Gedung Sate still stands strong after 85 years Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
At nine o'clock one Friday morning, the voice of the sinden (singer of traditional songs), sang out Sundanese folk songs, accompanied by the sound of the traditional Sundanese bamboo flute and kecapi, a stringed musical instrument, began to reverberate from the tower of Gedung Sate. Gedung Sate, literally the "skewered-meat building", is called so because at the top of it there is a structure shaped like a skewer with six rose-apple-like pieces of meat. The melodious voice of the sinden traveled far and wide along with the breeze, causing the leaves in the big trees growing around the building to flutter and warmly caressing the hearts of pedestrians and locals near the building. Praising the beautiful Parahyangan land, another name for West Java, these songs sent several security guards into a deep nap at their guard posts on the left wing of the building. This singing program lasts for two hours every Friday morning, starting at 9 a.m., just before hundreds of Muslim civil servants -- of high and low rank -- working in the building, which is now the West Java provincial administration office, go to the west hall of the building, located on the first floor, for communal Friday prayers. That day was the third Friday for the group of sinden to perform their singing in the tower of the building. Previously, their singing performances were conducted in the main hall of the building, right in front of the entrance. Later, West Java Governor Danny Setiawan decided to move the performers to the tower of the building as he wanted the songs to be enjoyed, not only by some 900 civil servants working in the building, but also by the wider public. The group of sinden and traditional Sundanese flute and kecapi players may consider themselves luckier than most people because they can easily enjoy the beautiful panorama of Bandung city from the tower of the building and allow their eyes to feast on the beautiful scenery of Mount Tangkuban Parahu in Lembang. The building is a legacy of the Dutch colonial administration. Unfortunately, the governor has yet to allow the public to ascend to the tower and savor the beautiful panorama unfolding before them. "We're not yet proposing to open the tower to the public because we're afraid that their presence there will be a distraction to hundreds of provincial administration employees working in the building," said Daud Ahmad, an official at the provincial administration. Daud said that the public had not been free to visit the building, which will be 85-years-old on July 27. The West Java provincial administration occupied the building in 1980. The main reason for not allowing the public to ascend to the tower is the security and comfort of provincial administration personnel. To improve the security aspects of the building, after the commemoration earlier this year of the golden jubilee of the First Asia-Africa Conference, the building was provided with a metal detector at its main entrance. The building, designed by Dutch architect J. Berger, has also been equipped with a closed-circuit television (CCTV) system so that the condition around it can be monitored. "If there is a protest rally, we can easily be alerted. The moment the protesters appear on the monitor TV screen, we will close the front gates. Allowing them in will only lead to commotion and damage the garden," said Daud, explaining why CCTV had been procured. However, he added, that the tower of was open to a limited group of people only, for example, researchers or international visitors wishing for some nostalgia about the place. Of course, they must first apply for a special permit from the internal affairs department of the building. 'Beautiful building' The building, which D. Ruhl referred to as Indonesia's most beautiful building in his 1952 book, Bandoeng haar Hoogvlakte, is now aptly used as the West Java provincial administration office. Indeed, built on a plot of land measuring over 27,000 square meters, the building was erected to house the central administration of the Dutch colonial government. During the Dutch period, it was known as Gouvernments Bedrijven. The Dutch chose Bandung as the seat of its administration in the East Indies when they planned to move the capital from Batavia, now Jakarta, because of the city's cool weather and beautiful panoramas. A team of building designers, led by retired Col. V.L. Slors and including J. Berger, a noted young architect from Delft Engineering School in the Netherlands, was assigned for the construction, which would also house 14 ministries and government offices of the Dutch colonial administration. The ground-breaking was carried out on July 27, 1920, by Johana Catherine Coops, the eldest daughter of B. Coops, then the mayor of Bandung. Rectangularly shaped, the building stretches from north to the south, perpendicular to Mount Tangkuban Parahu. It required some 2,000 construction