Makassar (, mak, ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, Mangkasara’, ) is the
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
of the
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 ...
n
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...
of
South Sulawesi
South Sulawesi ( id, Sulawesi Selatan) is a province in the southern peninsula of Sulawesi. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital is Makassar. The province is bordered by Central Sula ...
. It is the largest city in the region of
Eastern Indonesia
This is a list of some of the regions of Indonesia. Many regions are defined in law or regulations by the central government. At different times of Indonesia's history, the nation has been designated as having regions that do not necessarily corr ...
and the country's fifth-largest urban center after
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
,
Surabaya
Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...
,
Medan
Medan (; English: ) is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of North Sumatra, as well as a regional hub and financial centre of Sumatra. According to the National Development Planning Agency, Medan is one of the four main ...
, and
Bandung
Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...
.
[Ministry of Internal Affairs]
Registration Book for Area Code and Data of 2013
/ref> The city is located on the southwest coast of the island of Sulawesi, facing the Makassar Strait
Makassar Strait is a strait between the islands of Borneo and Sulawesi in Indonesia. To the north it joins the Celebes Sea, while to the south it meets the Java Sea. To the northeast, it forms the Sangkulirang Bay south of the Mangkalihat Pe ...
.
Throughout its history, Makassar has been an important trading port, hosting the center of the Gowa Sultanate
The Sultanate of Gowa (sometimes written as ''Goa''; not to be confused with Goa in India) was one of the great kingdoms in the history of Indonesia and the most successful kingdom in the South Sulawesi region. People of this kingdom come fro ...
and a Portuguese naval base before its conquest by the Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
in the 17th century.
It remained an important port in the Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
, serving Eastern Indonesia
This is a list of some of the regions of Indonesia. Many regions are defined in law or regulations by the central government. At different times of Indonesia's history, the nation has been designated as having regions that do not necessarily corr ...
n regions with Makassarese fishers going as far south as the Australian coast. For a brief period after Indonesian independence
The Proclamation of Indonesian Independence ( id, Proklamasi Kemerdekaan Indonesia, or simply ''Proklamasi'') was read at 10:00 on Friday, 17 August 1945 in Jakarta. The declaration marked the start of the diplomatic and armed resistance of t ...
, Makassar became the capital of the State of East Indonesia
The State of East Indonesia ( id, Negara Indonesia Timur, old spelling: ''Negara Indonesia Timoer'', nl, Oost-Indonesië) was a post–World War II state formed in the eastern half of Dutch East Indies. Established in December 1946, it became ...
, during which an uprising occurred.
The city's area is , and it had a population of around 1.424 million in 2020[Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2019.] within Makassar City's fifteen administrative districts. Its official metropolitan area, known as ''Mamminasata'', with the addition of thirty-three further districts of neighboring regencies, covers an area of and had a population of around 2,698,915 according to the 2020 Census.
According to the National Development Planning Agency
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
, Makassar is one of the four main central cities of Indonesia, alongside Medan
Medan (; English: ) is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of North Sumatra, as well as a regional hub and financial centre of Sumatra. According to the National Development Planning Agency, Medan is one of the four main ...
, Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
, and Surabaya
Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...
.
According to Bank Indonesia
Bank Indonesia (BI) is the central bank of the Republic of Indonesia. It replaced in 1953 the Bank of Java ( nl, De Javasche Bank, DJB), which had been created in 1828 to serve the financial needs of the Dutch East Indies.
History
Bank of Ja ...
, Makassar has the second-highest commercial property
Commercial property, also called commercial real estate, investment property or income property, is real estate (buildings or land) intended to generate a profit, either from capital gains or rental income. Commercial property includes office bu ...
values in Indonesia, after Greater Jakarta
The Jakarta metropolitan area or Greater Jakarta, known locally as Jabodetabek (an acronym of Jakarta–Bogor–Depok–Tangerang–Bekasi), and sometimes extended to Jabodetabekjur (with the acronym extended to include part of Cianjur Regency) ...
.
Names and etymology
The name Makassar was long spelled ''Macassar'' in English and many other European languages, although the Portuguese spelled it ''Macáçar'' during their presence there in the 17th century.
The Dutch spelled the name both ''Makasser'' and ''Makassar'' during their rule over the city as part of the Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
. With the independence following World War II, the Indonesians kept the Dutch spelling of ''Makassar'' with a double 's', despite the fact that the Indonesian language does not have geminate consonants.[Anthony Jukes, ''A Grammar of Makasar: A Language of South Sulawesi, Indonesia.'' Brill, 2019]
pg. xviv.
