Sunda Kelapa, An Old Lively Traditional Port

Just 15 kilometers at the western part of Tanjung Priok, we can find an old port of Sunda Kelapa. Today it serves as the anchoring spot for sailing ships, especially Bugis phinisi bringing wood and logs mostly from Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua. In turn, the sailing ships are loaded with cement, iron bars and other imported products to the various parts of Indonesia. It is indeed an amazing view as we can see so many masts in front of us as though we live a couple hundred years ago.

History

Sunda Kelapa has already been well-known since the 12th century. During that period, it became a busy port of Hindu kingdom of Pajajaran in West Java, selling pepper and spices. Foreign ships coming from China, Japan, South India, and Arabic already docked at the port carrying goods such as porcelain, coffee, silk cloths, perfumes, horses, wine, and coloring substance in exchange for spices, the wealth of the homeland at that time.

In 1522, the Portuguese Governor Alfonso d'Albuquerque, whose home base was in Malacca, sent Henrique Leme to attend the invitation of the king of Sunda to build a fort at Sunda Kelapa against the expansive people of Cirebon.

So on August 21, 1522, both the Portuguese and Sunda king made an agreement saying that the Portuguese could construct a castle at the Sunda Kelapa, while the king and his people would receive the necessary goods. In turn, Sunda king had to give the Portuguese 1000 baskets of pepper as a sign of friendship annually. A memorial stone or Padrão became the means to commemorate the event. Padrão stone was rediscovered in 1918 at the corner of Prinsenstraat (today it is called Jalan Cengkeh) in Jakarta.

Meanwhile, Demak kingdom had become the center of Islamic power politically. Realizing that the port was a good stepping ground to develop one’s power, and with the aim to eliminate Hindu religion and strengthen Moslem kingdom, Demak and Cirebon military personnel, headed by Fatahillah alias Sunan Gunung Jati, attacked Sunda Kelapa and occupied it on June 22, 1527, the day considered as the birthday of Jakarta. Being occupied, the name was changed into Jayakarta which means the real victory.

The occupation did not last long, however. Dutch colonials under Jan Pieterzoon Coen, destroyed it in 1619, on which he founded Batavia and enlarged it to the southern and eastern parts with Tanjung Priok as its port. This port was getting important because the silting process at the estuary of Ciliwung River made Sunda Kelapa become too shallow for extra-large galleons from Europe to the harbor.

In the 19th century, the area around Sunda Kelapa, in which the Dutch elite lived, became very unhealthy and they removed to the Batavia, and the port was relatively neglected. But in 1817 the Dutch government improved the port by extending its canal from 810 meters to become 1,825 meters.

After Indonesia independence, Sunda Kelapa was improved and enlarged. The canal was made deeper and longer. Following the improvement, the then Jakarta governor, Ali Sadikin, issued a decree, in 1974, stating that the name Sunda Kelapa was officially used.

Today’s Condition
Currently, the port of has a land area of 760 hectares, and water pond area of 16,470 hectares, with the main harboring space at Kalibaru, which has a length of 3,250 meters and 1,200 meters wide to accommodate 70 sailing ships.

From the economic point of view, this port is strategically close to the trading centers in Jakarta, such as Glodok, Pasar Pagi, Mangga Dua, and others. As inter-island port, Sunda Kelapa is still visited by sailing ships of around 175 tons.
Goods transported from this port are the staple food in addition to grocery items and textiles. For development outside of Java Island, Sunda Kelapa also delivers building materials such as iron and cement.

All of the ships are traditional sailing boats coming from all traditional ports throughout the archipelago. Bugis and Madurese are famous for their ability as traditional sailors since olden times. Loading and unloading of goods at the port are still using traditional means and this why the port does not have any international certificates. Sunda Kelapa is also called the Fish Market Port because there is a fish market inside the area, where the newly caught fishes are auctioned every morning.

Why Declines?
Why does Sunda Kelapa decline? That the old and prosperous port finally declined and the newly constructed Tanjung Priok grew into a big port even at the international level, this must be traced back to the era of Dutch colonial, where they considered that Sunda Kelapa was not able to accommodate European galleons coming here to buy pepper and spices.

