Bogor
- For the New Zealand cartoon, see Bogor (cartoon)
Bogor is a city in West Java with a population of approximately 800,000 people in CBD area and 2,000,000 in suburban area, bringing a total of 3 million population. It was the capital of Indonesia during the British occupation under Stamford Raffles and was used as the capital by the Dutch during the dry season, then known as Buitenzorg.
It is surrounded by extinct volcanoes such as the Gunung Gede and Gunung Salak and is recorded to have more lightning storms per year than any other place on earth.
Bogor boasts a presidential palace (the Istana Bogor), a deer park and a huge botanical garden (Bogor Botanical Gardens) in the town centre. It is home to the Institut Pertanian Bogor, the Bogor Agricultural University, which has a large and extended campus with various sites distributed around the city.
Bogor is on a main road from Jakarta to Bandung, over the Puncak pass. To the south of the city are large tea plantations. During colonial times the Bogor area developed as a centre for plantations. Apart from the tea (Gunung Mas), there were coffee plantations at nearby Sukabumi and later vast rubber plantations that stretched from Bogor as far as Citereup and Bukit Sentul.
The suburban area of Bogor is called Kabupaten Bogor, while the urban is simply called Kota ("city") Bogor (formerly "Kotamadya Bogor"). Currently Bogor bears the nickname Kota Hujan ("The Rain City"), suggesting that it is very wet and nearly always rains even during the dry season.
History
Bogor was part of the Siliwangi Kingdom (1482), ruled by Prabu Siliwangi ("prabu" means "king"). But long before that, in 450 A.D., it was part of Tarumanegara, the very first Hindu kingdom in the Java Island, and the second in Indonesia after the Kutai Kingdom in Kalimantan. The most popular king of Tarumanegara was Purnavarman (spelled in Bahasa Indonesia as "Purnawarman", with w instead of v), who ruled around the 5th century. It was during his reign the kingdom reached its golden era.
Bogor now houses numerous stone "prasasti" (= inscriptions) from both the Tarumanegara and the Siliwangi. These inscriptions, scattered throughout the urban, suburban, and rural areas of Bogor, are written in Sanskrit language using the Pallava writing system.
The most well-known inscriptions are:
- Prasasti Ciaruteun
- This is a large boulder found in a streambed upon which Purnavarman's footprints were engraved together with his Pallava handwriting. The set of footprints show to many that Purnavarman was a kind of divine being, or an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. Indeed, the text on the stone compares his footprints to Vishnu's.
- The boulder has now been removed to a safer place with metal fences surrounding it, just a few kilometres away from the river where it was discovered.
- Prasasti Kaki Gajah (Elephant Feet Inscription)
- Hence its name, this brown flat stone bears a set of an elephant's footprints. The elephant is presumed to be the royal elephant Purnavarman rode on. The text compares it to the mythical elephant Airawata which belongs to another Hindu god Indra. This incscription was discovered not far from Prasasti Ciaruteun.
- Prasasti Batutulis ("Writing Stone" Inscription)
- This inscription is located in Batutulis area in the urban Bogor. It is actually a collection of four stones. The first small stone, bearing Siliwangi's footprints, are placed in front of the second stone engraved with his knee prints. The third one is a large, flat, vertically-erected brown stone carved with the king's Sanskrit handwriting. These three stones are arranged in such a way and such space that they give the impression of the king actually kneeling down when carving.
- The last stone is a strange cylindrical rock that is set beside the rest of them. Many people say it was Siliwangi's staff, although it seems impossible since this rock is really wide in diameter.
Language
Like all cities and towns in the province of West Java, the traditional language of Bogor is Sundanese. However, many do think that Bogor's Sundanese is somewhat harsher and uses much more slang than any other part of West Java.
Transportation
The easiest and the most popular means of transportation in Bogor is the public vans (the locals call it "Angkot", the acronym of angkutan kota). They serve certain routes indicated by the combination of their numbers and their colours, which come in green and blue. These angkots are run by private owners and the prices are fixed.
Buses and taxis are not present in particularly large numbers, especially taxis because they are relatively expensive. Minibuses are more commonly seen in the city. Meanwhile, the railroads connect Bogor to other big cities in Java, such as Jakarta (to the north) and Sukabumi (to the south).
For leisure means, the traditional horse carriages are available. These are called delman, and they have only two wheels, different from the four-wheeled andong existing only in the province of Yogyakarta. Delman in Bogor are not delicately decorated like their fellows in Jakarta, Bandung, or Yogyakarta. There are also becak, a type of man-pedaled carriages in which the driver pedals at the back and the passengers' seat facing front with a roof above. A becak can only carry two or three people at a time. Becak can also be used to deliver heavy loads such as fruits and vegetables around pasar (traditional public markets).
See also
Gustaaf Willem baron van Imhoff