On 1 September 1971 (until 1999), the city was renamed after a variant of the pre-colonial name of the city's Fort Rotterdam
Fort Rotterdam is a 17th-century fort in Makassar on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is a Dutch fort built on top of an existing fort of the Gowa Kingdom. The first fort on the site was constructed by the a local sultan in around 1634, ...
, ''Ujung Pandang'' (Makassarese: ''Jumpandang'').
The action was taken at the time Makassar was expanding from its original 21 km2 to encompass neighboring regions to de-emphasise the ethnic
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
connotations of the name, enlarged to its present area. Ujung Pandang remained locally unpopular and, on 13 October 1999, the name reverted to ''Makassar'' under President B. J. Habibie
Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie (; 25 June 1936 – 11 September 2019) was an Indonesian engineer and politician who was the third president of Indonesia from 1998 to 1999. Less than three months after his inauguration as the seventh vice preside ...
, himself a native of South Sulawesi.
In the local language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
, the city is known as ''Mangkasara'', written in the Lontara script
The Lontara script (), also known as the Bugis script, Bugis-Makassar script, or Urupu Sulapa’ Eppa’ "four-cornered letters", is one of Indonesia's traditional scripts developed in the South Sulawesi region. The script is primarily used to ...
traditionally used to write Makassarese as well as Buginese, which is also widely spoken in the city.
The adjective form of the city's name and the eponymous ethnic group has varied over time. In English, ''Macassarese'', ''Makassarese'', and ''Macassan'' have all been used, although the latter is usually used in the historical context of trepanger
Trepanging is the act of collection or harvesting of sea cucumbers, known in Indonesian as ''trepang'', Malay těripang, and used as food.
The collector, or fisher, of ''trepang'' is a trepanger.
Trepanging is comparable to clamming, crabbin ...
s in northern Australia (the Macassan contact with Australia
Makassar people from the region of Sulawesi in Indonesia began visiting the coast of northern Australia sometime around the middle of the 18th century, first in the Kimberley region, and some decades later in Arnhem Land. They were men who col ...
) and may include people not from Makassar. More recently, forms such as ''Makasarese'' and simply ''Makasar'' (both with a single 's') have appeared.
History
The trade in spices figured prominently in the history of Sulawesi, which involved frequent struggles between rival native and foreign powers for control of the lucrative trade during the pre-colonial and colonial period when spices from the region were in high demand in the West. Much of South Sulawesi's early history was written in old texts that can be traced back to the 13th and 14th centuries.
Makassar is mentioned in the Nagarakretagama
The ''Nagarakretagama'' or ''Nagarakṛtāgama'', also known as ''Desawarnana'' or ''Deśavarṇana'', is an Old Javanese eulogy to Hayam Wuruk, a Javanese king of the Majapahit Empire. It was written on lontar as a ''kakawin'' by Mpu Prapan ...
, a Javanese eulogy composed in 14th century during the reign of Majapahit
Majapahit ( jv, ꦩꦗꦥꦲꦶꦠ꧀; ), also known as Wilwatikta ( jv, ꦮꦶꦭ꧀ꦮꦠꦶꦏ꧀ꦠ; ), was a Javanese people, Javanese Hinduism, Hindu-Buddhism, Buddhist thalassocracy, thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia that was ba ...
king Hayam Wuruk
Hayam Wuruk (Sanskrit: हयम् वुरुक्, Kawi: ꦲꦪꦩ꧀ꦮꦸꦫꦸꦏ꧀) (1334–1389), also called Rajasanagara, Pa-ta-na-pa-na-wu, or Bhatara Prabhu after 1350, was a Javanese Hindu emperor from the Rajasa Dynasty and th ...
. In the text, Makassar is mentioned as an island under Majapahit dominance, alongside Butun, Salaya
Salaya is a city and a municipality in Devbhumi Dwarka district, headquartered Jamkhambhaliya in the Indian state of Gujarat.
Geography
Salaya is located at . It has an average elevation of 19 metres (62 feet).
Demographics
India c ...
and Banggawi.
Makassarese Kingdom
The 9th King of Gowa Tumaparisi Kallonna (1512–1546) is described in the royal chronicle as the first Gowa ruler to ally with the nearby trade-oriented polity of Tallo, a partnership which endured throughout Makassar's apogee as an independent kingdom. The center of the dual kingdom was at Sombaopu, near the then mouth of the Jeneberang River about 10 km south of the present city center, where, where an international port and a fortress were gradually developed. First Malay traders (expelled from their Melaka metropolis by the Portuguese in 1511), then Portuguese from at least the 1540s, began to make this port their base for trading to the Spice Islands
A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices ar ...
