tomb that tells stories...

    the cemetery also known as kebon jahe kober (the ginger garden cemetery) the name 'ginger garden' might refers to the name of the area where the cemetery situated. this cemetery was also one of the first cemetery applying the concept of modern cemetery park/garden with arboretum concept in the world.

this museum situated near the national monument, monas, formerly was a noble western and dutch high official cemetery built by the netherland indie government in 1759 and was known as the kebon jahe cemetery (ginger field for direct translation).

there are many noted dutch people buried there including two military men maj. gen. a.v. michiel and maj. gen. j.h. r. kohler, who respectively led wars in bali and aceh, as well as the founder of stovia school of medicine (now the university of indonesia ) h. v. roll. and the jakarta arc bishop 1874 - 1893: a.c claessens.

other important people buried there are olivie mariamne raffles -- wife of british governor general thomas stamford raffles (also the founder of singapore).

bearing a skull and crossbones, one headstone at the museum that draws comment is that of pieter erberveld, who died in 1722. erberveld, who had a wealthy german father and a burmese mother, was sentenced to death for plotting to murder several dutchmen.

It is said the sentence was carried out by the tying of a horse to all four of erberveld's limbs, which, when the animals bolted, tore him apart. this is the reason why the area on jl. jayakarta in central jakarta is called pecah kulit (broken skin).

this obscure landlord was remembered because the colonial dutch ruler made too much of him -- his house in batavia was whacked to the ground, and his head was put on an iron stake to crown a monument neatly scribbled with dutch and javanese scripts saying he was the filthy bastard who wanted to initiate a pogrom of europeans and lead natives to a revolution.

“as a detestable memory of the punished traitor pieter erberveld nobody shall now or ever be allowed to build, to carpenter, to lay bricks, or to plant in this place. batavia, 14th of april 1772.”


he was, many believed, only framed, though no one can tell why.


notes:
entry price to the museum if i'm not mistaken was supposed to be not more than 5000 rups (half dollar), since i went to the museum really early just before this open air museum had the chance to officially open so i just passed the ticketing counter without knowing the official ticket price : ). for the sake of the museum revenue, however i suggest you not to do that....heheeheh. and please bring your anti mosquito bites lotion too, the mosquitoes has a big numbers of family there.