy of the people locals now refer to as the Depok Dutch.

“But we were never Dutch. We were brought here from Bali, Ambon, Timor, and were liberated and given this land when Chastelein died in 1714,” Suzana Leander, education department head of the Cornelis Chastelein Foundation, said during a tour of Old Depok on Sunday, which was organized by study group Mitocondrya.

After Chastelein’s death, the liberated slaves found themselves with some 1,244 hectares of land, and each family was allotted their own plot.

“Old Depok belonged to the 12 families, and outsiders who traded with them lived in kampongs outside the perimeter of the area,” Suzana said.

She said that the nearby Pondok Cina (Chinese cottage) and Lenteng Agung (from kelenteng agung or holy temple, where the Chinese prayed) were all that remained of the traders’ kampongs.

The region was in fact one of the most advanced areas in the country at the time, with regular train services to Batavia, running electricity and good Malay language schools.

Depok Lama Station is a legacy of those times, and the building that today houses Harapan Hospital on Jl. Pemuda was once the office of the region’s civil government.

After the Dutch East India Company was disbanded in 1799, the Dutch government did not take over land held privately, enabling Old Depok to establish its own civil government until land reforms in 1952 absorbed the region into the Republic of Indonesia.

“The civil government was established in 1872, with a president appointed through general elections held every three years,” Suzana said, before introducing the tour group to Cornelis Joseph Jonathans, the son of Depok’s last president.

“We had our own laws in those days, and the Dutch only took care of security matters,” the 84-year-old man said.

Cornelis’ ancestral home is directly opposite the office where his father, J. M. Jonathans, once took office as president.

The house was built in the manner of traditional Dutch homes in the tropics, with high ceilings and long shuttered windows to catch the breeze.

Here, Cornelis spends his days with his wife, Magdalena Leander, and his two children and their families.

Also on Jl. Pemuda is Immanuel Church. The church was established in 1700 but was not made permanent until 1792.

In 1834 it was destroyed by an earthquake. It was rebuilt in 1854 and last renovated in 1998.

A plaque commemorating the death of the region’s founder, Chastelein, can be seen upon entering the church.

John Leirissa from the church said that all preaching since the time of the first priest, Baprima Lucas, in 1713 was conducted in Malay then Bahasa Indonesia.

“Dutch was never spoken here, because there were no Dutch, even the Dutch ministers preached in Malay,” John said.

The 12 original families were devout followers of John Calvin, as were the Dutch at that time, and their descendants created a strong Christian community in Old Depok.

An old Dutch cemetery still exists in the area, where descendants of the 12 families are buried. The van der Capellen family mausoleum is considered the oldest in the cemetery, dating back to 1881 when a Marie Adolphine van der Capellen died.

It is not clear, however, whether there is any relation to Baron van der Capellen who ruled as governor general between 1817 to 1826.

“She was probably a relation of his somehow,” Suzana said, leading the way out of the rundown cemetery.

Tune up your bagpipe for highland gathering

The Jakarta Post, Saturday, May 20, 2006

Men in kilts and the sound of bagpipes can mean only one thing; it’s time once again for the Jakarta Highland Gathering, with its displays of sporting prowess, culture and general fun for all.

Touted as the largest event of its kind in the southern hemisphere, the 29th edition of the gathering Sunday will feature some 500 competitors in a variety of traditional and modern events. Held at Lippo Karawaci’s Imperial Golf Club in Tangerang, the gathering is expected to attract more than 6,000 visitors.

“The event is unique in that it brings together a diverse array of nationalities and cultural displays with broad appeal to all ages,” the chairman of this year’s Jakarta Highland Gathering, Robert Park, said Friday.

He said that while it was modeled on similar events held in towns and villages throughout the Scottish Highlands, the Jakarta gathering was in essence an exercise in bringing together different communities.

“On a larger scale it is an expression of national heritage and culture,” Park said.

The series of events marking this year’s gathering began Wednesday with a charity golf tournament that raised funds for amputees. On Friday, special guests were invited to attend the Scotland in Concert event at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in South Jakarta.

Guests were treated to a mixture of cultural performances, featuring among other the Hong Kong Cameron Pipe Band, the Malaysian Sikh Pipe Band, the Sekolah Pelita Harapan Angklung Band, the Kohinoor Bangra Indian Drummers and the Thai Dance Group.

“Some of these bands will go to compete in the gathering’s Pipes and Drums event on Sunday,” Park explained, adding that proceeds from the dinner and Sunday’s event will go to charities in Indonesia.

Sunday’s gathering will kick off with a 10-kilometer cross-country run at 7 a.m. which is open to all comers.

Activities like soccer, touch rugby, volleyball, children’s races, sumo wrestling and panjat pinang (areca tree climbing) will fill the rest of the day.

The highlight of the gathering will be the traditional Scottish competitions, called the “Heavies”, including caber tossing, the hammer throw and the shot put.

Two athletes from Scotland, two from the United States and two from New Zealand will compete in the Heavies.

Closing out the day will be the Chieftains Torchlight March, in which the presidents of the different Scottish communities in Southeast Asia are invited to participate, an Up Hellya Viking boat burning and a fireworks display.

Entrance to the 2006 Jakarta Highland Gathering costs Rp 30,000 (about US$3.30) for adults and Rp 10,000 for children.