The Indis Style: the Transformation and Hybridization of Building Culture in Colonial Java Indonesia
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Paramita:Paramita: Historical Historical Studies Studies Journal, Journal, 28 (2),28(2), 2018: 2018 137 -151 ISSN: 0854-0039, E-ISSN: 2407-5825 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15294/paramita.v28i2.16203 THE INDIS STYLE: THE TRANSFORMATION AND HYBRIDIZATION OF BUILDING CULTURE IN COLONIAL JAVA INDONESIA Djoko Soekiman & Bambang Purwanto Department of History, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Gadjah Mada ABSTRACT ABSTRAK This historical study is focused on Indis style Kajian sejarah ini difokuskan pada rumah dan houses and buildings in Java during colonial bangunan bergaya Indis di Jawa pada masa period. The study discusses the reception and kolonial. Tulisan ini mendiskusikan tentang adaptation of Dutch and other cultures togeth- resepsi dan adaptasi budaya Belanda dan bu- er with the local cultures in the transformation daya lainnya bersama-sama budaya tempatan and hybridization of Indonesian architectural dalam transformasi dan hibridisasi pada proses design production and reproduction. The produksi dan reproduksi desain arsitektur In- study concludes that Indis style is a proof for donesia. Kajian ini menyimpulkan bahwa ga- the western inability to avoid the social and ya Indis merupakan bukti dari ketidakmampu- cultural influence of the locals, representations an Barat untuk menghindar dari pengaruh of new hybrid identities who want to show sosial dan kebudayaan tempatan, representasi themselves as closer to the west and distance dari identitas hibrid baru yang ingin menun- from the indigenous, representation of new jukkan dirinya lebih dekat kepada Barat na- identity among those who found a new defi- mun berjarak dari penduduk asli, representas nite motherland since others consider them- dari identitas baru bagi mereka yang selves alien, symbol of modernity for those menemukan ibu pertiwi yang baru ketika ke- who were looking for a new social status and lompok lain menganggap mereka sebagai justify their existence, and a representation of orang asing, simbol modernitas bagi mereka the history of colonialism itself. yang sedang mencari status sosial baru serta untuk menjustifikasi keberadaannya, dan Keywords: Indis style, hybridization, colonial sekaligus representasi dari sejarah kolonial- Java isme itu sendiri. Kata kunci: gaya indis, hibridisasi, kolonial Jawa Author correspondence Email: [email protected] 137 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id/nju/index.php/paramita Paramita: Historical Studies Journal, 28(2), 2018 INTRODUCTION city wall. If we took a strolled around Indonesian It was not until later period, more cities such as Jakarta, Bandung, Sema- Dutch and other western compatriots rang, Surabaya, Malang and Medan to move outside the wall into a more remote name some of them, we would witness the rural-like settings. The presence of Dutch city planning and architecture of a bygone in the rural areas; as government employ- day, punctuated by several old buildings ees, soldiers and planters did not funda- remnants of the colonial era what local mentally change the characters of local people in Java called “loji londo” - Dutch culture because the Dutch never created a house (Susanti, 2000). A similar sight can real Dutch community. When Dutch peo- also be witnessed in areas once known as ple started owning houses and estates in centers of colonial plantations and private the rural-like plantations, almost all of estates, or particuliere landerijen, the areas them also became members of a western where European lived in. From the few community located in the nearby towns; surviving buildings, one can surmise that many of these towns and small cities were all of these were a form of western, espe- built specifically for purposes associated cially Dutch responses to Indonesian cul- with the plantation. On the other hand, in tures. Some of the facades of the buildings urban areas with long Dutch presence, the depict different images and identities that reception of Dutch culture is obviously are incompatible with local culture charac- more remarkable and it often took archi- teristics, but at the same time, a person tectural forms that sought to impress and familiar with European particularly to express authority, such as using the Dutch culture would also notice that some “empire style as its official trade- of the cultural facets are unknown to gen- mark” (Kusno, 2007: 135). uine Dutch buildings (Berlage, 1931; Nijs, Even so, the picture above does not 1961; Wuisman, 2007: 31; Nas, 1986: 6-9; describe the whole reality of the historical Passchier, 2007: 98-107). The reception, process because there were certain periods adaptation and transformation of Dutch when the process of reception and