Batavia / Jakarta EenChineesche Tempel – 金德院 – Jin De Yuan/ Kim Tek Ie – Vihara Dharma Bhakti
Batavia / Jakarta EenChineesche Tempel – 金德院 – Jin De Yuan/ Kim Tek Ie – Vihara Dharma Bhakti
Vihara Dharma Bhakti,
雅加達, 印度尼西亚 (Jakarta, Indonesia)
金德院 ( Jin De Yuan / Kim Tek Ie), is a klenteng (a local term for a Chinese temple) located in the China Town neighborhood of Glodok, Jakarta, Indonesia. Completed in 1650, Vihara Dharma Bhakti is the oldest Chinese temple in Jakarta.
Vihara Dharma Bhakti, also known as 金德院 ( Jin De Yuan, Fujian : Kim Tek Ie), is a klenteng (a local term for a Chinese temple) located in the China Town neighborhood of Glodok, Jakarta, Indonesia. Completed in 1650, Vihara Dharma Bhakti is the oldest Chinese temple in JakartaContents.
The complex of Vihara Dharma Bhakti was erected in 1650 under the order of a Lieutenant Kwee Hoen. The temple was named Kwan Im Teng in Hokkien or Guānyīn tíng in Mandarin (觀音亭), literally “Pavilion of Guan Yin”, to honor Kwan Im whom the temple is dedicated to. The name Kwan Im Teng is the origin of the word klenteng itself, later becoming a general term in the Indies to refer to any Chinese place of worship.
The temple was burned to ground during the massacre of the Chinese ethnic group in 1740. Following the incident, Governor-General Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff established a semi-autonomous organization for each ethnic group to supervised and coordinated each of the community’s social and religious matter. For the Chinese ethnic group, the organization was called Kong Koan. The Kong Koan restored the temple in 1755 under the leadership of a Chinese Captain Oei Tji-lo, as well as managing all the maintenance of the Chinese temple. The restored temple received the name Kim Tek Ie or Jīn Dé Yuàn. Kong Koan also managed the other old Chinese temples in Batavia, among them are the Kuan Im Tong, a Chinese temple in Ancol, and Hian Thian Shang Te.
Following the end of the Dutch colony in Indonesia, the Kong Koan was dissolved. Management of Chinese temples in Indonesia was done by an organization called Dewan Wihara Indonesia or DEWI (The Council of Indonesian Vihara). For temple management, a person serving as the “head censer” or Lu-zhu with his assistants were set for each Chinese temple and are responsibility for holding a fund-raising activities for the temple as well as managing religious ceremonies in the temple. A Lu-zhu is usually chosen from an influential entrepreneur or businessman in the community.
Following the nationalization of names in 1965, The DEWI recommended the name Vihara Dharma Bhakti for Kim Tek Ie, as a nationalistic effort to remove all foreign-sounding names in Indonesia.
2015 Fire
On the morning of March 2, 2015, Vihara Dharma Bhakti was destroyed by fire. The source of the fire was from a piece of tarpaulin hanging near candles that caught alight and then spread throughout the main building. Among the damage were the ornamented roof frame of the temple and some 40 historic sculptures.