(Maluku), further east.
The growth of Dutch maritime power over the spice trade after 1600 made Makassar more vital as an alternative port open to all traders, as well as a source of rice to trade with rice-deficient Maluku.
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) sought a monopoly of Malukan nutmeg and cloves and came close to succeeding at the expense of English, Portuguese and Muslims from the 1620s. The Makassar kings maintained a policy of free trade, insisting on the right of any visitor to do business in the city, and rejecting the attempts of the Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
to establish a monopoly.[Andaya, Leonard. "Makasar's Moment of Glory." ''Indonesian Heritage: Early Modern History''. Vol. 3, ed. ]Anthony Reid
Anthony Reid is a British auto racing driver, born on 17 May 1957 in Glasgow, Scotland. He was educated at Loretto School in Edinburgh. He lives in England.
Formula cars
He spent many years in Formula Three and other junior single-seater cham ...
, Sian Jay and T. Durairajoo. Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2001. 58–59.
Makassar depended mainly on the Muslim Malay and Catholic Portuguese sailors communities as its two crucial economic assets. However the English East India Company also established a post there in 1613, the Danish Company arrived in 1618, and Chinese, Spanish and Indian traders were all important. When the Dutch conquered Portuguese Melaka in 1641, Makassar became the most extensive Portuguese base in Southeast Asia.
The Portuguese population had been in the hundreds but rose to several thousand, served by churches of the Franciscans, Dominicans and Jesuits as well as the regular clergy. By the 16th century, Makassar had become Sulawesi
Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...
's principal port and center of the powerful Gowa and Tallo sultanates which between them had a series of 11 fortresses and strongholds and a fortified sea wall that extended along the coast.
Portuguese rulers called the city ''Macáçar''. Makassar was very ably led in the first half of the 17th century when it effectively resisted Dutch pressure to close down its trade to Maluku and made allies rather than enemies of the neighboring Bugis states. Karaeng Matoaya (c.1573–1636) was the ruler of Tallo from 1593, as well as Chancellor or Chief Minister (''Tuma'bicara-butta'') of the partner kingdom of Gowa. He managed the succession to the Gowa throne in 1593 of the 7-year-old boy later known as Sultan Alaud-din, and guided him through the acceptance of Islam in 1603, numerous modernizations in military and civil governance, and cordial relations with the foreign traders. The conversion of the citizens to Islam was followed by the first official Friday Prayer
In Islam, Friday prayer or Congregational prayer ( ar, صَلَاة ٱلْجُمُعَة, ') is a prayer ('' ṣalāt'') that Muslims hold every Friday, after noon instead of the Zuhr prayer. Muslims ordinarily pray five times each day according ...
in the city, traditionally dated to 9 November 1607, which is celebrated today as the city's official anniversary. John Jourdain called Makassar in his day "the kindest people in all the Indias to strangers".
Matoaya's eldest son succeeded him on the throne of Tallo, but as Chancellor, he had evidently groomed his brilliant second son, Karaeng Pattingalloang (1600–54), who exercised that position from 1639 until his death. Pattingalloang must have been partly educated by Portuguese, since as an adult he spoke Portuguese "as fluently as people from Lisbon itself", and avidly read all the books that came his way in Portuguese, Spanish or Latin. A French Jesuit, Father Alexandre de Rhodes
Alexandre de Rhodes (15 March 1593 – 5 November 1660) was an Avignonese Jesuit missionary and lexicographer who had a lasting impact on Christianity in Vietnam. He wrote the ''Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum'', the first trilingua ...
, described Pattingalloang's passion for mathematics and astronomy, on which he pestered the priest endlessly, while even one of his Dutch adversaries conceded he was "a man of great knowledge, science and understanding".
Dutch colonial period
After Pattingalloang's death in 1654, a new king of Gowa, Sultan Hasanuddin, rejected the alliance with Tallo by declaring he would be his own Chancellor. Conflicts within the kingdom quickly escalated, the Bugis rebelled under the leadership of Bone, and the Dutch VOC seized its long-awaited chance to conquer Makassar with the help of the Bugis (1667-69).
Their first conquest in 1667 was the northern Makassar fort of Ujung Pandang, while in 1669 they conquered and destroyed Sombaopu in one of the greatest battles of 17th century Indonesia. The VOC moved the city center northward, around the Ujung Pandang fort they rebuilt and renamed Fort Rotterdam
Fort Rotterdam is a 17th-century fort in Makassar on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is a Dutch fort built on top of an existing fort of the Gowa Kingdom. The first fort on the site was constructed by the a local sultan in around 1634, ...
