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Volunteers clean up Kartasura Palace site, step by step
A group of people gathered at the site of Kartasura Palace in Sukoharjo regency, Surakarta, Central Java, on Sunday. Volunteers from cultural communities and residents of the neighborhood, they were getting ready to clean up the site.
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Signs of an attack can still be seen at the northern wall of the Kartasura Palace site in Central Java. (JP/Stefanus Ajie)
A group of people gathered at the site of Kartasura Palace in Sukoharjo regency, Surakarta, Central Java, on Sunday. Volunteers from cultural communities and residents of the neighborhood, they were getting ready to clean up the site.
All that remains of the once glorious palace is a fort called Srimanganti, along with a thick brick wall surrounding the grounds of 2.5 hectares.
The inside of the fort is now used for a graveyard and residential houses, which stand among abandoned areas full of undergrowth. Although marked as a place of cultural heritage, the Kartasura Palace site has been abandoned for years; litter and thick vegetation point to its obvious neglect.
The sorry state of the site has prompted Darsih and her friends from the Surakarta Volunteers Community to invite likeminded communities to give the historic place a spring clean.
“It started with a casual conversation that developed into a movement to take care of the Kartasura Palace,” said Darsih.
She went on to say that this movement was, however, still a small-scale effort to preserve the heritage of ancestors who had established Surakarta and Yogyakarta.
Upon receiving permission from the Sukoharjo Tourism Board and the key-keeper of Kartasura palace, the volunteers started cleaning up the site, aided by local residents.
“What we are doing today is only a small step to begin with. We plan to clean up regularly every month, and hopefully there will be more communities joining this act,” Darsih said.
Kartasura representative K.R.A.T Prayitno Jogopuro said he was very pleased with the initiative. He said that, before the clean-up, people would only visit the site for certain rituals and to pay tribute to the deceased.
“I hope that the site can become a travel destination in the future, where visitors learn about culture and history,” he went on saying.
In the afternoon after the clean-up, the volunteers gathered on a wooden stage under the big trees to rest and enjoy traditional refreshments.
Read also: Boyong Kedaton Carnival commemorates relocation of Surakarta palace
Kartasura Palace was built in 1680, marking the beginning of the sultanates of Surakarta and Yogyakarta. They are the successors of the Mataram dynasty under the Muslim rulers. The kingdom was established by King Amangkurat II after the previous Mataram Kingdom had been destroyed by the Trunajaya rebellion.
Reigning until the era of King Pakubuwana II, the glorious Kartasura Kingdom fell in an attack by Chinese rebels. The incident is known as Geger Pecinan, and a trace of the attack is still evident at the northern wall of the palace site. (mut)
