Vihara Dharma Bhakti, also known as 金德院 (Mandarin Jīn dé yuàn or Hokkien Kim Tek Ie), is a klenteng (a local term for a Chinese temple) located in the China Town neighborhood of Glodok,

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital city, capital and list of Indonesian cities by population, largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coa ...

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 Gui ...

. Completed in 1650, Vihara Dharma Bhakti is the oldest Chinese temple in Jakarta.

History

The complex of Vihara Dharma Bhakti was erected in 1650 under the order of ''Luitenant der Chinezen'' Kwee Hoen. The temple was named ''Kwan Im Teng'' in Hokkien or ''Guānyīn tíng'' in Mandarin (觀音亭), literally "Pavilion of

Guanyin Guanyin () is a Bodhisattva associated with compassion. She is the East Asian representation of Avalokiteśvara ( sa, अवलोकितेश्वर) and has been adopted by other Eastern religions, including Chinese folk religion. She ...

", to honor Kwan Im whom the temple is dedicated to. The name ''Kwan Im Teng'' is the origin of the word ''klenteng'' itself, later becoming a general term in the Indies to refer to any Chinese place of worship. The temple was burned to ground during the massacre of the Chinese ethnic group in 1740. Following the incident,

Governor-General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff established a semi-autonomous organization for each ethnic group to supervised and coordinated each of the community's social and religious matter. For the Chinese ethnic group, the organization was called

Kong Koan A kong koan (; Dutch: ''Chinese Raad''; Indonesian: ''Raad Tjina'') or "chinese council", was a high government body in the major capitals of the Dutch East Indies, consisting of all incumbent Chinese officers in those cities. It acted as both a ju ...

. The Kong Koan restored the temple in 1755 under the leadership of a ''Kapitein der Chinezen'' Oey Tji Lo, as well as managing all the maintenance of the Chinese temple. The restored temple received the name Kim Tek Ie (or Jīn Dé Yuàn in Mandarin). Kong Koan also managed the other old Chinese temples in Batavia, among them are the Kuan Im Tong, a Chinese temple in Ancol, and Hian Thian Shang Te. Following the end of the Dutch colony in Indonesia, the Kong Koan was dissolved. Management of Chinese temples in Indonesia was done by an organization called Dewan Wihara Indonesia or DEWI (The Council of Indonesian Vihara). For temple management, a person serving as the "head censer" or Lu-zhu with his assistants were set for each Chinese temple and are responsibility for holding a fund-raising activities for the temple as well as managing religious ceremonies in the temple. A Lu-zhu is usually chosen from an influential entrepreneur or businessman in the community. Following the nationalization of names in 1965, The DEWI recommended the name Vihara Dharma Bhakti for Kim Tek Ie, as a nationalistic effort to remove all foreign-sounding names in Indonesia.

2015 Fire

On the morning of March 2, 2015, Vihara Dharma Bhakti was destroyed by fire. The source of the fire was from a piece of tarpaulin hanging near candles that caught alight and then spread throughout the main building. Among the damage were the ornamented roof frame of the temple and some 40 historic sculptures.

Festival and ceremonies

Vihara Dharma Bhakti is the center of Chinese-related festivities in Jakarta. Among the most notable celebration held in the temple was the

Zhong Yuan Festival The Ghost Festival, also known as the Zhongyuan Festival (traditional Chinese: 中元節; simplified Chinese: ) in Taoism and Yulanpen Festival () in Buddhism, is a traditional Taoist and Buddhist festival held in certain East Asian countri ...

(local Hokkien name ''Cioko'') held in the temple's courtyard, and the

Lantern Festival The Lantern Festival ( zh, t=元宵節, s=元宵节, first=t, hp=Yuánxiāo jié), also called Shangyuan Festival ( zh, t=上元節, s=上元节, first=t, hp=Shàngyuán jié), is a Chinese traditional festival celebrated on the fifteenth d ...

(''Cap go meh''). During the colonial period, a

Peranakan The Peranakans () are an ethnic group defined by their genealogical descent from the first waves of Southern Chinese settlers to maritime Southeast Asia, known as Nanyang (), namely the British Colonial ruled ports in the Malay Peninsula, ...

Chinese opera Traditional Chinese opera (), or ''Xiqu'', is a form of musical theatre in China with roots going back to the early periods in China. It is an amalgamation of various art forms that existed in ancient China, and evolved gradually over more tha ...

was performed yearly every

Vesak Vesak (Pali: ''Vesākha''; sa, Vaiśākha), also known as Buddha Jayanti, Buddha Purnima and Buddha Day, is a holiday traditionally observed by Buddhists in South Asia and Southeast Asia as well as Tibet and Mongolia. The festival commemora ...

, accompanied by the Batavian

kroncong Kroncong (pronounced "kronchong"; id, Keroncong, nl, Krontjong) is the name of a ukulele-like instrument and an Indonesian musical style that typically makes use of the kroncong (the sound ' comes from this instrument, so the music is called ...

music and enlivened with traditional games.

Gallery

File:In the Kim Tek Ie Valentyn c.1700.png, Kim Tek Ie Temple around 1700 by

François Valentyn François Valentyn or Valentijn (17 April 1666 – 6 August 1727) was a Dutch Calvinist minister, naturalist and author whose ''Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën'' ("Old and New East-India") describes the history of the Dutch East India Company while als ...

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM De Jin De Yuan tempel in Batavia TMnr 60018273.jpg, Vihara Dharma Bhakti in 1932 File:Jin De Yuan Main Altar.jpg, The main altar of Jin De Yuan prior to the 2015 fire. File:金德院御本尊.jpg, The main altar (2019).

References

Cited works