workers from the villages all around Bandung. Among them, there were some 150 specialists in engraving Chinese gravestones from Guangzhou, China. According to two noted Dutch architects, Cor Pashier and Jan Wittenberg, the architectural design of the building, which was the result of an experiment made by J. Berger and his colleagues, adopted the Indo-European architectural style, a combination of oriental and occidental elements supported by an advanced construction technique from Europe. Another Dutch master in architecture, Dr. H.P. Berlage, who visited Bandung in April 1923, said that the building was a great architectural work, particularly its west wing, which reminded him of the Italian architectural style during the Renaissance period. The windows have a Spanish/Moorish style, while the stratified tower at the center of the building is reminiscent of the roof of a Balinese temple or Thai pagoda. The building features local characteristics in its shingled roof and the skewered-meat-shaped structure. The structure is shaped like a skewer with six rose-apple-like pieces of meat as a reminder that the construction of the building cost 6 million guilders, remitted six times. The tower is another unique part of the building. To get there one must climb ten flights of stairs, each of which has 10 steps. In 1998, however, the West Java provincial administration provided Gedung Sate with an elevator that can take people speedily to its tower. The stairs leading to the tower are found on the fourth floor, but are rather hidden, like a crevice, measuring less than one meter wide. Up in the tower, is a museum containing a diorama depicting the development of West Java. Also there is a wide screen for viewing a film on the progress made by the province. On the upper floor are chairs arranged as if they were in a caf‚. Six telescopes are mounted on the terrace of the tower, which can be reached by climbing the staircase outside. Aside from the telescopes, there is also a giant siren speaker. In the past, the siren was sounded to alert the residents of Bandung of any imminent danger. Today, it is sounded every Aug. 17 commemorate Indonesia's Declaration of Independence. Budget markup The construction of Gedung Sate, which was a giant labor-intensive project in those days, relied on conventional building methods and used local materials. As the walls were made of thousands of blocks, measuring 1 x 1 x 2 meters each and transported from Arcamanik and Mount Manglayang -- the rock quarry areas east of Bandung. The walls are still very strong, even today. The massive blocks, reportedly, were carried by cable cars down from the hilly areas to the north of Bandung to be later transported by truck to the building site. Indeed, the construction process was quite difficult and took four years to complete. Unfortunately, the economic malaise at the time disrupted the plans to move the seat of the Dutch colonial administration from Batavia to Bandung. Upon the completion of its construction, the building was used by the public works department. During the struggle for Independence from 1945 to 1949, the building was also a battle arena. Seven young Indonesian republicans lost their lives in an attempt to defend the building from an attack by the Gurkha regiment in the British Army on Dec. 3, 1945. A monument in memory of these seven fallen heroes was not put up until Dec. 3, 1970, at the instruction of the public works minister. Aside from being used as the office of the West Java provincial administration, it also has a vast park and is well-maintained. The park is often visited by families on weekends. Many newlyweds and tourists take their photographs with the building as the backdrop. As an historical building, Gedung Sate may fare better than other historical buildings in Bandung, especially those owned privately, many of which have been demolished because the owners could not afford the maintenance costs. The West Java provincial administration forks out Rp 2 billion a year from the regional budget for the maintenance of Gedung Sate. This allocation, Daud said, is only enough for the maintenance of the building like repainting, cleaning services and partitioning for new rooms. "Nothing has been changed about the building. We have only done partitioning to add more rooms or alter old ones," Daud said. Unfortunately, the budget allocated for the maintenance was embezzled in 2004. Late that year, the West Java provincial legislative assembly, whose office is located on the left wing, protested about the markup of the Rp 700 million budget approved to over Rp 2.2 billion, purportedly for the construction of four security guard posts and a fence around the building that was supposed to be too formidable for protesters to bring down. http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailfeatures.asp?fileid=20050715.Q01&irec=0 Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! 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