A Soul Journey to Find Peace in Semarang, Central Java
Few days ago, impulsively me and my family planning to go on vacation. It was typical move of ours. We never go out when it is holiday, instead we’re only staying at home, watching good movies, eat some delicious food, and play with our cats at home. Then, when everybody’s done with their holiday, my father took a vacation from his office and spent it with the whole family to go on some places we never been. But this time is different. We are not picking our destination randomly. We think of our destination carefully. We want it different this time. Not only spending time together, going to places together, but there should be something that we could learn from our holiday. Something that we could bring back home, a lesson that inherent with our way of life.
Long story short, with discussion, and thoughts of current cases that happening in society now a days, we decided to pick Semarang as our destination. People said that we hate something because we dont understand. There’s so much hate, disharmony, and negativity recently. Both in real life and everywhere on the internet. The reason? Political agenda, bigotry, intolerance, you name it. Everyone becomes so smart and well educated, until they forget how to be kind. Thus, me and my family thought, that it will be better if we witness the living proof of harmony that happened here in Indonesia from long time ago. So here comes my journey to Semarang, Central Java.
The City, Semarang (previously known as SAMARANG, an abbreviation of javanese words, Asam e Arang-Arang), is known as the port of Java. Some literature stated that long time ago, during the journey of great admiral from China, known as Cheng Ho or Zheng He, this area was the first place where Chinese explorer reach their feet on Java island. The city has canals that are still functioning until now as small rivers. Upside the river, lies several bridges that could be opened to give a way for ships to go through it. All of these are not really functioning really well now. The area where canals and harbours used to build are now sedimented, and some bridges are worn out. But we still could see the actual shape of them in Semarang, Tanjung Mas area to be exact. Sedimentation also reduce the width of waterway in Semarang. There are 2 common known areas in Semarang, upper and lower. Lower Semarang is the place where venice-like civilization used to built. But now land has covered most of it, and it’s become literally, the downtown, of Semarang. Where most point of interest, and public space were established.
Some others, also called Semarang as the city of Lumpia. It is a dish originated from China which is comprised with slices of pork and young bamboo veggies that is wrapped with some skinny dough and fried. But now, the food has went through some acculturation. They changed the filler with chicken chop, or fish and add vegetables with it. But yes, most of Lumpia seller in Semarang are chinese. There are some javanese people also trying to cook lumpia, yet even most people in Semarang agreed that the best Lumpia, is a lumpia that is cooked by Chinese. I have tasted some of them. I bought it in Lumpia Delight. I came there in my first day of visit by the recommendation of my gojek driver.
When I came into the place, I had a chance to sneek peak the process of Lumpia making and have a little chit-chat with the people around there. In my opinion, after some analysis, I thought that Lumpia Delight is the only brand which is having good marketing strategy as well as delicious taste for the the customer. First, is because they are the only brand that have halal certification and logo from Majlis Ulama Indonesia (at least that is what they said in their banners). It shows to the customers that they are aware of their market. Most of the buyers are muslim, and muslim only eat halal food. Several times in the past, these business which is ran mostly by chinese suspected selling Lumpia which contains pork. But, with clever move, Lumpia delight initiated a random weekly inspection of MUI to their production house and put huge halal logo everywhere on their promotional media. Second, is because they use compensation system in their promotion. For example, if my gojek driver recommend me to buy lumpia there, they will get points based on how much my spending there. When they keep collecting it, they could exchange this points with stuffs provided by the store, once they reach the point needs. So with these good systems they have transformed themselves as leading lumpia industry (I should say, hehe) in the entire Semarang. And the unique thing is, when you come inside the store you could see a chart that describe the ownership and history of Lumpia Delight from generation to generation. if I’m not mistaken, the owner now is the sixth generation from the first owner. What a business!
As capital city, Semarang also known as Historical and Metropolitan city in Central Java. Based on the list I read, Semarang is the fifth largest metropolitan city in Indonesia after Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung and Medan. Although it is categorized as metropolitan city, if you walk around Semarang you still could find some historic touch of old town in the construction of the building. The most iconic site in Semarang is Lawang Sewu (1000 Doors). It is named after a building that build in 1904 and finished at 1907, which is used as the office of Nederlands Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij of NIS, a train company in dutch colonialism era.
The building has a lot of doors, since it is used as office as well as dorm for the employee. In Lawang Sewu also lies a lot of horror stories, but now the management tried to rebranding the site from mistery site into historical site of Semarang. I enjoy my tour with Pak Kusnaedi, my tourguide. He come from Ambarawa, and has been working as tourguide in Lawang Sewu for 15 years. When I ask about misterious thing in Lawang Sewu, he didn’t replied me directly, instead he’s explaining that basically there’s still a lot of other thing in Lawang Sewu which is more interesting to be noticed other than the misterious story itself. Well this wont be cake-walking process, but in my opinion they’re having a good start.
The most interesting part when I go to Semarang, is when I had a chance to visit 4 religion worship places. This is no ordinary places, since they had their own stories and unique point behind them. As you know, there are 6 religions that is legal based on law of Indonesia. They are Islam, Christian, Catholic, Hindu, Buddha, and Konghuchu. And I have visited 5 out of 6 religion worship during my time here, complete with exclusive tales I earned from each site.
They are, The Great Mosque of Central Java, Blendoeg Church in Old Town, Vihara Avalokitesvara and Sam Poo Kong Temple. You could find the complete history for each of them in the internet. You could also see the photos of them in the internet. But the thing that you couldn’t have is the experience when you go to each of these praying sites. The calmness, the beauty of architecture, the scent of the air, and the different ways of preaching of each sites. But, they have one thing in common, to find happiness, and peaceful state of mind, not only for their soul only, but also for the entire universe.
Here are some pictures of them, that I captured with my favourite travel buddies, Samsung Galaxy J7 - 2016.
The Great Mosque of Central Java
Blendoeg Old Church
Vihara Avalokitesvara
Sam Poo Kong Temple with The Great Admiral, Cheng Ho statue.
This journey in Semarang has taught me, that if God wants us to be the same, no difference at all, He could do it right away. But He decides to make us colourful, so that we could appreciate the beauty of one and another. So that we could live in harmony. And most importantly, so that we could have a heart, that kind enough to keep peace, for the sake of humanity and the world.
So, have any of you visited Semarang before? If you do, please leave me a comment below and tell me about your experience. I’ll be happy to have some inputs from you. Thanks a lot for reading this. Hopefully you have a heart kind enough, to appreaciate, and respect the difference that we had in our beloved country, Indonesia.
