This sunday morning i decided to visit, for the first time, an important building of Jakarta - for its historical and architectural richness: the Gereja Protestan di Indonesia bagian Barat, Jemmat "Sion", or "Gereja Portugis" - as it was once known. This morning i went to the Black Portuguese Church, the protestant church "Sion", in Kota - the historical centre of Jakarta.
This is the oldest church in the city and the oldest building in Jakarta which is still used for its original purpose.
I felt very inspired while visiting this place, for many reasons: because on sundays mornings i'm specially sensitive; because this building has to do with the "portuguese" remains in this wide and metropolitan city; because it is a beautiful place - well kept, still shining, a cozy corner; because i was surrounded by peaceful and welcoming people; because i heard wonderful christian chants in indonesian; because it's always moving for me to be in a place where i can breathe history in Jakarta, which is not dirty or ruined, where i find people who care for the place where they are and have consciousness of its importance.
The church was built according to the plans of Ewout Verhagen, from Rotterdam, in 1693, and it was finished in 1695. It became a very fashionable church, though built for the poorer section of the Portuguese speaking population in the then knwon Batavia.
This is the oldest church in the city and the oldest building in Jakarta which is still used for its original purpose.
I felt very inspired while visiting this place, for many reasons: because on sundays mornings i'm specially sensitive; because this building has to do with the "portuguese" remains in this wide and metropolitan city; because it is a beautiful place - well kept, still shining, a cozy corner; because i was surrounded by peaceful and welcoming people; because i heard wonderful christian chants in indonesian; because it's always moving for me to be in a place where i can breathe history in Jakarta, which is not dirty or ruined, where i find people who care for the place where they are and have consciousness of its importance.
The church was built according to the plans of Ewout Verhagen, from Rotterdam, in 1693, and it was finished in 1695. It became a very fashionable church, though built for the poorer section of the Portuguese speaking population in the then knwon Batavia.
Baroque pulpit, work of H. Bruijin, belongs to the original furniture of the church (1695)._______________________________
On the left, one of the four big chandeliers, made of yellow copper, with reflectors in the force of shields with the coat-of-arms of Batavia. It dates from the end of the 17th century._____________________________
The original organ, with its rich carvings, was lent by the daughter of Rev. Maurits Mohr in the 18th century and is now out of use.___________________________
Who were these people - the portuguese speaking population of Batavia, in the 17th century?
Before the Dutch appeared in Indonesia (1596), the Portuguese had already established a network of harbour towns controlling the trade between the Spice Islands and Europe. In order to conquer and to mantain its monopoly on spices and other profitable trade, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) attacked the portuguese in the East wherever they had established trading posts, forts or towns, for instance, India, Sri Lanka, Malaya, China, Japan and Mollucas. These Portuguese, who had arrived in Asia a full century before the Dutch founded Batavia (1619), had created a vast population of "Eurasians"...
In 1641 Malacca, once a trade emporium of Portuguese merchants, fell into the hands of the Dutch, as many other ports in India and Ceylon. From these places the Dutch brought many prisoners to Batavia. The "white" Portuguese, especially the richer ones, settled well inside the walls of the city, in elite quarters of Batavia, and started to have a privileged relation with the dutch elite; but the poorer prisoners, and those bought as slaves by the Dutch, lacked the means to live inside the walls - they had portuguese names (inherited from their portuguese godfathers on catholic baptism) but hardly much portuguese blood. Among them were some Malays, but most of them were Bengalis and Ceylonese. The Dutch granted them liberty on condition that they become members of the Dutch Reformed Church. Those who converted and became protestants (almost all), and therefore free from slavery, were called Mardijkers or "the liberated ones".
In spite of changing their confessed religion, the Mardijkers didn't change their language. Thus, in the 17th century and partly also in the 18th century, the most common language in Batavia was a kind of portuguese mixed with many malay words. Some protestant ministers had even to learn portuguese in order to serve this growing community. In fact, portuguese still was the lingua franca to Asia, though Portugal had since long become powerless.
It was for this community, the Black Portuguese Community, that the De Nieuwe Portugeesche Buitenkerk, as it was called in dutch (meaning: "Portuguese church outside the walls") was built for.
Before the Dutch appeared in Indonesia (1596), the Portuguese had already established a network of harbour towns controlling the trade between the Spice Islands and Europe. In order to conquer and to mantain its monopoly on spices and other profitable trade, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) attacked the portuguese in the East wherever they had established trading posts, forts or towns, for instance, India, Sri Lanka, Malaya, China, Japan and Mollucas. These Portuguese, who had arrived in Asia a full century before the Dutch founded Batavia (1619), had created a vast population of "Eurasians"...
In 1641 Malacca, once a trade emporium of Portuguese merchants, fell into the hands of the Dutch, as many other ports in India and Ceylon. From these places the Dutch brought many prisoners to Batavia. The "white" Portuguese, especially the richer ones, settled well inside the walls of the city, in elite quarters of Batavia, and started to have a privileged relation with the dutch elite; but the poorer prisoners, and those bought as slaves by the Dutch, lacked the means to live inside the walls - they had portuguese names (inherited from their portuguese godfathers on catholic baptism) but hardly much portuguese blood. Among them were some Malays, but most of them were Bengalis and Ceylonese. The Dutch granted them liberty on condition that they become members of the Dutch Reformed Church. Those who converted and became protestants (almost all), and therefore free from slavery, were called Mardijkers or "the liberated ones".
In spite of changing their confessed religion, the Mardijkers didn't change their language. Thus, in the 17th century and partly also in the 18th century, the most common language in Batavia was a kind of portuguese mixed with many malay words. Some protestant ministers had even to learn portuguese in order to serve this growing community. In fact, portuguese still was the lingua franca to Asia, though Portugal had since long become powerless.
It was for this community, the Black Portuguese Community, that the De Nieuwe Portugeesche Buitenkerk, as it was called in dutch (meaning: "Portuguese church outside the walls") was built for.
And today there i was, not as a white portuguese, but as a Mardijker in hearth, to pay tribute to all those who kept the portuguese language alive for so many years in this remote far east city of the world...
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Sources: Ronal Daus, Portuguese Eurasian Communities in Southeast Asia; Adolf Heuken, "Portuguese Remains in Jakarta" in Indonesia - Portugal, Five Hundred Years of Historical Relationship.
