Bandung is
heaven. Of all the
cities I've
lived in, Bandung stands pretty high on the list.
It could be because I was in a generally good
period in my
life (give me those
pre-teen years any day!), but I don't think so.
Bandung is a city in
Indonesia, on the
island of
Java. It's the
provincial capital of
West Java and Indonesia's third-largest city.
The first
references to Bandung seem to have
appeared around
1488 AD. At that time it was part of the
Hindu Pajajaran Kingdom. From
archeological finds it is clear that the
area has been
inhabited for a long time and has even been home to
Homo erectus1, the
Java Man.
This
prehistoric man lived on the
banks of the
river Cikapundung and on the
shores of the now dry
Great Lake of Bandung. This
lake dried up some thousands of years ago to become the present Bandung
valley.
Flint artifacts can still be found in the Upper
Dago area and the
Geological Museum has
displays with various artifacts and
fragments of
skeletal remains.
There is a city called Bandung, comprising 25 to 30 houses - Juliaen de Silva, 1614.
In 1809 the
ruler of
the Netherlands,
Louis Napoleon, ordered
Governor General H.W. Daendels to
invest in the
defense of Java against the
English. Daendels did this by creating a chain of
military defense units linked by a
supply road between
Batavia (now
Jakarta) and
Cirebon. The
coastal area to the
east of Batavia was mainly
marsh and
swamp, so it was decided to build the
road to the
south, across the
Priangan highlands. This put the road just 11
miles to the
north of the then small
collection of houses known as Bandung. Some
sources say Daendels ordered the city to be
relocated to the road, others say he built a
garrison town that quickly
attracted some 90,000
Sundanese,
Chinese and
Europeans, in the process enveloping the
original town.
Bupati Wiranatakusumah II chose a site south of the road on the western bank of the Cikapundung, near a pair of holy wells, Sumur Bandung, supposedly protected by the ancient goddess Nyi Kentring Manik. On this site he built his dalem (palace) and the alun2 (city square). Following traditional orientations, Mesjid Agung (The Grand Mosque) was placed on the western side, and the public market on the east. His residence and Pendopo (meeting place) was on the south facing the mystical mountain of Tangkuban Perahu. Thus was The Flower City born.
The 19th century
With the
introduction of certain
plantation crops from
South America,
chincona (
quinine),
Assam tea and
coffee among others, the area around Bandung, known as the Priangan highlands, became a
prosperous plantation area. By the end of the
nineteenth century it was even registered as the most prosperous plantation area of the province.
In 1880 the
railroad connecting Batavia and Bandung was completed, shortening the
trip from the capital to Bandung to 2½ hours. This railroad had some impact on life in Bandung, initiating a growth period wherein
hotels,
cafes and
shops were built to accommodate the
planters that came down from their highland plantations or up from the capital to spend some
leisure time in the healing climate of Bandung.
The Concordia Society was formed and with its large ballroom was the social magnet for weekend activities in the city. The Preanger Hotel and the Savoy Homann were the hotels of choice. The Braga became the promenade, lined with exclusive Europeans shops.
The railroad also brought
light industry to Bandung.
Raw plantation crops were not being sent directly to the capital for
shipment, but were now first processed in Bandung. The Chinese came to Bandung to work in the new industries, and
Chinatown dates from this period.
In the first years of the 20
th century
Pax Neerlandica was proclaimed, and the
Dutch military government was replaced by a
civilian one. With this came the
policy of
decentralization to lighten the administrative burden of the
central government. And so Bandung became a
municipality in 1906.
The changes resulting from this were
major and are a bit too much to include in this
writeup. Another period of
expansion resulted and a number of
memorable buildings were built in the following years, among others
City Hall at the north end of Braga. This
development was continued when the
military headquarters was moved from Batavia to Bandung around 1920. The
technical high school was also built in this period, prompted by an increase in the need for skilled
professionals.
These years shortly before the
second World War were the
Golden Years for
colonial Bandung and are
alluded to today as the Bandung
Tempo Doeloe2.
During the
war Bandung was left in relative
peace, but after the war, when the Indonesian people were
fighting for
independence, Bandung was severely burned during what has become known as the
Bandung Lautan Api, or the Bandung Ocean of Fire. The following years were colored by political unrest in the first period of Independence.
By 1961 the
population of Bandung had risen to one
million, from 230,000 in
1940. The economic
prosperity brought on by the
oil boom of the
1970's pushed the increase onwards and at the end of the century the population stood at more than two million.
Sources:
http://www.asiatravelling.net/indonesia/bandung/bandung_history.htm - general history of Bandung
A number of other sites about Bandung, found quite easily by doing a google
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/1381/hominids2.html - in relation to archeological finds of early hominids
1 One of the sites on Bandung mentions Australopithecus as the Java Man. After some searching on archeology sites I decided this has to be Home erectus. I'm not an archeologist, so corrections and suggestions are welcome.
Gritchka seems to agree with me, but offered the explanation that the term Australopithecus could possibly have been given to the remains when they were first discovered.
2 Proper modern spelling would be 'Tempo Dulu', but as this is more of a name than a term, I opted for the old (Dutch) spelling.
April 7, 2001