“Europa in de Tropen”, The Colonial Tourism and Urban Culture in Bandung

Bandung experienced a rapid urban development after 1918, when the city was prepared to be the new Dutch East Indies’ capital city, replacing Batavia. In the era of economic liberalization, Bandung also became one of the tourist destinations that has promoted by the businessmen. This paper is a study on how mass tourism as the new urban culture in the beginning of 20 th century had a contribution to urban planning in Bandung. The timeline was after the establishment of train as a modern transportation in Bandung (1884) until the end of the Dutch Colonialism in Dutch East Indies (1942). Through the Georg Simmel's theory of sociology and the city, This paper tried to analyze the the tourism activity and its relations to the 20 th century urban architecture in Bandung, West Java. This paper used the method that was introduced by Iain Borden and friends in The Unknown City to understand tourism and urban history of Bandung through the spatial practice, city representation and experiences. The result showed that the tourism activity did not have a direct relation to urban planning of Bandung, but the elite middle class community activity had some significance contributions to increase the quality of aesthetic on the city.


Introduction
In 1928 CIAM meeting, Bandung had been categorized as a pleasure city, a place for sport and recreation (Mumford, 2002). At that time, Bandung was one of the tourists' favorite destinations in Dutch East Indies. After the tourism organization Veregniging Toeristveerker (VTV) was established in 1908, the number of tourists who came to Dutch East Indies was increasing each year. The idea of mass tourism as an organized trip was originally found in the mid of 19 th century by the Englishman, Thomas Cook, who worked to help the alcoholics to join the therapy in different cities. He organized hundreds of people from one to another cities and applied travel fares for the train tickets (Zuelow, 2015). Then he changed the travel business to be a pleasure trip to other countries (Rae, 1891).
The era of economic liberalization also affected the rise of tourism business in Dutch East Indies and the emerge of middle class life style in leisure. Tourism as the new urban lifestyle in the Dutch East Indies showed the existence of the new middle class that needs to travel far from home. It had emerged along with the development of modern transportation. Bandung as the capital of the Preanger Residency had a railway since 1884 and became more open for public to visit. The city was popular because of its beauty of nature and the climate that is suitable for Europeans. However, the urban narration of Bandung that is seen from tourism activities has never been mentioned, so I think there is a missing fragment in the Bandung urban history.
This paper is a study to understand the urban development of Bandung as well as one of the tourist destination in the colonial era that is seen from the study of sociology and space.The research question is how mass tourism as the new urban culture had a contribution to urban planning in Bandung, especially after the establishment of modern transportation (train)? The purpose of this research is to produce a new understanding about urban culture in Bandung through tourism activities and how they affect the urban planning. The research focuses on the era after the modern transportation in Bandung was established, it was when a railway from Batavia to Preanger had completed in 1884. The selection of this timeline is according to Georg Simmel's theory which stated that tourism activities has changed after the set up of modern transportation (Simmel, 1997).

Methods
The discussion of tourism as an urban lifestyle is analyzed by using Georg Simmel's theory of sociology on leisure culture from the book "The Alpine's Journey" and "The Adventure". Articles of David Frisby in "Social Space, the City, and Metropolis" was also used to study Simmel's sociology and the space or the city. This sociological approach is chosen to understand the social interaction in the city and its relationship with space in tourism culture. This paper uses the concept of Space, Time and Social Being that is wrote by Iain Borden and friends' in the book "The Unknown City". The idea behind the concept is to avoid the single history for the cities that has made by single authority. According to Borden & friends, to understand the spatiality of the city is to study the framework of spatial practice, city representation, and the experience (Borden & friends, 2000). Spatial practices are seen from the Bandung urban planning, community activities, the tourism subjects and objects, and their relationship. Representation is all about tourism information in guidebooks, maps, photographs, and advertisements, while the experience can be learned from traveling notes and the tourism activities. The framework of spatial practice, representation, and experience are used to be a method to analize the relation between the urban culture in tourism and urban planning in Bandung.
The data collection uses qualitative method by studying historical archives. The primary data sources are the tourist guidebooks that was published by Official Tourist Bureau in 1891-1930, the early 20th century colonial tourism brochures and advertisement, tourism magazines (Mooi Bandung 1933-1934, and some traveling notes by Charles Walter Kinloch (1852), E.R. Scidmore (1899), and A.J Barnouw (1927), Bandung tourism maps (years 1780, 1891, 1905, 1924, 1937), and some photographs from KITLV and Tropenmuseum. The secondary data are research based records, such as books, journals, dissertations, and articles about Bandung and tourism studies This paper has postmodern paradigm which try to discover a new way in seeing urban history. Iain Borden in "The Unknown City" said there was a problem on "single history" of the city that had made by a government or someone who had access to construct the urban history. The only single history that was introduced by modernist could cause many other narratives about the city were hidden or even lost.

