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.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results'Gapura' decorating contests liven up Independence Day in Jakarta
To commemorate the 74th anniversary of independence, the Home Ministry organized its first gapura decorating contest called Festival Gapura Cinta Negeri (Love the Country Gapura Festival). It offers a total prize of Rp 1 billion (around US$70,000) for the winners and a chance to meet President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to receive the trophies.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Emerys Flower owner Sarah Sugandy, RW 04 head Dedy Chaidir and Emerys Flower founder Lian Purnama stand in front of the 'gapura' they constructed for a nationwide 'gapura' decorating competition organized by the Home Ministry. (JP/Nina Loasana) (JP/Nina Loasana)
W
ith its special meaning of welcoming residents and visitors, decorating gapura (gateways) has long been a tradition to celebrate Independence Day on Aug. 17, and some communities have joined in the fun to enliven their neighborhood with a gapura competition.
A national gapura decorating contest held by the government has inspired a community unit (RW) in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta to build a massive gapura after seven years of not upholding the tradition.
Decorated in the theme of the country’s motto Bhineka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity), the residents worked hand in hand to build a 6.5-meter-tall and 7-m-wide gapura adorning the entrance to their neighborhood.
Dedy Chaidir, the head of RW 04 in Taman Tanah Abang 03, where the gapura is located, said that initially residents had no intention of taking part in the competition. However, after a local flower shop offered to help construct it for the community, the residents then accepted the idea.
“We had not built or decorated a gapura for the last seven years after an 8-m-tall bamboo gapura we built collapsed because of poor construction,” he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
The owner of the flower shop Emerys Flower, Sarah Sugandy, said she was encouraged to help build the gapura for her community after seeing an advertisement for a gapura decorating competition in a movie theater.
As many as 25 employees built the massive gapura in around a week with the help of local residents.
