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Monday, January 26, 2004
sam po kong (part 5)Semarang is actually a commercial city, not a tourism destination. But the old city's name has been stamped internationally since the early 15th century when Admiral Cheng Ho (Zhenghe), a Muslim eunuch envoy from the Ming Dynasty, visited Semarang. He was sent on a mission to re-establish diplomatic and trade links with countries in Southeast Asia, India and eastern Africa. His huge fleet was comprised of 62 ships and almost 28,000 men.Soon after he stepped ashore in Semarang, he is said to have meditated in a cave nearby the beach. The Chinese in Java deified him as the god Sam Po Kong and later erected a memorial temple at the site of the cave. In present day Indonesia, the temple, known locally as Gedung Batu, has become unique since it is a sacred place where the local Confucian Chinese and Javanese Muslims come together to worship their beliefs in peace. Buddhist ceremonies often take place here too. 
The temple has become a kind of unifying symbol, mending the often strained relationships among different races and religions that were deliberately politicized by the old Suharto regime. Although the political situation has begun to change recently, the stigma left by the old regime cannot be removed in just a few years. On entering the Sam Po Kong Temple, we can see the stone carving depicting Admiral Cheng Ho aboard his ship along with some of the Ming Dynasty's soldiers. Two of the soldiers are represented in life-sized sculptures, standing with very determined facial expressions. There are several shrines clustered in the main temple containing an altar for Sam Po Kong. In each shrine is an altar dedicated to a certain deity; one altar is to worship the temple's guardian spirit (toapekong) and another is for Confucius. 
There is also the grave of Kyai Juru Mudi Dampoawang, Cheng Ho's Muslim helmsman. Both Chinese and Javanese believers often sleep by this grave to obtain his blessings. A guardian, whose job is assisting those who look for blessings, makes the grave his second home since he spends most of his days here. Believers who come usually give him some offerings for his service. (words: http://www.thingsasian.com) stelly @ 10:23 AM Wednesday, January 21, 2004 toko oen (part 4)the story of toko oen, the city's oldest restaurant, begins in 1922 in yogyakarta with a housewife who had time on her hands. liem gien nio was the wife of oen tjoen hok, a chinese-indonesian lieutenant, who wanted something to do after finishing her housework. she was an expert cook of dutch & chinese food, so she started making different types of cookies & selling them, with her customers including the chinese & dutch communities & the javanese nobility of yogyakarta. the cookies sold like, well, hot cakes. liem soon established a small cake shop, toko oen, at the strategic location of jl. tugu kidul in yogyakarta, with its name taken from her husband. the shop, with its delicious cakes & cookies, soon established a regular customer base. as more people came to try the cakes, the family opened another room where people could sit down & have a drink.after 3 years, they expanded the restaurant again & hired staff to help them, including cooks making more substantial meals than cakes. the family considered opening branches outside of yogyakarta, & on april 16, 1936, toko oen semarang on bodjong weg, now jalan pemuda, served up its first meals to customers. branches in jakarta & malang soon followed. bodjong, running from the tugu muda (youth monument) through to the harbor, was the main road in semarang, home to important offices such as the train bureau & post office. liem's granddaughter yenny megaputri, who is a graduate in architecture from delft university & manages toko oen, said the restaurant, with its tall windows & high curved roof, was built in the jugendstijl (young style) that was popular in europe from the end of the 19th century. what makes toko oen special is that it has not changed over the years. today it has a mall in front of it & modern shops as its neighbors, but toko oen has not changed. toko oen has always been famed for its rich menu -- beef steak, fried rice, satay, tutti frutti ice cream & many others. its interior is even more beautiful than its exterior. the windows have green curtains & there are checkered tiles on the floor. two big fans on the ceiling, like in the old days, fight the semarang heat. a grand piano has been a resident since 1936 & it still works well today. dutch cookies & cakes are displayed in tall glass jars, & its menus & crockery hark back to the 1930s. even the waiters, some of them are the sons of the men who first worked in toko oen, wear the peci (traditional black cap) & white uniforms of their forbears. "if a chair is broken, we change it for a similar one," said one of the staff members. yenny megaputri said any change would be to the detriment of the restaurant's atmosphere. "i love old buildings so i will not make any change to this restaurant," said yenny. the semarang restaurant is the only one in indonesia still run by the family, in 1958, toko oen jakarta & yogyakarta stopped running due to the absence of family members willing to take them over. toko oen malang is still running but under different management. but yenny has made some strategic business steps. she opened 2 branches in delft & the hague respectively in 1997 & 2000. because of its history & its quaint colonial characteristics, toko oen is a favorite place to visit for dutch tour groups. some of them spent their youth in semarang; as they sit on the chairs in toko oen, perhaps they are reliving in their mind the days of their youth when they danced, sang & dined at this famous restaurant. (source: http://www.semarang.nl) *below are the pictures - outside & inside the building. u can see the old photo of the first owner and her husband hanging on the wall. and of course the beautiful lady. who? ME of course!! hehehe*  stelly @ 11:12 PM Monday, January 19, 2004 jiwasraya logothis is for leonard *hi, leonard!