Title :
Great Mosque of Banten
Abstract :
exploring Great Mosque of Banten
Target audience :
15-21 years old
Goal:
The goal of this application is to allow user to experience how the looks of the Great mosque of Banten in late 1800.
this application is created to make people know how's The Great Mosque of Banten looks like in late 1800.
this application is created to make people know how's The Great Mosque of Banten looks like in late 1800.
This virtual application allow user to see and explore how the The Great Mosque of Banten in late 1800. User will be able to interact with some of the pictures or the object inside the application and know what is the history behind it.
history:
Banten Mosque is a mosque heritage, built by the first son of Sunan Gunung Jati from Cirebon, namely Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin a life between the years 1552-1570. Sunan Gunung Jati or Syarif Hidayatullah is one of a group of ulema (Islamic Leaders) grew up in Java, which is famous for calling Walisongo (Nine Wali). He is also a descendant of Prabu Siliwangi; King of Pajajaran a very famous wich had area around Pasundan (now West Java). Another interesting thing about the Banten Mosque is the establishment of the Mosque Tower which is the typical, and at ancient times used to see the arrival of foreign sailing vessels to the Coast of Banten. According to some references, the tower was designed by the Dutch who named Hendick Lucasz Cardeel; and was built between the years 1595-1597.
Around the Mosque of Banten also some graves (tombs) of the King or the Sultan of Banten; some are : Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin, Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa, Sultan Maulana Muhammad, Sultan Zainul Abidin, Sultan Abu Nasir Abdul Qohhar, etc.. The tomb was frequently visited by domestic migrants, especially Muslim, because the Kings Banten include spreaders of Islam in his time. The spread of Islam is from the north coast of Banten and headed towards the south, the people who do not follow the religion of Islam pushed toward the south.
Besides visiting the Mosque of Banten, usually the tourists also visited the Museum of Banten Lama (Old Banten) and look at the history of the surrounding objects, for example: Speelwijk Fortress (Benteng Speelwijk), Palace (Istana) of Surosowan, ancient water channels, etc.. Around the Mosque of Banten towards the coast there are Vihara Avalokitesvara; praying place of Buddhism. This shows that in those times has been established religious harmony. At the Museum of Old Banten stored various relic collections Kingdom or the Sultan of Banten. Collections include various types of weapons, objects made of stone, household appliances made of ceramic, currency, clothes, etc.. You can also see a very famous old cannon named Ki Amuk, brother of Si Jagur cannon in the Jakarta Museum.
Taken from : http://zona-indonesia.net/banten-mosque-mesjid-banten/
Banten is a small town on the northern coast of western Java, about 100 km. West of Jakarta The old town called Banten Lama, where the mosque is located, used to be a large archaeological site. Unlike Cirebon and Demak, Banten did not continue to exist and was abandoned by its inhabitants in the early 19th century.
The city plan followed that of Javanese cities; a north-south axis, a central alun-alun, a palace to the South, and a mosque on the western side Foreigners, mainly merchants, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, were not allowed to reside in the city proper except for the Shahbandar who lived in a house that was located on the eastern side of the alun-alun.
The Overall Plan
The compound clearly consists of a prayer hall with a front verandah or serambi which is the central feature around which all the other elements were planned; a meeting hall or school named locally Tiyamah on the southern side, a necropolis with a mausoleum to the North, and a land mark minaret placed to the East.
Complex Elements:
The Mosque and Serambi Plan
The serambi is a rectangular platform five steps higher than the garden level. However, before ascending the steps, the worshippers must step into a pool of water first; a way of cleaning the feet before actually stepping into the mosque proper. A similar process is also used for the steps on the northern side of the prayer hall. The serambi is covered by a two tier hipped roof, which is supported by means of two rows of six columns. The structure is all new and, artistically speaking, deserves no further comment. The wall connecting the serambi with the prayer hall is pierced with six doors, only four of which lead into the prayers room. The northern-most doorway leads into a side portico on the northern edge of the mosque. The southern-most entrance leads into the side room, which, although is part of the prayer hall proper, it is isolated from the worship area. This room, in turn, leads to a big rectangular hall on the southern side that used to be an open air courtyard. Another entrance from inside the prayer hall gives access to a room, which is part of the prayer hall area, but also isolated form it. Here too, this room also gives access to the rectangular hall on the southern side
Elevations:
Like most Indonesian mosques, the facades are not really intended or pre-designed. The most influential feature is the covering which, in the case of Banten, is an exaggerated five tier roof.