. From this base, they managed to destroy the strongholds of the Sultan of Gowa, who was then forced to live on the outskirts of Makassar. Following the Java War
The Java War ( jv, ꦥꦼꦫꦁꦗꦮ) or Diponegoro War () was fought in central Java from 1825 to 1830, between the colonial Dutch Empire and native Javanese rebels. The war started as a rebellion led by Prince Diponegoro, a leading member ...
(1825–30), Prince Diponegoro
Prince Diponegoro ( jv, ꦢꦶꦥꦤꦼꦒꦫ; born Bendara Raden Mas Mustahar, ; later Bendara Raden Mas Antawirya ; 11 November 1785 – 8 January 1855), also known as Dipanegara, was a Javanese people, Javanese prince who opposed the Dutch Colo ...
was exiled to Fort Rotterdam until his death in 1855.
After the arrival of the Dutch, there was an important Portuguese community, also called a ''bandel'', that received the name of Borrobos.
Around 1660 the leader of this community, which today would be equivalent to a neighbourhood, was the Portuguese Francisco Vieira de Figueiredo.
The character of this old trading center changed as a walled city known as Vlaardingen grew. Gradually, in defiance of the Dutch, the Arabs, Malays and Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
returned to trade outside the fortress walls and were joined later by the Chinese.
The town again became a collecting point for the produce of eastern Indonesia – the copra
Copra (from ) is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted from copr ...
, rattan
Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed-canopy old-growth tropical forests of ...
, Pearl
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...
s, trepang and sandalwood
Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods for us ...
and the famous oil made from bado nuts used in Europe as men's hairdressing – hence the anti-macassars (embroidered cloths protecting the head-rests of upholstered chairs).
Although the Dutch controlled the coast, it was not until the early 20th century that they gained power over the southern interior through a series of treaties with local rulers. Meanwhile, Dutch missionaries converted many of the Toraja
The Torajans are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja"). Most of the population is Chri ...
people to Christianity. By 1938, the population of Makassar had reached around 84,000 – a town described by writer Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...
as "the prettiest and perhaps, cleanest looking of all the towns in the islands".
During World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the Makassar area was defended by approximately 1000 men of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army
The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army ( nl, Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger; KNIL, ) was the military force maintained by the Kingdom of the Netherlands in its colony of the Dutch East Indies, in areas that are now part of Indonesia. The ...
commanded by Colonel M. Vooren. He decided that he could not defend the coast, and was planning to fight a guerrilla war inland. The Japanese landed near Makassar on 9 February 1942. The defenders retreated but were soon overtaken and captured.
After independence
In 1945, Indonesia proclaimed its Independence, and in 1946, Makassar became the capital of the State of East Indonesia
The State of East Indonesia ( id, Negara Indonesia Timur, old spelling: ''Negara Indonesia Timoer'', nl, Oost-Indonesië) was a post–World War II state formed in the eastern half of Dutch East Indies. Established in December 1946, it became ...
, part of the United States of Indonesia
The United States of Indonesia ( nl, Verenigde Staten van Indonesië, id, Republik Indonesia Serikat, abbreviated as RIS), was a short-lived federal state to which the Netherlands formally transferred sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies (except ...
. In 1950, it was the site of fighting between pro-Federalist forces under Captain Kahar Muzakkar and Republican forces under Colonel Sunkono during the Makassar uprising
The Makassar Uprising, also known as Andi Aziz rebellion, was a skirmish in Makassar, Sulawesi, between former Royal Dutch East Indies Army soldiers under Captain Andi Aziz and the Republic of the United States of Indonesia government. The pu ...
.[Westerling (1952), p. 210]
Connection with Australia
Makassar is also a significant fishing center in Sulawesi
Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...
. One of its major industries is the trepang (sea cucumber
Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class Holothuroidea (). They are marine animals with a leathery skin and an elongated body containing a single, branched gonad. Sea cucumbers are found on the sea floor worldwide. The number of holothuria ...
) industry. Trepang fishing brought the Makassan people into contact with Indigenous Australian
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
peoples of northern Australia, long before European settlement (from 1788).
C. C. MacKnight in his 1976 work entitled ''Voyage to Marege: Macassan Trepangers in Northern Australia'' has shown that they began frequenting the north of Australia around 1700 in search of trepang (sea-slug, sea cucumber, Beche-de-mer), an edible Holothurian
Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class Holothuroidea (). They are marine animals with a leathery skin and an elongated body containing a single, branched gonad. Sea cucumbers are found on the sea floor worldwide. The number of holothurian ...
. They left their waters during the Northwest Monsoon in December or January for what is now Arnhem Land
Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...
