Have you
ever think a rainbow with just have one color? Dull, isn’t it? Rainbow should
be got full of different colors to make the gloomy sky reduce it upset looks of
the sky after the rain comes.
The place I
took my first breath, the place I take my daily breath, and the place I might
take my last breath. More than twenty years Jakarta become a familiar sights to
my eyes, and like a dating couple I got some “love & hate” feelings with
this biggest city in Indonesia; love it for the entertainment I receive every
day, hate it for many mischievous things that can be happen on this “City of
Light of Indonesia”.
And what
makes a rainbow related to Jakarta? Both of them have different colors that
make things more beautiful. On some occasion, I visited Jakarta Old City and
stop on three different neighborhood with completely different characteristic
with each other’s. The first stop on my trip to trace the city of my roots was
the Chinatown of Jakarta, known as Glodok or Petak Sembilan.
A settlement
of Chinese-Indonesian since the Dutch colonial period, it is interesting to me,
a Chinese-Indonesian who lives in the modern neighborhood, to see they still
holding and adapt the traditional lifestyle in the middle of modernize society.
Some of them still selling traditional Chinese herbs and medicines, and some of
them still providing the prayers item for those who wanted to devote themselves
to the divine one in the temple, such as splinters. And the distinctive thing
is the red ornament still very strong within the neighborhood.
One thing that
makes this Chinatown more different than other Chinatown is the church of St
Mary of Fatima. As we know that Catholic Church mainly have more westernize
style of building, but not these church; it’s purely Chinese architecture. A
house formerly owned by Chinese kapitan or leader of Chinese society than
bought by the Archdiocese of Jakarta to serves the local parishes and nowadays
become a legit statement of how strong the Chinese heritage on the area.
Stadhuis or
Kota Tua became my next stop on my exploration and this time the colonial
traces greed me on the progress. Now become a popular tourist spot of Fatahilah
Museum and Wayang Museum, this place are quite crowded with tourist, local and
foreign, and so as the street performers who makes this area more alive than
last 20 years ago. Fatahilah Museum keep the story of Jakarta started from the
Stone Age, Hindu-Buddhism Period, Islamic Kingdom Period, European colonial period,
until the Independence. The museum itself was a city hall, court and the
central governmental building during the Dutch Colonial Period and also a jail
for the rebels or heroes on our version of history who fought against the
Dutch.
The Wayang
Museum nearby once a Dutch Reformist Church and now become a place to preserve
traditional art of puppets of Indonesia and world. It’s a great privilege to
see Wayang Kulit or shadow puppet show played during my visit, even though I
didn’t understand what the dalang or puppet master saying, to seeing one of the
most cultural heritage of Indonesia that become one of the UNESCO World
Heritage, is a big pleasure to me.
Last but not
least, a spiritual road ended up my journey through the old city. Here’s a fun
fact, one is the mosque that doubt as the “National Mosque” and one is the
headquarters of grand Archdioceses of Jakarta which become the leader of all
Catholic Church in Indonesia. It’s a goose bump yet heart melting moment when I
see the Istiklal Mosque and Cathedral of Jakarta stand side by side and just
across of each other’s. There is so many stories that both of the biggest
religion home in Indonesia, provide the opposites each time a special occasions
of each different calendar. Until now, both religious building become the
symbol of unity of Indonesia themselves whom had people with different
background of ethnics, tribes, and religions.
Never makes
a rainbow into just one color, a rainbow is the sign of the new hope that will
get rid of the glooms. In the end, just remember these words: Bhineka Tunggal
Ika.
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