Buitenzorg - History, Language, Transportation

6°35S 106°47E. Former name of a town in Java, former Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia), founded in 1705 as the seat of the governor-general of the East Indies. Since Indonesian independence it has reverted to its ancient name of Bogor. It is famous for its botanical gardens.

Coordinates: 6°36′S 106°48′E Bogor is a city in West Java with a population of approximately 800,000 people in the CBD area and 2,000,000 in suburban area, bringing a total of 3 million population.

It is surrounded by extinct volcanoes such as Mount Gede and Mount Salak and is recorded to have more lightning storms per year than any other place on Earth.

Bogor boasts a presidential palace, a deer park and a botanical garden in the town centre. It is home to the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB).

Bogor is on a main road from Jakarta to Bandung, over the Puncak pass. During colonial times the Bogor area developed as a centre for plantations. Apart from the tea (Mount Mas), there were coffee plantations at nearby Sukabumi and later vast rubber plantations that stretched from Bogor as far as Citereup and Bukit Sentul.

The suburban area of Bogor is part of the Bogor Regency, while the urban is the Bogor City. Currently Bogor bears the nickname "the Rain City" (Kota Hujan), suggesting that it is very wet and nearly always rains even during the dry season.

History

Bogor was part of the Siliwangi Kingdom (1482), ruled by King Siliwangi.

Bogor now houses numerous stone inscriptions (prasasti) from both the Tarumanegara and the Siliwangi. These inscriptions, scattered throughout the urban, suburban, and rural areas of Bogor, are written in Sanskrit using the Pallava writing system.

The most well-known inscriptions are:

Ciaruteun inscription This is a large boulder found in a streambed upon which Purnavarman's footprints were engraved together with his Pallava handwriting. Kaki Gajah inscription Hence its name, this brown flat stone bears a set of an elephant's footprints. Batutulis inscription This inscription is located in Batutulis area in the urban Bogor. The first small stone, bearing Siliwangi's footprints, are placed in front of the second stone engraved with his knee prints.

In 2004, Bogor and St. Louis, Missouri, USA became Sister Cities.

Language

The traditional language of Bogor is Sundanese. However, many thinks that Bogor's Sundanese is somewhat harsher and uses much more slang than any other part of the province. Due to the expansion of Jakarta, more people from different places and different ethnic stay in Bogor.

Transportation

The easiest and the most popular means of transportation in Bogor is the public vans ("angkot", the acronym of angkutan kota).

Buses and taxis are not present in particularly large numbers, especially taxis because they are relatively expensive. Meanwhile, the railroads connect Bogor to other big cities in Java, such as Jakarta (to the north) and Sukabumi (to the south).

For leisure means, the traditional horse carriages are available. Delman in Bogor are not delicately decorated like their fellows in Jakarta, Bandung, or Yogyakarta.

There are also becak, a type of man-pedaled carriages in which the driver pedals at the back and the passengers' seat facing front with a roof above.