adapta- culture into an Indonesian context have tion of town planning and architecture resulted in a new hybrid culture, known had actually gone into the hinterland or more widely as the Indische, Indisch, Indies did not occur in the cities. Although the or Indis culture which have spread widely Dutch remains the main protagonists in especially amongst urban community in all of the process, what happened was a the colonial times (Soekiman, 2000; Cote Dutch adaptation of their local environ- & Westerbeek (ed.), 2004; Milone, 1967). ment by taking in local building Although theoretically the spread knowledge, especially the Javanese since and development of culture are boundary- Java was the place where Dutch concen- less and hard to trace, but from the re- trated their activities. The adaptation pro- maining remnants, it is possible to assume cess was not only confined to the cities, that the reception, adaptation, and trans- but it had also infected other areas that are formation of Dutch culture into Indische usually categorized under the heading of occur mostly in urban areas. This can be the interior or the rural areas. At the time, explained through the fact that ever since the cities were the main living quarters of they first landed, the Dutch presence in the Dutch in Java, but even then, many Indonesia has been exclusively urban. The Dutchmen and other Europeans started to city is the main habitat of the Dutch, dur- build houses and resting places in the inte- ing their days as traders as well as colonial rior, near rural based local communities. masters and capitalists pouring in huge Socio-culturally speaking, there even oc- investments into the economic activity of curred an intensive interaction between the area. They started with houses inside the local and Dutch people, whether as a the fortress and then expanded into differ- group or as individuals. ent settlements outside but still inside the This article discusses the reception 138 Paramita: Historical Studies Journal, 28(2), 2018 and adaptation of Dutch and other cul- colonial space from seventeenth century to tures together with the local cultures in the late colonial period of first half twentieth transformation and hybridization of Indo- century. nesian architectural design production and Terminologically speaking, the re- reproduction. Although the effects of ception will include the inclusion of Dutch Dutch culture have been widespread in cultures into the lifestyle of people in the many of the cultural aspects of a number colony without distinguishing them as lo- of urban areas in Indonesia, this study will cals or newcomers. Adaptation means the focus on the Indische style houses and conscious and unconscious effort of the buildings in colonial Java, the centre of Dutch community in taking the local char- Dutch activities in the Indonesian archi- acteristics such as climate that suited their pelago during colonial times. It assumes needs. The Dutch reception and adapta- that a house or building is a cultural repre- tion of Javanese cultures have resulted in sentation of authority, power in the colo- the production of a new style of hybrid nial context (Locher, 1985: 86). So, what socio-cultural life in the colonial society happened in colonial Indonesia? Is the through continuous changing processes Indis style architecture also a reproduction (Widodo, 2007:17), a style aptly named of colonial power by people who support- the Indische in Indonesian colonial con- ed the Indis culture? To what extent is the text. For the purpose of Indonesian histo- formation of Indis style architecture riography, however, this paper prefers to shaped by reception and adaptation which use “Indis”, an Indonesian language inter- produced hybrid culture as well as social pretation over the concept of “Indische” identification in colonial Indonesia? since Indis colonial culture refers to the The word Indische comes from the history of Indonesian cultural heritages in word Nederlandsch Indie or Netherlands Indonesian perspective (Soekiman, 2000: Indies, a Dutch foreign territorial occupa- 9-10; Purwanto, 2004: v-ix). This study tion which geographically covers a large aims to show how the earlier constructed part of the Nusantara archipelago of pre- houses and buildings owned by Dutch au- sent Indonesia, and it was also known as thority together with the elite of multira- the Nederlandsch Oost Indie. Quoting Paul- cial settlers have already pioneered Indis ine Dublin Milone, the “Indische” means architectural styles before the arrival of the “Indies like”, mixture elements of local, professional Dutch architects, particularly European, Chinese and other elements of in the early twentieth century. The paper communities lived in this former Dutch also will describe how and why the com- controlled area (Milone, 1967: 408). This munities from seventeenth century up