TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Sight: Gajah Mada - “A heritage site turns into a busy night market”
It was almost midnight and a number of fruit and vegetable vendors looked sleepy
Change Size
It was almost midnight and a number of fruit and vegetable vendors looked sleepy. Some people wanted to buy fruit from an elderly woman, but the grandmother was already asleep in the midst of her big bamboo baskets.
The female traders previously sold their fruit and vegetables at Pasar Badung market, which was razed by fire earlier this year. So, despite a ban by the Denpasar mayoralty, which designated the street a heritage site, they now trade on Jl. Gajah Mada.
Noted scholar and writer, I Nyoman Darma Putra, recorded that the area, with its historical buildings that blend Chinese and Western Art Deco styles, major temple, Tukad Badung river, museums, old hotels and art shops, had long been one of Bali’s most prominent business and cultural centers.
In July 1964, the local government held the week-long Gajah Mada Festival, an event that inspired the current Gajah Mada Festival.
The old festival brought together local artists, traders and people from different walks of life. It was a cultural hub, Putra wrote, held on three stages — the Wisnu stage, Pasar Senggol stage and Indra stage. In 1965, the festival was halted, continuing in 1966 with a new name, Denpasar Ria.
The present government has been actively renovating this heritage area and banned street vendors from operating along Jl. Gajah Mada. However, the former Pasar Badung traders have nowhere else to go as there were only limited spaces in the neighboring Pasar Kumbasari and Pasar Payuk.
As a result, until the Denpasar Mayoralty provides space for these displaced traders, the city’s heritage site has transformed into a busy, temporary night market.