They constructed Tanjung Priok as the new port of Batavia, the newly built city under Jan Pieterzoon Coen in 1619, and since then trading activities were removed to this new port. It had a deeper pond as compared to Sunda Kelapa’s and therefore could accommodate big galleons coming from Europe.

The construction and opening of Sues Canal in 1869 made more galleons come to Tanjung Priok with ever-increasing tonnage and the estimated capacity amounting to 1,000 tons made them difficult to the harbor at Sunda Kelapa but easy to anchor at Tanjung Priok, accelerating its development. The invention of the steam-ships, which all harbored at Tanjung Priok, was another blow for Sunda Kelapa.

Important Buildings

Indonesian Maritime Museum has located here in which it keeps nautical equipment, replicas of Indonesian sailing boats, pictures from olden kingdoms up to the present day era.

Another building is the watchtower. It was built in 1839 with the main aim to monitor/control the ships that docked in the port of Sunda Kelapa. The wide and open view from the top of the tower made the job of the watchmen easier.
The tower is now leaning because the soggy soil is not able to support the big building, especially from the past. The leaning process goes on, around one centimeter annually. Jakarta officials have cemented and strengthened the foundation of the building, but it is of little value to re-erect the building.

Maritime Indonesia Museum

At the northern end of Jakarta, at the area of the olden port of Sunda Kelapa, stands the Maritime Indonesia Museum. The museum, located at Jalan Pasar Ikan, Sunda Kelapa, at the northwest corner of Jakarta, is aimed to give the information to the visitors about the traditions of the ancestors on how they once went out to the sea for fishing and trading.

It is also intended at describing the importance of the sea for Indonesian people. Indonesian ancient sailors were famous for their courage going as far as Madagascar and far east of the center of the Pacific Ocean. “Tagaroa” was the ancient ocean god for the Indonesian people living in the northeastern part of Indonesia and the Pacific indigenous. 

Historically, the Maritime Museum was part of the Dutch “Trading” Company (VOC) warehouse at the west bank of Ciliwung River built in 1652. The western warehouse building consists of four units, three of which are now used as the Maritime Museum.  They stored lots of spices and crops in the warehouse and several kinds of precious metals in the open yard protected from the rain by a sort of wooden balcony attached to the front of the warehouse.

Closely related to the building and the maritime history, in the nearby area there are a port-master tower, defensive fort (Culemborg), canals, and walls surrounding the old city which built  at the same period of that east warehouse (Oostzjidsche Parkhuizen) and wheat warehouse (Graan Parkhuizen)

After independence, the building was used by the electric and post and telecommunication state-owned companies as their warehouse. In 1976 this cultural heritage building was restored, and one year later was inaugurated as the Maritime Indonesia Museum. At present we can see the remaining walls once surrounded the city in front of the Maritime Museum,  Zeeburg and Culemborg. 

The museum exhibits various relics of old Dutch East India Company in the form of small replicas, photos, paintings and various models of traditional and original boats, navigation equipment and other objects associated with Indonesia maritime.  It has various models of fishing vessels from any Indonesia’s corners as well as stone anchors from several places, the modern steam engine and also Phinisi sailing ship from Bugis (South Sulawesi), which has become one of the world-famous sailing ships. It also keeps collections related to Indonesian maritime and fishery from the entire archipelago.

Stored collections consist of various types of traditional boats with a variety of styles and decorative. Also presented are a variety of models and miniatures of modern ships and shipping activities supporting equipment, the models of the Indonesian warships, a collection of cartography, mockup of Onrust Island, and some national maritime figures.

In addition, the museum displays a collection of marine biota, the data type and distribution of fish in Indonesian waters and miscellaneous fishing equipment and shipping, the traditional boat-making technology and folklore customs of fishing communities of the entire Archipelago.

At the right corner of the road entrance of Jalan Pasar Ikan viewed from the main street, we can see the tower of the then port-master office. The visitors may climb to the top floor seeing the old port which certainly does not as busy as when the port-master did in the olden days. The tower now is vertically inclined about 2 degrees southward because the foundation has been weakened by the intrusion of seawater for about 300 years now. 

It is worth to remark that precisely at the entrance of the tower and that of the road to the museum, there are some sidewalk food traders which seem negligence to keep the cleanliness that makes the area slump. The city mayor should pay more attention to this situation and handle more properly the environment of the area and make it more attractive for the tourists and put stress on the importance of the area.