Banten Lama
The Ruined Capital Of The Banten Sultanate, A Pepper Port That Rivalled Dutch Batavia Until 1682; Its Mosque Has A Five Tiered Roof And A Minaret Designed By A Dutchman Who Converted · Serang, Banten
BEFORE THERE WAS BATAVIA THERE WAS BANTEN. The sultanate here ran one of the great PEPPER PORTS of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, traded with the Chinese, the English and the Dutch on its own terms, and was a serious rival to the VOC until the Dutch broke it in 1682 and demolished the palace in 1808. WHAT SURVIVES IS SCATTERED AND STRANGE. THE GREAT MOSQUE OF 1552 HAS A FIVE-TIERED PYRAMIDAL ROOF, which is Javanese rather than Middle Eastern, AND A MINARET WHOSE DESIGN IS ATTRIBUTED TO A DUTCH ARCHITECT WHO CONVERTED TO ISLAM - an object that should not exist and does. THE SUROSOWAN PALACE IS A ROOFLESS SHELL of thick walls and water channels. SPEELWIJK FORT is Dutch. AND A CHINESE TEMPLE NEARBY IS STILL IN USE. Most people here are Indonesian pilgrims visiting the tombs rather than sightseers, which sets the whole atmosphere of the place and is the thing to understand before arriving.
Banten Lama, Serang, Banten, Serang, Banten, Indonesia
THE SITE IS OPEN GROUND with no single gate - the mosque, the palace ruins, the fort and the temple are spread across a village and are visited as a loop, with SMALL LOCAL CHARGES AND PARKING FEES at several of them. IT IS ABOUT TWO TO THREE HOURS FROM JAKARTA by road via Serang, considerably longer at weekends. THE GREAT MOSQUE IS ACTIVE and its TOMBS ARE A MAJOR ZIARAH PILGRIMAGE DESTINATION - this is the important thing to understand about the site's atmosphere, because it is busy with Indonesian pilgrims rather than sightseers, particularly at weekends and in the run-up to Ramadan. Modest dress is required and FRIDAY MIDDAY IS PRAYERS. THE SITE MUSEUM keeps daytime hours and closes Mondays. There is very little shade anywhere.