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Tugu means memorial and
memorial is an apt name for this old suburb up in North East Jakarta by
the port for this may well be the longest inhabited community in
Jakarta. Shards of pots and pans, the sort of thing that gets
archaeologists all excited while boring the pants off many museum
visitors, have been found in this area dating back several hundred years
(and can be seen
here
and
here). Tugu
Prastasi dates back to the 5th century and at that time would have been
located much closer to the shoreline. It is a boulder with an
inscription carved on it using a Sanskrit type language called Wenggi
and has since been relocated to the National Museum while it's original
location is now better known as Jalan Pengangaan Dua in modern day
Kelapa Gading and is indistinguishable from the other concrete dross
that makes up Jakarta today. It talks about the digging of an 11
kilometre long canal in 3 weeks during the Kingship of Purnawarman by
priestly Brahmans, payment being in the form of 1000 cows. Not quite
Shaz loves Gez or Arsenal rules in the graffiti stakes but I'm sure at
the time receiving all that beef must have meant something.
Things happened here for
another 1100 years but no one saw the need to keep any notes so while we
know that nearby Sunda Kelapa became an important trading entrepot
for the spice islands no one saw fit to mention this particular area.
But in 1661 there were all sorts milling round the eastern oceans,
changing the landscape, killing people, getting arrested and generally
being a nuisance. One such groups were slaves. Often the offspring of
intermarriage between Portuguese colonials and local people (when I say
local we're covering a region from Goa eastward here) who were
frequently frowned down upon by everyone really. The Dutch didn't like
them, arrested them after taking Melaka and used them as slaves. Some
found their way down to Java and a group of 21 families who had
originally hailed from Bengal and the Coromandel Coast in India were
given their freedom upon converting to Calvinism. Oh, and they were
given some land as well, said land being Tugu.
Freed Slaves
These freed slaves became
known as Mardijkers and from this Sanskrit word
(maharddhika)
via Dutch the Indonesians, and the Malaysians, now celebrate Merdeka
every August. A similar, more well known, community exists in Melaka. In
1678 a Dutch minister moved into Tugu. This gentleman rejoiced in the
name of Melchior Leijdekker, this was when the Dutch had real Dutch
names and not Dennis, Marco, Robin or Frank. Said minister was a multi
lingual chappy and soon translated the Bible into Malay for his flock.
His masterpiece wasn't published until 1733, 32 years after he'd died,
not because he couldn't find an agent but because another man of the
cloth had done a translation into the patois used in the Ambon islands
and felt his was the best version. In a 17th Century version of I'm a
Bible Translator, Get Me Out Of Here, our man in Tugu was pronounced the
victor by history while his foe from Ambon slides off the annals into
oblivion. A school was also set up in Tugu in 1678, it is claimed to be
the oldest in Java, and it is not a leap in the dark to surmise that
someone who could translate the Bible could also set up a school. The
present church in Tugu was built in the 1740's on land donated by a
major landowner called Julius Vinck. A broken bell dates from 1747 while
the bell tower it stands in is of a later vintage, 1880. It stands
outside of the church and it isn't difficult to imagine it being
joyously rung by an early Mardijker, dressed in black as was their
custom, calling the faithful to worship.
  It is only in the last
couple of generations that the unique culture and heritage of Tugu has
started to disappear. The traditional black floppy hats went first along
with their traditional black clothing while the creole language, a
mixture of Portuguese, Dutch and Betawai and local influences, can still
be heard, the last native speaker if you like passed away in 1978. It is
worth pointing out that Portuguese was the predominant language in
Batavia, indeed throughout Asia, for a couple of hundred years and
traces can be found today throughout the region. The last mass in
Portuguese was carried out in 1808 for example.
(coming soon is an article about the
influence of Portuguese words in South East Asia)
  Keroncong
Today Tugu is famous
for music. Keroncong dates back to the end of the 19th century when a
male singer would start singing with the express intention of 'winning a
lady's heart.' This was known as 'buaya keroncong'
(crocodile rock?!) and even 50 years ago daughters would be locked in
their rooms when these characters were in the neighbourhood to stop
careless young ladies from throwing themselves at these wandering
devils. The term comes from a group of Indonesian/Dutch musicians from
Kemayoran called De Krokodilian who sang songs of love and
passion that fair intoxicated young maidens it did. Kind of like
Westlife before MTV.
A song is arranged in
pantun verses, a pantun is a form of Javanese poetry with
each verse having two couplets, the first suggesting the second in
either a play on words or pronunciation, sung in Portuguese. The Tugu
keroncong differs from other varieties in that there is much more
life, for enthusiasm in the music and the vocals. The instruments used
are keroncong (small guitar), banjo, ukulele, violin, guitar,
tambourine, xylophone and cello meaning a whole lot of string in the
arrangement. Popular songs that have stood the test of time are
Kaparinyo and Moresco and a walk around Tugu would probably
find a small family ensemble willing to put on a show. For a price of
course. During
the Second World War and in the rush to independence the community got a
pretty torrid time of it, being seen as outsiders by the Japanese and
the 'more' Indonesian Indonesians. Some moved on to New Guinea, which
remained under Dutch tutelage in the immediate aftermath of Merdeka,
some went to Surinam while others moved to Pejambon near the Emmanuel
Church.
Sources:
Historical Sites of
Jakarta - A Heuken
Latitudes Magazine
July 2004
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