RUMAH ABU DI JAKARTA

 THE ASH HOUSE

 “Histories ,Praying , Nostalgia”

The words that I can say about The Ash House.The house that was  built since the end of 19^th century is used as the saving place of  The ashes of Chinese people who passed away  and already been cremation process. The Ashes which kept there  must be come from the same surname. The Ash House also built as the place for keeping relationships of Chinese people especially for the same surname.

“With striking color and Chinese traditional style are the symbols of The Ash House”Among of buildings and houses, The Ash House has unique symbols from the structure that used Chinese traditional styles with striking color around the house sides. The reasons of making the Ash house with those symbols are giving different impressions to  everyone who sees The Ash House, also guidance for family if they want visit Ash House as well for praying, meeting with another family with the same surname also nostalgia about their family histories.


The Ash House will be crowded of people when one of their family  is passing away. The family will do some special rituals after cremation process then put the ash into a special jar. The rituals are praying during first 7 days, 7 days at second time then continue with a year and 2 years of praying. The aim  of those rituals are sending best prayers for their family who passed away as for the best at the afterlife.




Don’t worry if you want to visit and feeling different of historical explorations, there are many Ash Houses in Jakarta. One of them are in Pinangsia Street No.3 The Ash House of Tan Family Name or The Ash House of Nio/ Liong , Nio Sie Tjiong Se  across of Beos Railway Stations. When you visit The Ash House, you will invited to see  around the House. Starting from the praying place, then going to see the Family Photos. After that you will be explained of the family ancestral which display on the walls. Yup, not all of The Ash Houses are opened to public because they don’t want everyone comes to their Ash House even though just sightseeing, only family with same surname is allowed to visit. 

Beside praying, the Chinese family with same surname periodically gathered together for keeping relationship among them. Sometimes they organize performing arts that supported by local associations. Finally The Ashes Houses give another  histories of Jakarta as well inform us about our nation cultures that must be keep all the time.





Created by: Handoko Dwi

Reference : Book of Wisata Kota Tua Jakarta

Photos : Google.com / budaya-tionghoa.net

KOTA INTAN DRAWBRIDGE

The famous bridge in Jakarta Old Town area. Formerly the bridge was connecting between the elite area and the market area which known as  Chicken  market bridge area / jembatan pasar ayam. The bridge also connected between Dutch fortress (VOC) and England fortress ( IEC). Once  Kota Intan bridge would automatic open when the ships were passing the canal under the bridge. The ships which passing the canal are coming from another areas outside Batavia and those ships brought spices also  various materials which stopped first at Sunda Kelapa Harbor then entered Batavia City.

 "Having more than one name is the unique things of Kota Intan Draw Bridge"

We turning back to histories, before the name becomes Kota Intan draw bridge, there are  3 other names  given for the bridge that each of names  had self historical. Well, The first name was Chicken market bridge. The reason why the bridge called as chicken market was the location of the bridge nears to the  market which exist there. Actually the market consisted of sellers that sell many kind of daily need things but most of them are chicken sellers. Cause of crowded activities of people which also passed the bridge everytime. Local people finally   named the bridge as Chicken Market Bridge or Jembatan Pasar Ayam in bahasa.

 The second name was  England bridge, why named it as England bridge? Because there were lots of England people who lived near to the bridge area. It made local people named the bridge from Chicken market to England bridge.

The third name was  Juliana Bridge. Who  was Juliana? She was the queen from Dutch who always passing the bridge for enjoying the views of canal and surroundings. Queen Juliana always did that every morning and the other reason was her behavior that really kindly to the people around bridge, giving nice smile and say halo to the local people who lived around the bridge. That’s why local people named the bridge as Juliana Bridge as an honour for the beautiful behavior of the Queen Juliana.

The last one ‘til now is Kota Intan drawbridge. In English is the bridge of the diamond city. The means of diamond city was Batavia. Formerly Batavia had fortress in every sides as proctected functions from any enemies outside of Batavia. The rumors  said that  under of each fortress there was diamond, that’s why finally the bridge named as Kota Intan Drawbridge. The other version of Kota Intan refers to the location of the bridge nears to the Batavia Bastion Castle or known as Bastion Diamont.

If you pay attentions with the bridge’s color is red. The ‘red’ also means something that if we back to the stories, areas of Kota Intan Drawbridge was the place of Chinese’s lived. They thought that red color describes of luck symbol and the color of victory.

Created by : My Self

Pictures : Google.com