Structure System:
The prayer hall is square from the outside and is covered by a five tier pyramidal roof. Inside, the southern space is isolated by means of a massive wall that runs from West to East. The remainder of the space is rectangular and is divided by a 4 x 6 column configuration into five aisles and seven bays. The central four columns or soko guru, which are central to the whole building, are bigger in diameter than the others. However, the columns’ width seems to diminish in diameter as they get further from the center. The building was totally renovated and lacks any authentic details.
The Interior:
The only feature of the interior worth mention is the mihrab which is an arched niche that protrudes from the western wall. Four engaged molded pilasters (two on each side of the mihrab) flank the opening which is wide and long enough to accommodate the Imam during prayers.
The Tiyamah
A rectangular building known locally as Tiyamah was attached to the hall on the southern side of the mosque to function as a multi-purpose hall. This building is not only accessed from the northern hall it neighbors, but also has a door on its southern side that gives direct access to it from the outside. The floor area is divided into three rooms with a similar layout on the second floor. The building has a hipped roof which is higher than that of the serambi.
The building has seven windows on the long side and two on both short sides. The facade overlooking the mosque is bereft of fenestration except for one door in the center of the building. Fenestration is on two levels which actually reflects the two storey configuration of the building. The upper level openings are much taller than those corresponding on the lower level.
The Minaret
The minaret is a cardinally oriented massive octagonal tower. The shaft tapers inwards slightly till a level where it is decorated by a massive cornice that creates an upper balcony with rails. A conical shaft starts after this level where again another mould creates a cornice at a certain level which creates another balcony. The conical surface seems as if penetrating the second level and continues above the balcony until it is topped with a dome-shape structure that carries a mustaka finial. Internally, the minaret has a very narrow staircase that leads all the way up to the second balcony. Small cross shaped openings in the shaft dot the staircase path on the exterior of the minaret and allow light and air into the interior.
The minaret’s facet facing North has the entrance door. The door was assigned a stylized makara motif like that seen earlier in the Panjunan mihrab for example.
The Necropolis
The area to the North of the mosque is a necropolis where sultan Hassanudin and his grandson maulana Muhammad are buried. The burial grounds are connected to the mosque by means of a white washed arched gateway.
The cenotaphs are in a bad condition compared to other Javanese necropolises. The only one well looked after is that of Sultan Hassanudin, which is kept under a two tier roofed modern building.
Inscriptions
The only inscription found in the mosque is in Arabic. It is inscribed on the archway leading into the necropolis. It belongs to the first half of the twentieth century. The inscription is on two lines preceded by a big Latin 1947 date. On the first line the title line reads:
massarat al-mazar "مسرة المزار" then on the second line:
sayidna wa mawlana Hasan al-Din "سيدنا و موالنا حسن الدين السلطان المعظم فى سن؟" al-sultan al- mo’azzam fi san? The inscription ends with a large 1336 date in Hindi (Arabic) numerals, which is the Hijri equivalent of the Gregorian 1947.
Dating and Patron
The Mosque
The first visit by the Dutch to the port of Banten was in 1595-7. It was recorded by Willem Lodewijcksz in 1598. In this account, the city is described as large and having many merchants and a shahbandar. It also gave an account of the Dutch officials’ dining in the courtyard of the latter’s house. According to Holt, the Dutch also reported finding a strong Muslim state and seeing a large mosque.
It seems widely accepted that the first Sultan of Banten, Hasanuddin (r. 1552- 70), founded the Surasowan palace and two mosques: one in a village named Pacinan137, and the royal mosque on the western side of the alun-alun. On the other hand, Maulana Yusuf, (r.1570-80) who succeeded Hassanudin, is known in the local traditions to have enlarged the great mosque and to have added a serambi to it. The Masjid Agung was restored several times, but retained its original form.
The best description of mosque, at the end of the 17th century, is by Bogaert in Historische Reizen door d'oostersche Deelen van Asia in which he stated:
“The temple is almost square and built with large beams that are found in abundance on Java. Its roof is in the shape of a tower... It has five roofs, one on top of another; the first and largest one covering the body of the temple; the next ones are
smaller and smaller so that the last one almost comes to a point. In its center, is raised a high [construction] which forms a real peak”.