* the red dot on the center of the building below is the insurance company's logo : jiwasraya. it's their new logo, announced officially this month. the three scratches symbolize a big tree as shelter & security provider. why 3? they said it means 3 steps that will always be developed : product, process & people.it looks like this:  stelly @ 10:47 AM Friday, January 16, 2004 jiwasraya (part 3) this building across the road from gereja blenduk soon drew my attention. it was designed in 1916 by a famous dutch architect, thomas karsten, for the nilmij - a dutch insurance company. thomas arrived in "nederlandsch-indische" at 1914, when semarang city government was enthusiast in building big buildings. not only in semarang, thomas' opinion was also asked by other center java governments. seems he was quite a famous architect at that time. nilmij building is among his first works. he's famous for his octagonal characteristic, with three floors & white floor. in those days only foreign built buildings had more than one floor. on this building, karsten blended several styles like art-deco, javanese & dutch. and as it has become an icon of "insurance", these days it also houses an insurance company, pt asuransi jiwasraya.
(special thanks to asti for the translation from dutch) stelly @ 1:17 PM gereja blenduk (part 2)gereja blenduk, a domed church located on jalan letjen suprapto, is the oldest christian church in central Java. it was built in 1753, 75 years after the voc extended its operation to semarang in January 1678. over the years, it was even a place to pray for the city's catholic community when they did not have their own church.'blenduk' is javanese word for an upside-down bowl of its dome. its roof is covered with a metal layer framed by teak rafters. this metal roofing was added to the structure in 1894, and there is a hole under the dome to allow the sun to filter in. it is good to see that the church is still in fairly good condition -- thanks to several renovations. the walls have been whitewashed, the copper dome caught the sunlight and looked almost new when i visited it.  
the church (also known as immanuel church) is fronted by four 'gothic style' pillars and a handsome classical portico. the two towers on both sides create an imposing impression, beginning from a square base that gradually rounds off at the top. a small dome-shaped roof is perched at the top of each tower.  
it is said that the interiors and the location of the antique organ have never been changed since it was built. too bad the old pipe organ has stood silent since it played its last tune in 1975. the church's administer said that the organ repair costs are quite expensive and it cannot be done here in indonesia. they will need about rp 200 million for this. the wrought iron winding staircase leading to the organ is strong and robust. it was made in Holland and it must be difficult to ship. i managed to take a pose there. ;)  
(compiled from various sources) stelly @ 11:23 AM Thursday, January 15, 2004 lawang sewu (part 1)hi! hv been a while not updating my blog, i'll start with pics & words from my trip to center java. i love travelling and more than that, i enjoy arranging my travel schedule, looking for places i should not miss while i'm at one place. so, based on what i'm learning through some readings, here are some places center java has to offer... starting with the old town of semarang, where we can still find many old dutch buildings in classical styles. this building, created by 2 dutch architects, has art deco style which developed in europe during 1850-1940s. it was designed by following the architecture of corner building - with its twins 'gothic style' tower on the left & right of the main gate. it was built in 1902 & officialy used on 1907. its distinctive characteristics are its many windows & doors - that's why semarang people gave the building its nickname : "lawang sewu" (thousand doors). actually it was designed with many doors & windows to avoid the hot climate of semarang.
in its days of glory, this building was used by the dutch railway company. later after indonesian independence it was used as indonesian railway office, later as military office, and then as city administration office. now it has been empty for quite some time and the walls are all covered with moss as u can see from my pics below.   
when there was 5 days fighting in semarang in 1945, a big fight happened here between indonesian young soldiers and japanese soldiers. many people died and to commemorate the heroes, people built "tugu muda" nearby. this building has become one of semarang's landmark. it is now being preserved as a cultural heritage by the semarang city administration. yet it is abandoned and left without rehabilitation. guess a lot of $ needed to take care a building as big as this one. or perhaps the rumour is true... that it is haunted with several spirits trapped inside....? stelly @ 10:23 AM |