, Marriage or Marega and the Kimberley region or Kayu Djawa. They returned home with the south-east trade winds
The trade winds or easterlies are the permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisph ...
in April.
A fleet of between 24 and 26 Macassan perahu
Proas are various types of multi-hull outrigger sailboats of the Austronesian peoples. The terms were used for native Austronesian ships in European records during the Colonial era indiscriminately, and thus can confusingly refer to the do ...
s was seen in 1803 by French explorers under Nicolas Baudin on the Holothuria Banks in the Timor Sea
The Timor Sea ( id, Laut Timor, pt, Mar de Timor, tet, Tasi Mane or ) is a relatively shallow sea bounded to the north by the island of Timor, to the east by the Arafura Sea, and to the south by Australia.
The sea contains a number of reefs, ...
. In February 1803, Matthew Flinders in the ''Investigator'' met six perahus with 20–25 men each on board and was told by the fleet's chief Pobasso
Pobasso, also spelt Probasso or Pobassoo, was the chief of a division of the Makassan fleet of perahu in the waters between northern Australia and Indonesia in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The fleet harvested trepang, or sea cucumber, tra ...
, that there were 60 perahus then on the north Australian coast. They were fishing for trepang and appeared to have only a small compass as a navigation aid. In June 1818 Macassan trepang fishing was noted by Phillip Parker King in the vicinity of Port Essington
Port Essington is an inlet and historic site located on the Cobourg Peninsula in the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park in Australia's Northern Territory. It was the site of an early attempt at British settlement, but now exists only as a remote ...
in the Arafura Sea.
In 1865, R.J. Sholl, then Government Resident for the British settlement at Camden Sound (near Augustus Island in the Kimberley region) observed seven 'Macassan' perahus with a total of around 300 men on board. He believed that they made kidnapping raids and ranged as far south as Roebuck Bay
Roebuck Bay is a bay on the coast of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Its entrance is bounded in the north by the town of Broome, and in the south by Bush Point and Sandy Point. It is named after , the ship captained by William ...
(later Broome) where 'quite a fleet' was seen around 1866. Sholl believed that they did not venture south into other areas such as Nickol Bay
Nickol Bay is a bay between the Burrup Peninsula and Dixon Island, on the Pilbara coast in Western Australia.
Once alternatively spelled "Nicol Bay", it was named by John Septimus Roe for a sailor who was lost overboard during an expedition.
F ...
(where the European pearling industry commenced around 1865) due to the absence of trepang in those waters.
The Macassan voyages appear to have ceased sometime in the late nineteenth century, and their place was taken by other sailors operating from elsewhere in the Indonesian archipelago.
Economy
The city is one of Indonesia's primary ports, with regular international and domestic shipping connections. It is nationally famous as an essential port of call for the pinisi
Literally, the word pinisi refers to a type of rigging (the configuration of masts, sails and ropes (‘lines’)) of Indonesian Sailing ship, sailing vessels. A pinisi carries seven to eight sails on two masts, arranged like a gaff-ketch with w ...
ships, wooden sailing ships which are among the last in use for regular long-distance trade.
During the colonial era, the city was widely known as the namesake of Makassar oil
Macassar oil is a compounded oil that was used primarily by Western European men throughout the 1800s and early 1900s as a hair conditioner to groom and style the hair.
It was popularised by Alexander Rowland (1747–1823), a celebrated London ba ...
, which it exported in substantial quantity. Makassar ebony
Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus ''Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when pol ...
is a warm black hue, streaked with tan or brown tones, and highly prized for use in making fine cabinetry and veneer
Veneer may refer to:
Materials
* Veneer (dentistry), a cosmetic treatment for teeth
* Masonry veneer, a thin facing layer of brick
* Stone veneer, a thin facing layer of stone
* Wood veneer, a thin facing layer of wood
Arts and entertainment
* ' ...
s.
Nowadays, as the largest city in Sulawesi Island
Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu A ...
and Eastern Indonesia, the city's economy depends highly on the service sector, which makes up approximately 70% of activity. Restaurant and hotel services are the most significant contributor (29.14%), followed by transportation and communication (14.86%), trading (14.86), and finance (10.58%). Industrial activity is the next most important after the service sector, with 21.34% of overall activity. The Makassar Industrial Estate (''Kawasan Industri Makassar''), located within the city's boundaries, measures at 270.84 hectares.
