Happy 484th Birthday, Jakarta!

To at least 20 million of Indonesian's population, Jakarta is home. To the rest of the population, Jakarta is the capital. And to all Indonesians, Jakarta is the country's economic, political and cultural center. And I fall in the category of those 20 million people. I call it home too.

Jakarta is a province that serves as a capital with a special name of Special City District of Jakarta which is abbreviated to D.K.I. Jakarta in Indonesian. It is divided to 5 cities with each city being governed by a Mayor and the province itself is governed by a Governor. It is no doubt the most populous province in Indonesia and I think it holds the same reputation in Southeast Asia and according to www.worldatlas.com/citypops.htm, Jakarta sits at no. 6 in the most populated capital cities of the world category.

As a province in the 3rd world country, Jakarta has gone through and is still going through a lot of things. Through the Pre-Colonial and Colonial periods to Independence, Jakarta sure has had its ups and downs but through it all, Jakarta has survived, is surviving and today it is 484 years old.

Some may wonder how Jakarta is older than Indonesia, which is only turning 66 this year. Let me take you down memory lane, learning how its birth date was declared and how it formed its name.

• It all started in the 14th century when Jakarta was called Sunda Kelapa or also known as The Kingdom of Sunda. They made an alliance treaty with Portugal by letting the Portuguese build a port in 1522 in order to defend against the rising Sultanate of Demak from Central Java.
• In 1527, Fatahillah, a Javanese General attacked and conquered Sunda Kelapa and changed the name to Jayakarta (meaning victory town). History records that this happened on June 22, 1527.
• Then the Dutch came and changed the name to Batavia on March 4, 1621. The colonial era started.
• August 8, 1942 the Japanese came and changed the name to Jakarta Toko Betsu Shi.
• 3 years later the Independence Era, marked with Indonesia declaring its freedom on August 17, 1945. The name was changed to Pemerintah Nasional Kota Jakarta (Jakarta City National Government) and it kept on changing a few more times before it settled on Jakarta.
• In 1956, looking back at history, the city parliament declared June 22, 1527 as Jakarta's birthday.
• In 1961 based on government decisions, Jakarta was called Special City District of Jakarta.
• August 31, 1964 based on government decision, Jakarta served as Indonesian's capital city.

There it is, the history of my beloved home.


Happy 484th Birthday, Jakarta!

Wishing you nothing but the best.