Wednesday, 26 August 2015
In 1926, the Netherlands queen at that time (during the Dutch colonial era in Indonesia) makes a tower which has big clock for city's controleur named Rook Maker in Fort de Kock (now known as the Bukittinggi city in West Sumatra, Indonesia). Gadang taken from the Minangkabau language (local languages used by the people in the Bukittinggi city) which has a meaning of big. The Tower clock is located in the village of Benteng Pasar Atas, sub district of Guguk Panjang, Bukittinggi, province of West Sumatra, Indonesia. The Gadang clock tower has a diameter of 80 centimeters and mounted on each side of the tower which has an altitude of 26 meters. The Gadang clock tower is build above the measure base of 13 by 4 meters (43 ft x 13 ft). Yazin Rajo Mangkuto and Gigi Ameh at the request of the Dutch queen at that time. Tower in Gadang clock was build without using cement and iron buffer. Components of the towers in Gadang clock is limestone, white sand, and egg (only the white part). Today, the existence of Tower clock in city of Bukit Tinggi Becomes a tourism and a landmark of this town.
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Gadang clock tower in Bukittinggi
image belongs to Iwansw |
The Gadang clock has the same machine with the Big Ben clock in London, England. The manufacturer of the machine at the Gadang clock tower is Vortman Rellinghausen, it is written on its bell. Bernhard Vortman is the full name of the maker of machine clock. While, Rellinghausen is a name of the district in German. Another similarity between the Gadang clock and the Big Ben clock is the Roman numeral four are supposed to be written by IV, but written with IIII. Based on the local story, the strange of Roman numeral IIII in Gadang clock represents the four workers who Died while constructing the building. However, this story cannot be evidenced with certainty. Development of the Tower clock spend funds amounting to NLG 300. At first, the roof of tower is a statue of a rooster. In the Japan colonial era, parts of the roof converted into a temple. Now, the roof of the Gadang clock tower is bagonjong (gadang roofs, roofs are widely used in traditional Minangkabau house) since Indonesian independence.
Travel to the tourism of the Gadang clock tower can be reached by land transportation from downtown of Padang (capital city of West Sumatra). The trip from the city of Padang toward Bukittinggi takes about 2 hours. Location of the Gadang clock tower is in the center of Bukittinggi city thus there are many public transportation to go there. While stay in Bukittinggi, visitors can visit the other attractions in Bukittinggi such as Fort de Kock (bastion in the Dutch Colonial era), Japanese hole (a bunker used for base defense by Japan in the world war II), and a museum of Baanjuang customary house (in the form of building custom that have an ancient of currency collection, collection of historical objects, and animals are preserved).
