250 years in old jakarta.

Introduction 250 YEARS IN OLD JAKARTA

On 26 December 1952, just past eleven o’clock in the morning, the 192 meter-long passenger liner “Willem Ruys” of the Royal Rotterdamsche Lloyd left the Djakarta harbour of Tandjong Priok. Destination: Rotterdam, the Netherlands. On board was Her Verbeek Wolthuys (1900-1974), grandfather of the author. He was leaving Indonesia once and for all. There was no one on the quay to wish and wave him farewell. Because he was the last to leave. Her left with mixed feelings. Deep in his heart he did not want to leave at all. But there were political developments between the new Republic of Indonesia and its former colony, and Djakarta was slowly becoming a less inviting place for foreigners to live. And thus Her left reluctantly, following the rest of his family, who had departed a few years earlier. Not only leaving behind his own footsteps but also more than two centuries of Bik family history in Indonesia. It was this family which Her himself had been part of since 1925 when he had arrived at this same port, full of hope, joy and excitement.  

The Bik family was influential in colonial Jakarta throughout the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century. But the Biks were not a typical Dutch family with a predictable colonial career of departing to the Indies for a limited amount of time and earning enough money with the aim of returning to a comfortable retirement back in the home country. Most Biks were deeply rooted in the Indies culture, and in a number of cases even developed an outspoken aversion to what they called ‘Baru Belanda’, new Dutch arrivals, who in their eyes were not integrating into the society but arrogantly calling the shots without learning the culture, lifestyle and behaviors of those who were born, raised and educated in Batavia, the so-called ‘stayers’. 

In 1863 Jannus Theodorus Bik became the owner of the country estate Tanah Abang. It became the jewel of the Bik family in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and this site eventually survived until the mid 1980s after it had functioned as the headquarters of Indonesia’s powerful Air Forceafter independence. Tanah Abang also became synonymous with burials. And if the graves and tombstones at the Kebon Jahe cemetery (now Taman Prasasti) had remained untouched (which sadly did not happen), it would have been the oldest original modern cemetery in the world and heritage listed by UNESCO. One of the largest and most notorious Japanese internment camps in Indonesia during World War II, Tjideng (Cideng), was in the area too and marked one of the darkest chapters in Tanah Abang’s history.

Despite so many relevant historic events and sites, and being one of Jakarta’s oldest districts, Tanah Abang is very much underrepresented in most history books about Jakarta. Tanah Abang’s rich history and that of its multi-ethnic population has never been researched and described in detail before.

Tanah Abang’s historic remnants are also rapidly disappearing. Since the late 1970s, the appearance of Tanah Abang has undergone an unrecognizable metamorphosis following the mass demolition of colonial era homes along the main streets and Chinese style shophouses around Pasar Tanah Abang. It has sadly led to a severe loss of character too.

250 YEARS IN OLD JAKARTA is for those who love Jakarta’s history and are searching for a glimpse of its lost past. This book describes the exciting history of a Dutch family in colonial Jakarta from 1776 onwards, in all its ups-and-downs, with a large emphasis on the family’s prominent and influential presence in Tanah Abang. But there are two centuries of Tanah Abang before the Bik family arrived, and Tanah Abang changed after the Biks departed.

By providing a full historical description of such a unique Jakarta district, elaborating on its multi-ethnic population over the past centuries, and at the same time showing how a wealthy family lived in Tanah Abang during the last century of colonial Jakarta, this book is not a traditional history book as such, but gives the history a personal perspective.

250 YEARS IN OLD JAKARTA is enhanced by a large number of never-published drawings, maps and pictures which show the development over four centuries of Tanah Abang in all its facets. These are interspersed with a large collection of precious Bik family photographs, a significant number of which have only been rediscovered in recent years.