Pontianak
Pontianak, also known as Khuntien in Teochew and Hakka, is the capital of the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan, founded first as a trading port on the island of Borneo, occupying an area of 118.21 km2 in the delta of the Kapuas River, at a point where it is joined by its major tributary, the Landak River. The city is on the equator, hence it is widely known as Kota Khatulistiwa. The city center is less than south of the equator. Pontianak is the 23rd most populous city in Indonesia, and the fourth most populous city on the island of Borneo after Samarinda, Balikpapan and Kuching; it is now slightly ahead of Banjarmasin. It had a population of 658,685 at the 2020 Census within the city limits, with significant suburbs outside those limits. The official estimate as of mid-2024 was 680,852.
The city was founded as a small Malay fishing village at the mouth of the Kapuas River. It then became the seat of the Pontianak Sultanate for several centuries. Pontianak was then incorporated into the Dutch East Indies after an agreement between the Pontianak Sultanate and the Dutch Government. During the colonial era, Pontianak was the seat of the Residentie Westerafdeeling van Borneo, one of the residencies of the Dutch East Indies.
When the Japanese occupied the Dutch East Indies, Pontianak became the site of the Pontianak massacre, in which many Malay aristocrats and sultans as well as people from other ethnic groups were massacred by the Imperial Japanese Navy, especially in the Massacre of Mandor.
After the Japanese surrendered, Pontianak became part of the Republic of Indonesia and was designated as the capital city of the province of West Kalimantan.
Pontianak is a multicultural city, as different ethnic groups such as the Dayak, Malay, Bugis people, and Chinese live in the city, with some immigrants such as Javanese, Madura people, Bataks, Ambon people, Papuans, and Manado people. This has created a culture that cannot be found in other parts of Indonesia. Various languages are spoken in Pontianak, such as Pontianak Malay, Dayak language and different dialects of Chinese and some varieties of Malays, Dayaks, Javanese, Bataks, and Bugis.
Pontianak is connected by air to other cities of Indonesia as well as some cities in Malaysia such as Kuala Lumpur and Kuching. Connected with the Supadio International Airport. Well paved roads of the Trans Kalimantan Road connect Pontianak to all Cities in the Kalimantan, such as Palangkaraya, Banjarmasin, Balikpapan, Samarinda, and Tanjung Selor. other towns also connected in the Province of West Kalimantan, such as Ketapang, Singkawang, Sintang, etc., as well as other provinces. As Pontianak lies on the Trans Kalimantan Highway, it is possible to travel to East Malaysia and Brunei by land using the Trans Kalimantan Highway. Several bus routes operate from Pontianak to Kuching in Malaysia and Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei Darussalam.
Etymology
The city was formerly the capital of the independent Sultanate of Pontianak and was founded on 23 October 1771 around an old trading station on the western coast of Borneo. It was built on swampy ground and tropical forest subjected to regular flooding by the river, requiring buildings to be constructed on piles to keep them off the ground. The name Pontianak refers to a story about ghosts that people in West Kalimantan refer to as Pontianak ; it was a ghosts' haunt until Syarif Abdurrahman Alkadrie and his army fought and expelled the ghosts who attacked them by firing cannons. He then built a mosque and a palace, exactly on the location of the ghosts' haunt, and settled there. The mosque and palace became the first buildings in the city, and to this day locals fire bamboo cannons on Ramadan and other holidays in memory of this.Pontianak in the Chinese language is known as, in the local Hakka Chinese, Pontianak is known as Khuntîen.
In Malay mythology, the Pontianak is also the name of an astral creature that is said be a spirit of a woman who died while pregnant. Similar stories about the Pontianak first emerged from mythical and folkloric tales that are popular in Kalimantan before the city was built on a large scale of natural habitat. This was an active ancient civilization in the late 17th century.
History
Early development
The history of the city of Pontianak written by a Dutch historian, V.J. Verth in his book Borneos Afdeling Wester, whose content is slightly different from the version of the stories circulating in the community today.According to him, the Dutch started to go to Pontianak in 1773 from Batavia. Verth wrote that Syarif Abdurrahman, son of Sharif Hussein bin Ahmed cleric Alqadrie, left the Kingdom of Mempawah and began to wander. In the region of Banjarmasin, he married the sister of the sultan of Banjar, Sunan Nata Nature and was sworn in as prince. He was successful in commerce and accumulated enough capital to arm ships and boats and then started to take the fight against Dutch colonialism.
With the help of Sultan Sand, Syarif Abdurrahman then successfully hijacked Dutch ship near Bangka, also British and French ships in the port of Pasir. Abdurrahman became a rich man and then tried to establish a settlement on an island in the Kapuas River. He found branching Landak River and then to develop the area into a prosperous trading center. This is the region that is now called Pontianak. He then established the Sultanate of Pontianak with himself as the first sultan. The influential Arab-Malay writer, Abdullah al-Misri, was closely connected to the rulers of Pontianak at around this time.