Transportation
Makassar has a public transportation system called ''pete-pete''. A pete-pete (known elsewhere in Indonesia as an ''angkot'') is a minibus that has been modified to carry passengers. The route of Makassar's pete-petes is denoted by the letter on the windshield. Makassar is also known for its ''becak'' (pedicab
The cycle rickshaw is a small-scale local means of transport. It is a type of hatchback tricycle designed to carry passengers on a for-hire basis. It is also known by a variety of other names such as bike taxi, velotaxi, pedicab, bikecab, ...
s), which are smaller than the " becak" on the island of Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
. In addition to becak and pete-pete, the city has a government-run bus system, taxis and ride-hailing services such as Gojek
PT Gojek Indonesia (stylized in all lower case and stylized ''j'' as goȷek, formerly styled as GO-JEK) is an Indonesian on-demand multi-service platform and digital payment technology group based in Jakarta. Gojek was first established in Indo ...
.
A bus rapid transit
Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...
(BRT), which is known as "Trans Mamminasata" was started in 2014. It has some routes through Makassar to cities around Makassar region such as Maros, Takallar, and Gowa. Run by the Indonesian Transportation Department, each bus has 20 seats and space for 20 standing passengers.
A 35-kilometer monorail
A monorail (from "mono", meaning "one", and "rail") is a railway in which the track consists of a single rail or a beam.
Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, ...
in the areas of Makassar, Maros Regency
Maros Regency ( mak, ᨆᨑᨘᨔᨘ, Màrusu’, ) is a regency of South Sulawesi province of Indonesia. It covers an area of 1,619.12 sq.km, and had a population of 319,002 at the 2010 Census and 391,774 at the Census of 2020. The official estima ...
, Sungguminasa
Sungguminasa is a town and Gowa Regency's administrative capital in South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. (Gowa Regency
Gowa (''Makassar language : '') is a regency in the province of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It has an area of 1,883.33 km2 and a population of 652,329 at the 2010 census, increasing to 765,836 at the 2020 census; the official estimate as at mi ...
), and Takalar Regency
Takalar Regency ( mak, ᨈᨀᨒᨑ, Takalara’, ) is a regency of South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It c ...
(the ''Mamminasata'' region) was proposed in 2011, with operations commencing in 2014, at a predicted cost of Rp.4 trillion ($468 million). The memorandum of understanding was signed on 25 July 2011 by Makassar city, Maros Regency
Maros Regency ( mak, ᨆᨑᨘᨔᨘ, Màrusu’, ) is a regency of South Sulawesi province of Indonesia. It covers an area of 1,619.12 sq.km, and had a population of 319,002 at the 2010 Census and 391,774 at the Census of 2020. The official estima ...
and Gowa Regency
Gowa (''Makassar language : '') is a regency in the province of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It has an area of 1,883.33 km2 and a population of 652,329 at the 2010 census, increasing to 765,836 at the 2020 census; the official estimate as at mi ...
. In 2014, the project was officially abandoned, citing insufficient ridership and a lack of financial feasibility.
The city of Makassar, its outlying districts, and the South Sulawesi Province are served by Hasanuddin International Airport. The airport is located outside the Makassar city administration area, being situated in the nearby Maros Regency
Maros Regency ( mak, ᨆᨑᨘᨔᨘ, Màrusu’, ) is a regency of South Sulawesi province of Indonesia. It covers an area of 1,619.12 sq.km, and had a population of 319,002 at the 2010 Census and 391,774 at the Census of 2020. The official estima ...
.
The city is served by ''Soekarno-Hatta Sea Port''. In January 2012 it was announced that due to limited capacity of the current dock at Soekarno-Hatta sea port, it would be expanded to 150x30 square meters to avoid the need for at least two ships to queue every day.
Administration and governance
The executive head of the city is the mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
, who is elected by direct vote for a period of five years. The mayor is assisted by a deputy mayor, who is also an elected official. There is a legislative assembly for the city, members of which are also elected for a period of five years.
Administrative districts
Makassar City is divided into 15 administrative districts (''kecamatan'') and subdivided into 153 urban villages (''kelurahan''). The districts are listed below with their areas and their populations at the 2010 Census[Biro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011.] and the 2020 Census. The table also includes the number of administrative villages (''kelurahan'') in each district.
Note (a) The 2010 population of the Sangkarrang Islands District (''Kecamatan Kepulauan Sangkarrang'') is included in the figure for the Ujung Tanah district, from which it was cut out.
Metropolitan area (''Mamminasata'')
The metropolitan area including Makassar is known as , an acronym of Makassar and the neighboring areas of Maros, Sungguminasa (Gowa
Gowa (''Makassar language : '') is a Regencies of Indonesia, regency in the province of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It has an area of 1,883.33 km2 and a population of 652,329 at the 2010 census, increasing to 765,836 at the 2020 census; the of ...
) and Takalar.
