Hello everyone, how are you? I hope you are all right. Not long ago, I took a walking tour of Jalan Jacatraweg, at North Jakarta. One of the places I visited was the Bio Kwe Seng Ong Temple. The temple is on Jalan Pecah Skin. What I'm going to tell you a little about is that Pecah Kulit Street was not the name of a street in the first place.
Pecah Kulit (Broke Skin) is the name of a tragedy carried out by the Dutch colonialists on the people who betrayed them. This skin-breaking incident occurred in people of Asian descent. That's not what I want to tell in this story, I want to tell about a temple called Bio Kwe Seng Ong. Let's first differentiate between temple and bio.
Bio is usually a small temple with a small number of congregation. Meanwhile, there are many temples. This temple is located in a residential area and it seems like this place is only owned by the family. I want to tell you that the temple has a main god, namely Dewa Kwee Seng Ong, the god of blessings. Every temple has a main deity. I've told the story in other articles.
This temple is not that old either. It only existed around 2006, then. This is different from the other temples I visited, which have a long history and development. This temple was born after the New Order after Indonesia carried out reforms. There are not many stories from this temple. However, this temple is one of the stories about representatives of the Chinese group on Jalan Pecah Skin.
Not much, but they need to worship properly. This temple also often holds a 5-kilometer earth carnival procession as a celebration of the temple's birthday. From the information I got, if there was a procession, there would be entertainment starting from the Gambang Kromong which was given to the local community. There are also lion dances, ondel-ondel, and processions of god statues and parades.
This temple has acculturated with the surrounding community. Usually, before the carnival is held there is a Chinese feel with colored lanterns around the temple. Installing lanterns is not only carried out by residents of Chinese descent but also residents. Residents helped celebrate the Temple's birthday. From the information I got, each carnival is attended by 1,000 participants followed by 22 bios from Jakarta, Bekasi, Bogor, Tangerang, Depok, Tegal, Semarang, and Kudus.
Dewa Seng Ong is known as the god who controls wind, fire, and water. From the information on the walking tour, the carnival also provides unification and friendship between people from various backgrounds. That's all I can share, what do you think? If it's interesting, don't forget to vote and comment on my post. See you in the next story.
Nurdiani Latifah
My name is Nurdiani Latifah. I currently live in Jakarta – Indonesia, after 25 years I live in Bandung. I am a media staff at an NGO in Indonesia. I have worked in this institution for almost 2 years on issues of women and peace. I had been a journalist in Bandung for 3 years.
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