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Klewer Market: Continuing the history
Go by: Motorists pass Friday the remains of Klewer Market, which was damaged by a blaze in December
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Go by: Motorists pass Friday the remains of Klewer Market, which was damaged by a blaze in December.(JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi) (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
Go by: Motorists pass Friday the remains of Klewer Market, which was damaged by a blaze in December.(JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
The massive fire at the legendary Klewer Market in Surakarta, Central Java, on Dec. 27, 2014, did not only completely raze the market building, but also destroyed millions of sheets of fabric, mostly batik.
Klewer Market is known as the biggest batik wholesale market in Asia, and the circulation of money there reached Rp 8 billion (US$615,000) a day before the fire.
However, the two-story market with more than 2,000 kiosks and around 1,500 traders is now devastated. The central government has earmarked Rp 159 billion from the state budget for the reconstruction of the traditional market.
The market, which is an icon of Surakarta, has a long record. Previously, from 1942 until 1945, Klewer Market was made up of vendors selling used clothing on Jl. Supit Urang, a road heading to the Surakarta Palace.
The name Klewer was coined by vendors who offered used clothes by hawking them on their shoulders, which appeared cluttered (kleweran). They offered their wares by approaching whoever was passing the area.
'The name Pasar Klewer then emerged and lasted till now,' said Surakarta palace representative Kanjeng Pangeran Aryo (KPA) Winarno Kusumo.
As the number of traders gradually increased, added Winarno, the palace authorities eventually assembled the traders at the former Slompretan railway yard and train station during the Japanese occupation, located on the west side of the palace.
Klewer Market was built in 1971 and inaugurated by then president Soeharto the following year. Ever since then the market developed into the biggest textile market in the country. Its progress was furthered in the 1990s.
The market became an economic powerhouse of Surakarta and supported traders hailing from six other cities around Surakarta, namely Sragen, Karanganyar, Boyolali, Klaten, Sukoharjo and Wonogiri.
At the market, buyers had to be keen to haggle for the things they wanted, and traders would not mind if the price of their merchandise was bargained down to more than half the price they offered.
'Without haggling, the atmosphere at the market becomes glum. Bargaining is what makes Klewer Market alive, unlike
shopping malls,' said batik seller Sugiyarti, 56.
Klewer Market also has interesting mystical stories, one of them on a 'custodian' of the market who appears like a palace princess, complete with a horse carriage.
Surakarta Keraton ruler Paku-buwono XII's son Gusti Pangeran Haryo diplomatically said such as mystical story was usual, because before the market was built, the site was a part of the palace.
Now, five months after the fire, the local administration has built a makeshift market for Klewer Market traders.
Earlier, a lengthy debate took place between the Surakarta palace and the municipality regarding the temporary market site.
Eventually, they agreed to use the northern square of the palace for the temporary market location for two years with at a lease of Rp 5 billion.
The temporary market will later be able to accommodate around 1,300 kiosks and 864 open kiosks. The number of kiosks will be adapted with the number of traders who lost their kiosks in the fire.
The reconstruction of Klewer Market will commence in June at a total cost of Rp 159 billion, Rp 61.8 billion in the initial stage from this year's state budget adjustment and Rp 97.2 billion in the second stage from the 2016 state budget.
