THE INFLUENCE OF KERATON CULTURE ON THE SPATIAL PATTERN OF CIREBON CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

• Main Author: Rosmalia, Dini
• Format: Dissertations
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/64239
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Cultural landscape is form of landscape that is a product of human intervention with their culture. Since the concept was introduced by Otto Schluter (1908) and develop by Carl Ortwin Sauer in 1925, the concept has become a hot topic for discussion up to now. In order to accommodate the activity of cultural landscape protection as a form of cultural hertiage, the World Heritage Convention-UNESCO established World Heritage Cultural Landscape (WHCL) in 1992. Cirebon cultural landscape is a form of landscape that is the cultural product of the Cirebon community, made up of intaagible and tangible elements that have developed since the era of the Cirebon Kingdom in the 15th century. Cirebon, with its natural and cultural strengths, has the potential to be promoted as a world class cultural heritage area. Not many research projects in Indonesia have raised cultural landscape as a topic of research, so this has created a valuable opening for a strong research topic. This dissertation aims at identifying intangible and tangible elements of the courtly (keraton) cultural tradition, and exploring the spatial pattern and meaning formulated from those elements as the manifestation of Cirebon's cultural landscape. By way of the qualitative approach, the research has been divided into three stages, (1) data collection, (2) data analysis, and (3) verification and conclusion. The result of this research shows two important finding. First, each keraton cultural tradition consists of three important elements as a spatial form, namely (1) the presence of a role model, Sunan Gunung Jati; (2) traditional activities; (3) a place and forum for traditional activities in the form of keraton, kramat, activities route, and villages of the wargi. These three elements are the product of Islamic culture acculturation, brought by the walisanga during the reign of Sunan Gunung Jati, along with the existence of Hindu-Buddhist culture and the Cerbon kingdom. Second, the space formed by traditional elements of the keraton culture in Cirebon is divided into two pattern, i.e. dispersion and hierarchy. The dispersion pattern shows the keraton territory known as wewengkon. This wewengkon has been spread through Cirebon City, the Cirebon Regency, Indramayu Regency, Majalengka Regency, and Kuningan Regency, known as Ciayumajakuning. The hierarchic pattern of three stages is based on the meaning contained within the space, i.e. (1) the core space consisting of the keraton and Gunung Jati cemetery, (2) a buffer space consisting of villages of the kramat, under the keraton management as a place for cultural tradition activities, and (3) a supprting space consisting of villages of the wargi, as supporters of the keraton's cultural tradition. The finding of this research study contribute to the novelty of the scientific fields of architecture and landscape architecture, i.e.: (1) the cultural space of the keraton is an imaginary space, formed from the elements of the keraton's cultural traditions as spatial form; (2) spatial hierarchy, particularly the spatial element of Cirebon's keraton culture has been influenced by a leading figure in the keraton, i.e. Sunan Gunung Jati; (3) this leading figure could also influence the pattern of spatial orientation, and in this research study it is the concept of the keraton orientation facing north, as a form o glorification of Sunan Gunung Jati who was buried at the Astana Gunung Sembung, north of the City of Cirbon; (4) the spatial pattern of the cultural landscape is spread accros the Ciayumajakuning area, as shown in the wewengkon spatial pattern; (5) the wewengkon in the supporting area along with the keraton and Astana Gunung Sembung in the core area are connected both culturally and spiritually; (6) the existence and the sustainability of the cultural tradition elements and sacred core area in the city and regency of Cirebon could be considered material for the criteria of the outstanding universal values of World Heritage, The conclusion of the study, i.e. the spatial pattern of the court culture that is dispersed and hierarchical and oriented to Astana Gunung Sembung, is an illustration of the Cirebon cultural landscape glorifying Sunan Gunung Jati. The novelty of this study could provide new insight to stakeholders in promoting Cirebon area to a higher level as an area worthy of prservation.