This official metropolitan area covers 2,666.63 km2 and had a population of 2,698,915 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as at mid 2021 was 2,717,283.[Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2022.] The metropolitan area of Makassar ('' Mamminasata'') extends over forty-eight administrative districts (''kecamatan
The term ''district'', in the context of Indonesia, refers to the third-level administrative subdivision, below regency or city. The local term ' is used in the majority of Indonesian areas, except in Papua, West Papua, and the Special Region of ...
''), consisting of all fifteen districts within the city, all ten districts of Takalar Regency
Takalar Regency ( mak, ᨈᨀᨒᨑ, Takalara’, ) is a regency of South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It c ...
, eleven (out of eighteen) districts of Gowa Regency
Gowa (''Makassar language : '') is a regency in the province of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It has an area of 1,883.33 km2 and a population of 652,329 at the 2010 census, increasing to 765,836 at the 2020 census; the official estimate as at mi ...
and twelve (out of fourteen) districts of Maros Regency
Maros Regency ( mak, ᨆᨑᨘᨔᨘ, Màrusu’, ) is a regency of South Sulawesi province of Indonesia. It covers an area of 1,619.12 sq.km, and had a population of 319,002 at the 2010 Census and 391,774 at the Census of 2020. The official estima ...
.
The districts of Takalar Regency
Takalar Regency ( mak, ᨈᨀᨒᨑ, Takalara’, ) is a regency of South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It c ...
which are included in the metro area are: ''Mangarabombang'', ''Mappakasunggu'', ''Sanrobone'', ''Kepulauan Tanakeke'', ''Polombangkeng Selatan'', ''Pattallassang'', ''Polombangkeng Utara'', ''Galesong Selatan'', ''Galesong'' and ''Galesong Utara''.
The districts of Gowa Regency
Gowa (''Makassar language : '') is a regency in the province of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It has an area of 1,883.33 km2 and a population of 652,329 at the 2010 census, increasing to 765,836 at the 2020 census; the official estimate as at mi ...
which are included in the metro area are: ''Somba Opu'', ''Bontomarannu'', ''Pallangga'', ''Bajeng'', ''Bajeng Barat'', ''Barombong'', ''Manuju'', ''Pattallassang'', ''Parangloe'', ''Bontonompo'' and ''Bontonompo Selatan''.
The districts of Maros Regency which are included in the metro area are: ''Maros Baru'', ''Turikale'', ''Marusu'', ''Mandai'', ''Moncongloe'', ''Bontoa'', ''Lau'', ''Tanralili'', ''Tompo Bulu'', ''Bantimurung'', ''Simbang'' and ''Cenrana''.
Climate
Makassar has a tropical monsoon climate
An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...
(Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''Am''). The average temperature for the year in Makassar is , with little variation due to its near-equatorial latitude: the average high is around and the average low around all year long.
In contrast to the virtually consistent temperature, rainfall shows wide variation between months due to the movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone
The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ ), known by sailors as the doldrums or the calms because of its monotonous windless weather, is the area where the northeast and the southeast trade winds converge. It encircles Earth near the thermal e ...
. Makassar averages around of rain on 163 days during the year, but during the month with least rainfall – August – only on one day of rain can be expected. In contrast, during its wet season
The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...
, Makassar can expect more than per month between December and February. During the wettest month of January, can be expected to fall on twenty-seven rainy days.
Demographics
Makassar is a multi-ethnic city, populated mostly by Makassarese and Buginese. The remainder are Torajans, Mandarese, Butonese, Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
and Javanese. The current population in mid 2021 is approximately 1,427,619, with a Metropolitan total of 2.72 million.
Education
* State University of Makassar
* Hasanuddin University
Hasanuddin University ( id, Universitas Hasanuddin) which is abbreviated as Unhas, is one of the largest autonomous universities in Indonesia. It is located in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Unhas was established on September 10, 1956, and n ...
* Alauddin Islamic State University
Alauddin State Islamic University or Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin (UIN Alauddin) is a state university located in Makasar, South Sulawesi. The name ''Alauddin'' originates from the name of the first king of the Gowa Sultanate who converted ...
* Muhammadiyah University of Makassar
Muhammadiyah University of Makassar ( id, Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar), also known as Unismuh Makassar, is a private university located in the city of Makassar, Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country ...
* Muslim University of Indonesia
* Merchant Marine Polytechnic of Makassar
* Aviation Polytechnic of Makassar
By 2007, the city government began requiring all skirts of schoolgirls be below the knee.