Another similar description is to be found in Stavorinus’ Voyage par le Cap around the middle of the 18th:
“This building, shaped almost in a square, is flanked on two sides by a high wall: The covering rises up like a tower, with five roofs one on top of the other of which the second is smaller than the first, the third smaller than the second, etc. and whose fifth one ends up in a point while the lowest one extends quite a bit beyond the walls of the temple”.
Tiyamah
The Tiyamah building is a 17th century Dutch style building that was built by the Dutch architect J. L. Cardeel. This addition to the mosque was ordered by Sultan Abul Nasr ‘Abdul Qahar (r.1672-87), traditionally known as Sultan Haji of Banten, who, according to Adnan, had traveled to Turkey and Mecca where he had seen schools and minarets attached to mosques. Based on the records of Valentijn, not only the Tiyamah building, but also the Surasowan palace walls and the mosque’s minaret were built by the same architect.
The Minaret
The construction date of the minaret is not yet certain nor is it agreed upon that it was the Dutch Architect Cardeel who built it, or that it was actually a minaret. Some believe it resembles a European light house and therefore worked as a “beacon and look out tower for the busy port”. An old map in De eerste Schipvaart der nederlanders naar Oost Indie onder Cornelis de Houtman 1595-7 does not show the presence of a minaret. In the Sejara Banten it is stated that by the time Hasanudin had a brother for his elder son Yusuf, it was time for the building of a minaret. According to K. C. Crucq, if we are to credit this account, then the minaret was already standing before the reign of Maulana Yusuf, the son of Hasanudin. He also, on stylistic bases, concludes that it was built between 1569 and 1570. Although Sumalyo agrees with the other scholars concerning the time period and a certain role by the Dutch architect Cardeel, he is of he opinion that only the idea came from the Dutch architect, but the minaret was built c.1620 by a Chinese named Cek Ban Cut. He supports his point of view by suggesting that the proportions are very much like those of Chinese pagodas. More interesting, Miksic describes it as of “Moghul Indian Pattern”. According to Gulliot, “This minaret did not appear on
older maps of Banten. However, in the legend of a map from 1659, one can read: ‘their Misquijt [masjid] or church near which is located a white and straight tower which rises higher than the trees’. [Furthermore] on the view of Banten in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris which dates probably from the beginning of the 1670s, one can clearly see a minaret near the mosque. In 1694, while passing through Banten, Valentijn mentioned a "stone tower seen from far and wide”. In all cases, what concerns us here is that the current minaret was not part of the very first mosque building phase, but rather an afterthought. However, the minaret’s stylistic features do resemble those of a European lighthouse. Furthermore, such a feature had it existed earlier it would have not missed the observation of the travelers who passed by. I therefore, credit the mid 17th century accounts.
taken from : The Architecture of the Early Mosque and Shrines of Java : Influences of the Arab Merchant in the 15th and 16 centuries?. a Disertation by Ahmed E.I. Wahby
The great mosque of Banten is a heritage place that need to be preserved as in 17 list of heritage places that indonesian government release in 2009
http://kppo.bappenas.go.id/files/-17-Daftar%20Benda%20Cagar%20Budaya%20Yang%20Perlu%20Dilestarikan.pdf
a brief history about banten :
(indonesian) :(English) :
Objectives :
- To immerse user through visual and audio effects inside the Mosque
- To understand the history of the Great Mosque of Banten
- To understand what is the Great Mosque of Banten used for at that particular time
- To allow user to know how the the Great Mosque of Banten looks like in the late 1800
- To teach people about preserving the historical places.
Description :
On the starting page, user start VR application, then there will be a brief introduction of the application and also a list of instruction on how the user can navigate and interact with the object within the application.
then you start the application, and starting from the front of the Great Mosque of Banten, from there user can walk into the Mosque and start exploring the Mosque. all the environment inside the application is mimicking the old Mosque looks like, with all the things inside it.
interaction description
- user will be able to navigate the world through arrow keys, or W,S,A,D button on the keyboard
- user can see an interactive map and their present location
- when user walks to a certain place, there will be a voice narration/text message about that place
- when user click a clickable object, then an information about the object will shown to the user, whether it is a video, image, or a story.
- user can tell whether the object is clickable or not.
Benchmark and Images:
The old Mosque Pictures:
The old Mosque Pictures:
The Great Mosque of Banten today:
