SAM POO KONG VIHARA
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Sam Poo Kong Temple, Beautiful Merge of Historical Cultures
Wed, 31 January 2018
The Sam Poo Kong Temple, also known as Gedung Batu (the Stone Building), is the oldest Chinese temple in Semarang, capital of the province of Central Java. Unlike most temples, the building does not belong to any specific religion, but rather functions as a place of worship for people of various ethnicities and religious groups including Buddhists, Taoists and muslims. The temple is located on Jalan Simongan, West Semarang.
Sam Poo Kong is the oldest of 5 temples included in the Sam Poo Kong complex which spans across 3.2 hectares. The building covers an area of 1,020 square meters and is influenced by both Chinese and Javanese 14th century architectural styles. The temple is painted with a magnificent red color and crowned with a triple-layered pagoda-style roof, typical of East Asian culture. The surrounding area is thick with incense smoke, giving the feel of being in China itself.
The temple foundations were first built by Admiral Cheng Ho, elsewhere better known as Admiral Zheng He, a muslim explorer from Mainland China. After some time, Cheng Ho left Java, but many of his crew decided to stay behind and settle in the area. They married with the locals, and till now, Simongan is inhabited by descendants of China.
In 1704, the original temple and cave collapsed in a landslide. The local community rebuilt it 20 years later in a different location, closer to the city center and further from areas prone to decay by natural elements. It functions both as a place of worship, and a shrine honoring Cheng Ho for his services to the community.
Nearest Destination
Abandoned and antique buildings have a tendency to inspire stories. Legends, Myths, Haunted tales of the building's origin, its owners and builders. Indonesia as a whole is home to numerous historical and mystical buildings, many antique and dating back hundreds of years. One such building is Lawang Sewu which was built by the Dutch between the years 1904 and 1907 and functioned as head office for The Dutch East Indies Railway Company (Nederlandsch Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij) until 1942. During World War II, the building was used as Japanese Military Headquarters. It is located on the Tugu Muda roundabout, in Semarang, capital city of Central Java.
