The Pancasila Building () is a historic building located in Central Jakarta,

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 ...

. The name "Pancasila" refers to the speech delivered by Sukarno in the building on which he spoke about the concept of Pancasila, a philosophical concept which would be the foundation of the Indonesian nation, on June 1, 1945. Built in the early 1830s, the building is one of the many 19th-century colonial landmarks in Jakarta. The Pancasila Building currently belongs to and is under the preservation of the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

History

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM De woning van de luitenant-generaal kommandant van het leger TMnr 3728-779

The building was built in the Weltevreden neighborhood, a parcel of land acquired by

Cornelis Chastelein Cornelis Chastelein, also written ''Chasteleijn'' or ''Chastelijn'' (Amsterdam, August 10, 1657 – Batavia, June 28, 1714) was born of a notable merchant family. He was the youngest member of a family of eight children. His father, Anthony Chastel ...

on 6 March 1697 on the east side of the ''bovenstad'' (the Upper Town) in what is now the area to the east of Merdeka Square. It was built in 1830 as a residence for Prince (''Hertog'') Bernhard van Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1792-1862), the German-born commander of the Dutch colonial army. It was designed in a Neoclassical

Empire Style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 durin ...

on the east bank of the Ciliwung. The street was originally named ''Hertogsweg'' in honor of the prnce. The building was used by successive army commanders until the headquarters was moved to Bandung some time between 1914 and 1917. In 1918, the building housed the Volksraad of the Dutch East Indies, the first national-level council which included native Indonesian representation. It received the name ''Volksraadgebouw'' (Building of the Volksraad). The building was particularly suitable because of the large hall, which extended the entire width. With the dissolution of the Volksraad during the Japanese occupation, from 1943, the building was re-purposed for the

Central Advisory Council The , lead=yes was the name given to bodies established by the Japanese military administration in Java and Sumatra in 1943 during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies to notionally provide Indonesians with popular representation. Bac ...

, an advisory body set up by the Japanese, and in 1945 was used by the

Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Independence The Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Independence ( id, Badan Penyelidik Usaha-usaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan, BPUPK; ja, 独立準備調査会, Hepburn: , Nihon-shiki / Kunrei-shiki: ), sometimes referred to as the Investigating Co ...

(BPUPK). On 1 June 1945, future Indonesian president Sukarno gave a speech before the BPUPK in which he outlined the philosophy of the Indonesian state, the Pancasila After Indonesian independence, in the early 1950, the building was transferred to the State Department, and then in 1956 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was renamed ''Gedung Pancasila'' or the Pancasila Building on June 1, 1964. During the 1960s, the building was used to educate prospective diplomats. Today, the building is mainly used for important ceremonies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

References

Cited works

* * * * *{{cite book , last=Merrillees , first=Scott , date=2015 , title=Jakarta: Portraits of a Capital 1950-1980 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=akLWjgEACAAJ&q=JAKARTA:+Portraits+of+a+Capital+1950-1980 , location=Jakarta , publisher=Equinox Publishing , isbn=9786028397308

History

References

Cited works

See also