The sultanate imported Chinese laborers in the 18th century to work in gold or tin mines. A number of mining companies enjoyed some political autonomy. As the Dutch were expanding its power on Borneo, in 1777, the Chinese declared the formation of the Lanfang Republic, led by Luo Fangbo to oppose the Dutch attempt to colonize West Kalimantan, including Pontianak. The settlers subsequently elected Luo as their inaugural president. Luo implemented many democratic principles, including the idea that all matters of state must involve the consultation of the republic's citizenry. He also created a comprehensive set of executive, legislative, and judicial agencies. The Republic did not have a standing military, but had a defense ministry that administered a national militia based on conscription. During peacetime, the populace mostly engaged in farming, production, trading, and mining. Lanfang's administrative divisions included three tiers with the people electing leaders for all levels. Lanfang was allied with Sultan Abdurrahman of the Pontianak Sultanate. Lanfang was also declared a tributary state of the Chinese Qing Empire.
Colonial rule
In 1778, Dutch colonialists from Batavia entered Pontianak, led by Willem Ardinpola. The Netherlands occupied an area opposite the imperial palace now known as the Tanah Seribu or the Verkendepaal area.On 5 July 1779, the Dutch made an agreement with the Sultanate of Pontianak regarding the Verkendepaal so that it would serve as the area of activities of the Dutch nation which later became the seat of government of Resident het Hoofd Westerafdeeling van Borneo and Assistant Resident het Hoofd der Afdeeling van Pontianak. This area then became Controleur Onderafdeeling van het Hoofd Pontianak or Plaatselijk Bestuur van Pontianak. The Assistant Resident het Hoofd van der Afdeeling Pontianak set the Plaatselijk Fonds. The agency manages government wealth and took care of tax funds.
The Dutch first recognized the independence of the Lanfang Republic. However, the Dutch decided to expand its territory in Borneo, This was resisted by the officials of Lanfang. In the mid-to-late 19th century, the Chinese Qing Empire weakened substantially and became increasingly unable to support the Lanfang Republic as its vassal state. The republic's citizenry waged a tenacious resistance, but ultimately failed due to poor weaponry. Lin Ah Sin was the last leader of Lanfang. Many of Lanfang's citizens and their descendants made their way to Sumatra or Singapore. The three campaigns waged by the Dutch East Indies Army against the Chinese kongsi, called the Kongsi Wars, were:
- Expedition to the West Coast of Borneo
- Expedition against the Chinese in Montrado
- Chinese uprising in Mandor, Borneo
In 1942, the Japanese occupied Pontianak and expelled the Dutch. The Japanese military government decided to allow the Pontianak Sultanate to remain. However, the Japanese soon become distrusted to the Sultanate, and between 1943 and 1944, Japanese troops did a mass arrest of Malay elites, Arabs, Chinese, Javanese, Menadonese, Dayaks, Bugis, Bataks, Minangkabau, Dutch, Indians, and Eurasians in Kalimantan, including all of the Malay Sultans, accused them of plotting to overthrow Japanese rule, and then massacred them. This is known as the Pontianak massacre.
After the surrender of Japan, a Dutch military court in Pontianak on 18 October 1947 convicted the Japanese Admiral Michiaki Kamada of war crimes and sentenced him to death.
Independence
After the Japanese surrendered, the Dutch returned to Pontianak. Due to international opposition to Dutch attempts to reinstate control over Indonesia in the United Nations, the Dutch were forced to recognise Sukarno's Republic as the de facto government of Java and Sumatra and to grant independence to a Republic of the United States of Indonesia on 27 December 1949. Pontianak became the capital of the State of West Kalimantan, one of the federal states of the United States of Indonesia. It was led by Sultan Hamid II, the last sultan of the Pontianak Sultanate. However, Hamid II was accused of conspiring with the former KNIL Captain Raymond Westerling to organise an anti-Republican coup in Bandung and Jakarta. Hamid's role in the coup led to increased agitation in West Kalimantan for its integration into the Republic of Indonesia.Following a fact-finding mission by the Government Commission, the RUSI House of Representatives voted by 50 votes to one to merge West Kalimantan into the Republic of Indonesia. Following clashes with demobilised KNIL troops in Makassar and the attempted secession of an Ambonese Republic of South Moluccas, the federal United States of Indonesia was dissolved on 17 August 1950, turning Indonesia into a unitary state dominated by the central government in Jakarta. Pontianak then became the capital city of the new province of West Kalimantan.