Sunda Kelapa
Encyclopedia
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
located on the estuarine of Ciliwung River
Ciliwung River
Ciliwung is a river that passes through Jakarta, Indonesia. The river flows from its source near Puncak on the highlands of West Java to the Jakarta Bay....
. "Sunda Kalapa" (Sundanese
Sundanese language
Sundanese is the language of about 27 million people from the western third of Java or about 15% of the Indonesian population....
: "Coconut of Sunda") is the original name, and it was the main port of Sunda Kingdom of Pajajaran
Sunda Kingdom
The Sunda Kingdom was a Hindu kingdom located on the western part of Java from 669 to around 1579, covering areas of present-day Banten, Jakarta, West Java, and the western part of Central Java...
. The port is situated in Penjaringan sub-district, of North Jakarta
North Jakarta
North Jakarta is one of the five cities of Jakarta, Indonesia. North Jakarta contains the entire coastal area within Jakarta Special District. In North Jakarta, an area at the estuary of Ciliwung river was the main port for the kingdom of Tarumanegara, which will later grows to become Jakarta....
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. Today the old port only accommodate pinisi
Pinisi
The Pinisi is a traditional Indonesian two masted sailing ship. It was mainly built by the Konjo tribe, a sub-ethnic group of Bugis-Makassar mostly residents at the Bulukumba regency of South Sulawesi but was and currently used widely by the Buginese and Makassarese mostly for transportation and...
, a traditional two masted wooden sailing ship serving inter-island freight service in the archipelago. Although it is now only a minor port, Jakarta had its origins in Sunda Kelapa and it played a significant role in the city's development.
History
The Chinese source, Chu-fan-chi, written circa 1200, Chou Ju-kua identified the two most powerful and richest kingdoms in the Indonesian archipelago as SrivijayaSrivijaya
Srivijaya was a powerful ancient thalassocratic Malay empire based on the island of Sumatra, modern day Indonesia, which influenced much of Southeast Asia. The earliest solid proof of its existence dates from the 7th century; a Chinese monk, I-Tsing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in 671 for 6...
and Java (Kediri). According to this source, in the early 13th Century, Srivijaya still ruled Sumatra, the Malay peninsula, and western Java (Sunda
Sunda Kingdom
The Sunda Kingdom was a Hindu kingdom located on the western part of Java from 669 to around 1579, covering areas of present-day Banten, Jakarta, West Java, and the western part of Central Java...
). The source identifies the port as strategic and thriving, pepper
Black pepper
Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is approximately in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed...
from Sunda being among the best in quality. The people worked in agriculture and their houses were built on wooden poles (rumah panggung). However, robbers and thieves plagued the country. However it was uncertain which port of Sunda was referred to by Chou Ju-kua, it probably referred to the port of Banten
Banten
Banten is a province of Indonesia in Java. Formerly part of the Province of West Java, it was made a separate province in 2000.The administrative center is Serang. Preliminary results from the 2010 census counted some 10.6 million people.-Geography:...
, and not Kalapa.
From the 13th to 16th century Sunda kelapa was the main port of Sunda Kingdom
Sunda Kingdom
The Sunda Kingdom was a Hindu kingdom located on the western part of Java from 669 to around 1579, covering areas of present-day Banten, Jakarta, West Java, and the western part of Central Java...
. The port served the capital, Pakuan Pajajaran
Pakuan Pajajaran
Pakuan Pajajaran was a capital city of Sunda kingdom. In this city, king Prabu Susuktunggal established a palace called "Sri Bimapunta Narayana Madura Suradipati"....
, located about 60 km inland south, along the Ciliwung river hinterland
Hinterland
The hinterland is the land or district behind a coast or the shoreline of a river. Specifically, by the doctrine of the hinterland, the word is applied to the inland region lying behind a port, claimed by the state that owns the coast. The area from which products are delivered to a port for...
, now the site of modern Bogor
Bogor
Bogor is a city on the island of Java in the West Java province of Indonesia. The city is located in the center of the Bogor Regency , 60 kilometers south of the Indonesian capital Jakarta...
. The port thrived on international spice trade especially pepper
Black pepper
Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is approximately in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed...
, the main spice produce of the Sunda kingdom. Sunda Kelapa, together with Aceh
Banda Aceh
Banda Aceh is the provincial capital and largest city in the province of Aceh, Indonesia, located on the island of Sumatra, with an elevation of 35 meters. The city regency covers an area of 64 square kilometres and according to the 2000 census had a population of 219,070 people...
and Makassar
Makassar
Makassar, is the provincial capital of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, and the largest city on Sulawesi Island. From 1971 to 1999, the city was named Ujung Pandang, after a precolonial fort in the city, and the two names are often used interchangeably...
, were one of the few Indonesian ports that maintained ties with Europe.
In 1522, the Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
secured a politics and economic agreement with the Sunda Kingdom
Sunda Kingdom
The Sunda Kingdom was a Hindu kingdom located on the western part of Java from 669 to around 1579, covering areas of present-day Banten, Jakarta, West Java, and the western part of Central Java...
, the authority of the port. In exchange for military assistance against the threat of the rising Islamic Javan Sultanate of Demak, Prabu Surawisesa, king of Sunda at that time, granted them free access to the pepper trade. Portuguese who were in the service of the sovereign, made their homes in Sunda Kelapa.
However in 1527, Fatahillah, on behalf of the Demak
Sultanate of Demak
The Sultanate of Demak was Javanese Muslim state located on Java's north coast in Indonesia, at the site of the present day city of Demak. A port fief to the Majapahit kingdom thought to have been founded in the last quarter of the 15th century, it was influenced by Islam brought by Arab and...
attacked the Portuguese in Sunda Kelapa and succeeded in conquering the harbour on June 22, 1527, after which Sunda Kelapa was renamed Jayakarta. Later, the port became a part of the Banten Sultanate
Sultanate of Banten
The Sultanate of Banten was founded in the 16th century and centered in Banten, a port city on the northwest coast of Java; the contemporary English spelling of both was Bantam...
.
In 1619, Jan Pieterszoon Coen
Jan Pieterszoon Coen
Jan Pieterszoon Coen was a officer of the Dutch East India Company in the early seventeenth century, holding two terms as its Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies....
, an official working for the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
, seized the port of Jayakarta from the Sultanate of Banten and raized the city. From the ashes of Jayakarta, the Dutch built a new city, Batavia. The old port served as the main port of Batavia until the late 19th century, when the Netherlands East Indies government decided to build a new Tanjung Priok
Tanjung Priok
Tanjung Priok is a subdistrict of North Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia. It hosts the western part of the city's main harbour, the Port of Tanjung Priok...
port to accommodate the increasing traffic as a result of the opening of the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
. The new port is located 9 kilometers to the east from the old port. After the independence of the Republic of Indonesia, the Batavia old port was renamed back to its original name, Sunda Kelapa, as a tribute to the long history of the port as the cradle of Jakarta.