Traditional cuisine
Makassar has several famous traditional foods, the most famous of which is ''coto makassar
Coto Makassar or Coto Mangkasara ( Makassarese), is an Indonesian traditional soup originating from Makassar, South Sulawesi. It is a variant of '' soto'' traditional beef and offal stew with seasoned broth made from ground peanuts and spices ...
''. It is a '' soto'' (stew) made from a mixture of nuts, spices, and selected offal which may include beef brain, tongue and intestine. ''Konro
Konro is an Indonesian rib soup originating with the Makassarese people of South Sulawesi. Usually this soup was made with ribs, such as spareribs or beef as main ingredient. The soup is brown-black in color and eaten either with burasa or ketupat ...
'', a rib dish, is also a popular traditional food in Makassar. Both ''coto makassar'' and ''konro'' are usually consumed with ''burasa
''Burasa'' () (also ''burasa, ''burasak'' or ''buras'') is an Indonesian rice dumpling, cooked with coconut milk packed inside a banana leaf pouch. It is similar to ''lontong'', but with a richer flavour acquired from the coconut milk. It is a de ...
'' or ''ketupat
''Kupat'' (in Javanese and Sundanese), ''ketupat'' (in Indonesian and Malay), or ''tipat'' (in Balinese) is a Javanese rice cake packed inside a diamond-shaped container of woven palm leaf pouch, Originating in Indonesia, it is also found i ...
'', a glutinous rice cake. Another famous dish from Makassar is ''ayam goreng
Ayam goreng is an Indonesian and Malaysian dish consisting of chicken deep fried in oil. ''Ayam goreng'' literally means "fried chicken" in Malay, Indonesian and also in many Indonesian regional languages (e.g. Javanese).
Marination and spi ...
sulawesi'' (Celebes fried chicken); the chicken is marinated with a traditional soy sauce recipe for up to 24 hours before being fried to a golden color. The dish is usually served with chicken broth, rice and special ''sambal
Sambal is an Indonesian chilli sauce or paste, typically made from a mixture of a variety of chilli peppers with secondary ingredients, such as shrimp paste, garlic, ginger, shallot, scallion, palm sugar, and lime juice. ''Sambal'' is an Indo ...
'' (chilli sauce).
In addition, Makassar is the home of ''pisang epe'' (pressed banana), as well as ''pisang ijo'' (green banana). ''Pisang epe'' is a banana which is pressed, grilled, and covered with palm sugar sauce and sometimes consumed with durian
The durian (, ) is the edible fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus ''Durio''. There are 30 recognised ''Durio'' species, at least nine of which produce edible fruit. ''Durio zibethinus'', native to Borneo and Sumatra, is the onl ...
. Many street vendors sell ''pisang epe'', especially around the area of Losari Beach. ''Pisang ijo'' is a banana covered with green colored flour, coconut milk, and syrup. ''Pisang ijo'' is sometimes served iced and often consumed at iftar
Iftar ( ar, translit=Iftar Ramadan, إفطار رمضان), also known as (from , , 'breakfast'), (), is the evening meal with which Muslims end their daily Ramadan fast at sunset. They break their fast at the time of the call to prayer (a ...
during Ramadan
, type = islam
, longtype = Religious
, image = Ramadan montage.jpg
, caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. ...
.
See also
* List of twin towns and sister cities in Indonesia
This is a list of places in Indonesia having standing links to local communities in other countries. In most cases, the association, especially when formalised by local government, is known as "town twinning" (usually in Europe) or "sister cities ...
* Sacred Heart Cathedral, Makassar
The Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral ( id, Katedral Hati Kudus Yesus yang Mahakudus) is the cathedral belonging to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Makassar in the city of Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi, Indonesia.
In 1525 the city of Mak ...
Notes
References
*
* MacKnight, C.C., ''Voyage to Marege. Macassan Trepangers in Northern Australia'', Melbourne University Press, 1976.
* Reid, Anthony. 1999. ''Charting the shape of early modern Southeast Asia''. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books. . pp. 100–154.
Further reading
* McCarthy, M., 2000, Indonesian divers in Australian waters. The Great Circle, vol. 20, No.2:120–137.
* Turner, S. 2003: ''Indonesia’s Small Entrepreneurs: Trading on the Margins''. London, RoutledgeCurzon 288pp. Hardback.
* Turner, S. 2007: Small-Scale Enterprise Livelihoods and Social Capital in Eastern Indonesia: Ethnic Embeddedness and Exclusion. ''Professional Geographer''. 59 (4), 407–20.
External links
*
Indonesia Official Tourism Website
{{Authority control
Cities in Indonesia
Populated places in South Sulawesi
Port cities and towns in Indonesia
Provincial capitals in Indonesia
South Sulawesi