Coastal development and cultural heritage: a case-study of Cirebon, Indonesia

ABSTRAK Cirebon is an important port city in the southwestern part of the Indonesia archipelago. It is located on the north coast of the most populous Indonesian Island of Java. Although it is in West Java. province, it stands on the border of Central Java. This makes it an important cultural melting pot of the Sundanese and Javanese people respectively. Chinese immigrants also play an important role. As the second port of Jakarta, and one with an expanding export/production zone, it is important for the whole of West Java. It is also the point of expo, t for a large number of agricultural commodities such as tea, rice, sugar, coffee, essential oil, teak and other products of the surrounding region (Anonymous, 1997). Development is occurring at a high rate with Indonesian and foreign investment increasing. Cirebon is an important transportation center for goods to and from Jakarta, as well as a transit town between west Java and Central Java, where trucks and buses pass by the busy major northern east-west highway. Nevertheless, life in Cirebon retains much of its charm, with bicycle rickshaws (becalcs) still plating its wide, tree lined streets. There are a number of special artistic and cultural features of the city, including its unique glass painting and special batik cloth. Both of these are characterized by motifs reflecting the traditions of the kratons, or former palaces of the sultanate of Cirebon, which reached its height in the fifteenth century. This old and almost forgotten sultanate contains four kratons or palaces, the refuge for still living lines of an ancient royal family. Symbols of a feudalistic and aristocratic past, the sultans have long since relinquished their traditional lifestyle behind the dusty palace walls (Lim & Gocher, 1990), although they still retain the respect of the citizens. These culturally significant palaces, along with the historic and holly tomb of the city's founder, the royal family's burial sites and a number of interesting and important Chinese and Buddhist temples, are located in the coastal plain of the Java Sea. This area is dominated by the 3100-meter volcano, Mt. Ciremai, and its surrounding foothills. These cultural resources are currently under-exploited, and this paper shows how they can be further utilized, along with the city's natural setting, to expand tourism in Cirebon by middle-class families from elsewhere on Java. This is particularly important now that the falling Indonesian currency has made travel to Singapore and other overseas tourist destinations, as well as visits to Bali, Lombok and other islands of Indonesia prohibitively expensive for this group. Kata kunci: peninggalan kultural, aset kultural, tujuan wisat