Angke Mosque, officially known as Masjid Jami Angke or Masjid Al-Anwar, located at

Tambora, Jakarta Tambora is a subdistrict of West Jakarta, Indonesia. Tambora Subdistrict is bounded by a railway to the west and to the north, Kali Krukut - Kali Besar canal to the east, and Duri Selatan Road to the south. The Roa Malaka Administrative Villag ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. It is one of the oldest mosques in Jakarta. Well-maintained and retaining its original form, the mosque has been called by the historian

Denys Lombard Denys Lombard (1938 – January 8, 1998) was a leading Asian expert with contributions to Southeast Asian studies, Sinology, and the history of maritime Asia. He was famous for efforts to compare insular Southeast Asia and the Asian Seas to the Med ...

as 'une des plus élégantes de la vieille villa' (one of the most elegant of the old town). The history of the mosque reflects the multiethnic and multilayered origin of colonial Jakarta.

History

The

kampung A kampong (''kampung'' in Malay and Indonesian) is the term for a village in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore and a "port" in Cambodia. The term applies to traditional villages, especially of the indigenous people, and has also been used ...

settlement around the mosque was known as ''Kampung Goesti'' as it was settled by Balinese people under the leadership of Kapitan Goesti Ktut Badulu.
Angke, Masjid. By the mid-eighteenth century, this community seems to have converted from their ancestral Hinduism in Indonesia, Hinduism to Islam. The mosque was founded on April 2, 1761. Both the main benefactor of the mosque, Nyonya Tan (née Oey), and its building contractor, Syaikh Liong Tan, were '' mualaf'' (Muslim converts) who hailed from Batavia's local Chinese community. The mosque is located close to a canal known as Angke (

Hokkian The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in T ...

''ang'', "blood" and ''ke'', carcass), so called because the stream was located close to a slaughterhouse and so it was contaminated with blood and carcasses. The area is still known as Pejagalan ("slaughterhouse").In 1856 Prince Syarif Hamid, a Sultan from

Pontianak Pontianak or Khuntien is the capital of the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan, founded first as a trading port on the island of Borneo, occupying an area of 118.31 km2 in the delta of the Kapuas River at a point where it is joined ...

was captured by the Dutch and held at Manggadua. When he died he was buried in front of the mosque on July 17, 1858. People from Pontianak often visit his grave and many of them have decided to stay at Angke. Many Chinese in this area are devout Moslems. Many tombstones near the mosque bear Chinese as well as Arabic inscriptions. The oldest tombstones show Islamic

Banten Banten ( id, Banten; Sundanese: , romanized ''Banten'') is the westernmost province on the island of Java, Indonesia. Its capital city is Serang. The province borders West Java and the Special Capital Region of Jakarta on the east, the Ja ...

and Aceh origins. Angke mosque has been restored several times; last restoration occurred in 1985-1987. The building is a cultural heritage protected under law.

Architecture

It is the only mosque in Jakarta that has remained unaltered since it was built. Its roof is on two levels, the typical Javanese style for roofs of places of worship. The architecture of the mosque follows the form of a traditional mosque of Java, apparent in its tiered roof, but various different elements - Balinese, Chinese and Dutch - are apparent throughout the house of worship. Balinese elements are pronounced, particularly in the mosque's window shutters. The tips of its roof take the form of a Balinese ''punggel'', which curves up like in traditional

Balinese architecture Balinese architecture is a vernacular architecture tradition of Balinese people that inhabits volcanic island of Bali, Indonesia. The Balinese architecture is a centuries-old architectural tradition influenced by Balinese culture developed from ...

. The

bracketing In photography, bracketing is the general technique of taking several shots of the same subject using different camera settings. Bracketing is useful and often recommended in situations that make it difficult to obtain a satisfactory image with ...

construction of the roof follows Chinese norms. Some of the decorative elements on the roof take the form of a Chinese lotus, a symbol of Buddhist enlightenment. Dutch colonial influences are also apparent in the main door and window ornamentation of the mosque. The mosque is of small size, 15 x 15 m, within a land of 400 sqm. The mosque complex contains a cemetery.

References

{{Mosques in Indonesia Mosques in Jakarta Religious buildings and structures completed in 1761 18th-century mosques

History

Architecture

See also

References