Celebrating diversity in Jakarta

Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is like a textured swath of batik cloth — vibrant, distinct, with various colors and patterns woven into one attractive whol

The city (also a province) is a bustling metropolis that is a showcase of East and West, Muslim, Hindu, Christian and Buddhist influences. Skyscrapers and shanties, gurgling man-made fountains and fetid canals, gleaming malls and ambulant stores, Benzes and bikes (there are 10,000 motor vehicles as well as 10,000 motorbikes competing for space on Jakarta’s streets) form part of Jakarta’s fabric. You may not like everything you see, but you will surely give it a second, a third look. Or maybe, a lingering look. Jakarta isn’t immediately eye-catching. You have to live it, feel it, taste it — not just see it — to enjoy its attractions.

Jakarta is a microcosm of Indonesia, the largest archipelago in the world, with 17,000 islands and three time zones. Oil-rich Indonesia is so huge and diverse that though part of it runs through the equator, another part of it receives snow — the province of Papua, which has a limestone mountain peak that pokes at heaven’s door.

There are things that Manila has in common with Jakarta. Both cities form part of a metropolis, and both cities bear indelible traces of European influences — Spanish in Manila, Dutch in Jakarta. Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch for four centuries.

Though Jakarta has swanky buildings and a Central Business District that is arguably more handsome than even Makati’s CBD, malls as posh as those in Singapore, it doesn’t have an LRT or an MRT, just buses and taxis and their own version of a tricycle. Jakarta boasts more monuments and fountains per square kilometer than Manila does, but it has also an infamous canal that runs through the city where residents do everything — from washing their clothes to relieving themselves.

A traditional West Sumatran house in Taman Mini.

Starbucks outlets abound in Jakarta, even if local coffee is divine as well. (Unlike Manila, Jakarta has a Chanel outlet.) At its swankiest malls, fashionable women strut with Hermes bags hanging on their arms as bodyguards watch their backs and carry their shopping bags. The wife of a former Indonesian general is said to have a trove of 400 Hermes bags!

But Jakarta proudly wears its culture on its sleeve. Despite its big population (the country has 250 million people), the many ethnic groups and influences splashed on its fabric, there is unity in Indonesia’s diversity. And this was reflected in Jakarta.

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We were in Jakarta recently upon the invitation of the Indonesian Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and we flew Asia’s first airline, Philippine Airlines, to Jakarta from Manila. In Jakarta, we had an excellent and patient tour guide in Mr. Suriya. Indonesians are warm, gentle and generally laidback and demure. Though the streets are traffic-snarled, you don’t hear horns blaring and drivers cursing at each other, no one laughing boisterously in restaurants or street corners.

Our first stop was a former spice warehouse with four centuries-old wooden pillars and beams. The warehouse is now an Oriental restaurant, complete with colorful lanterns. So we had Chinese food in a Dutch-colonial setting with an Oriental twist — a reflection, truly, of how diversity is celebrated in Jakarta. After a visit to Sunda Kelapa Harbor, a centuries-old port where Europeans used to dock their ships and where wooden ships are still anchored now, we proceeded to Jalan Surabaya, a long row of open-air stalls famous for antiques, native crafts and other curios. I was in Jakarta some 20 years ago and bought a Batavia lamp in one of the stalls in Jalan Surabaya, and that lamp still hangs proudly in my home. Unlike the sprawling Chatuchak in Bangkok, Jalan Surabaya isn’t exactly a flea market or the equivalent of a Philippine tiangge. It’s more manageable than Chatuchak and more specialized than a tiangge. It has a certain genteel, Old World character to it so that a trip there seems to be a historical adventure as well. This visit, I bought a porcelain teapot that the vendor claimed was 150 years old, and haggled till he brought down its price from 500,000 rupiah (about $55) to 300,000 rupiah (about $34). I later asked Chris Kusuma, a Jakarta-based Filipina married to an Indonesian businessman, if she thought I got a genuine antique for that price, and she said, “You’ll never know! You just might have chanced upon a vendor on a slow day and he just wanted to make a sale.” I wish!

A swarm of motorcycles on the streets of Jakarta.

I particularly enjoyed visiting Old Jakarta, with its unrestored old mansions and buildings, and its old City Hall, now a History Museum. Another interesting destination was the Elephant Museum — which showcased the many European and Hindu influences in Indonesian culture and religion. After an authentic Indonesian lunch of sop buntut (Indonesian version of bulalo), beef sate skewers, fish curry and grilled prawns, we motored to Taman Mini theme park, Indonesia’s sprawling version of our very own Nayong Pilipino.

I was told that the late former First Lady Tien Suharto was inspired by Nayong Pilipino in building Taman Mini. Construction began in 1971, and Taman Mini was inaugurated in 1975. Built over 145 hectares, Taman Mini showcases all provinces of Indonesia in miniature, and so you can go from Borobodur to Bali in just minutes. If you look down from the cable car that runs through the park, you will see the map of Indonesia on a man-made lake below.

My favorite “province” is the West Sumatra province with its colorful and intricately carved traditional houses (I see similarities with certain structures in Mindanao), and of course, Bali. The latter, known as the Island of Temples, boasts Hindu architecture and art, so that it stands unique in predominantly Muslim Indonesia.

In Jakarta itself, one of my favorite spots is the street where Southeast Asia’s biggest mosque Istiglal (it can accommodate as many as 200,000 people and was visited by President Obama last year) faces the Jakarta Catholic Cathedral, a Gothic inspired edifice whose steeples remind me of those of the La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. This must be the most peaceful street on earth, I mused.

It was a brief visit to Jakarta, but it was long enough to realize that there is beauty in diversity. Harmony, too. It just takes a tolerant heart and an open mind to magnify it.

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