Result & Discussion
In 1852, Charles Walter Kinloch, a British officials in India, traveled to Java. He noted, Bandung at that time was a small city with a beautiful scenery, and there were tea and coffee plantations (Kinloch, 1852). At that time, the Dutch colonial government implemented a cultivating system to increase the state income through crops. Bandung in southern West Java was a small regency, located near the Great Post Road that was built by Daendels in 1810. The city was strategic, located in a basin-shaped land and surrounded by the mountains. It had made the Dutch colonial government interested in moving the capital city of Priangan Residence, from Cianjur to Bandung. In 1864, Bandung officially became the capital city of the Priangan Residence.
Under the Decentralization Act, the status of Bandung was increased to gemeente (municipality) in 1906. The new status strengthened the city as the center of Dutch colonial government. Bandung in 1926 became stadgemeente, as the capital city of West Java. With the update regulation in decentralization, the city government started to have the authority to regulate the city. This change was also related to the preparation of the central government to move the capital of the Dutch East Indies from Batavia to Bandung.
Bandung began to develop governmental buildings, infrastructure, and military headquarters in order to replace Batavia. In the book Bandoeng, de Ideale Woon en Vacantiestad, there were some photographs of when a modern building had been built. In 1942, the capital of the Dutch East Indies officially moved to Bandung. But, Bandung as the capital city of the Dutch East Indies only lasted for a few days because the colonial government had been pushed back by the Japanese army.

Tourism Culture in Bandung
Mass tourism in Dutch East Indies grew with the support of modern transportation. Before the Lintas Priangan railway was built, tourists went to Bandung by riding a horse carriage through the Daendels great post road. According to Kinloch, when he went from Buitenzorg to Bandung, he had to rest in Cianjur for a few days due to a heavy trip. From Cianjur to Bandung, he traveled for 6 hours and at some point, he had to rent a buffalo to pull his horse carriage over the slope (Kinloch, 1852). American tourist Eliza R. Scidmore wrote about the journey from Buitenzorg to Bandung by the train in 1890s. She said it only took a day, from sunrise to sunset (Scidmore, 1899). The modern transportation system had opened the access for anyone to go to the nature, while in the past, traveling to the nature only can be achieved by those who had special skills, such as climbing the mountain (Simmel, 1997). The modern transportation also changes how people enjoy the nature because there is a shift in the concept of pleasure. Simmel said modern transportation and metropolis culture has turned the tourist's trip into objective justification (Simmel, 1997). Tourist as the subject was no longer can control his trip, because the role was taken by travel company. Calculative time on metropolis culture had an impact to the tight schedules that had been organized by tourism agent (Simmel 1997). Before mass tourism, a tourist who traveled to Bandung had individual intentions, such as to improve their health, to hunt the wild animals, or to do a research. Kinloch traveled to Java for medical purposes in order to follow his doctor's advise to treat his disease (Kinloch, 1852). Another example was J.W.B. Money, a British official who lives in India and joined a deer hunting tour in Bandung. They all got the benefits from the journey which Simmel called a subjective pleasure. In mass tourism, tourist was the object who should follow the agent's itinerary list.
Mass tourism in the colonial era was a western construct of modern culture that has practiced on colonized land as a tourism object and was organized by the agent/businessmen (Sunjayadi, 2017). For tourism activities, there was a community named Bandung Vooruit that established in 1925. The community's first project was to opened the access to Tangkoeban Prahoe crater for private car (De Sumatra Post, 1932). The new access was established in 1932 and became a trigger to the development of villas along the road. Bandung Vooruit also beautified the city by built the city parks and planted the trees on the edge of highway. In 1933, Bandung Vooruit published a tourism magazine "Mooi Bandung" to promote the new tourist destination to attract the foreign tourist.
The tourism business was organized by westerners (or the Chinese) and consumed by them as well. However, some literatures rarely mentioned the role of native people. Natives also traveled, but under different intentions. In the study of tourism, the perspective of Asians were different from Westerners, the context was not economical, but rather a cultural and spiritual reasons (Singh, 2009). If we looked at the photographs in the tourist guides during the colonial period, natives were involved as tourism objects. Women who came home from the market carrying a basket was a unique object to tourists. This is a characteristic of mass tourism, when daily life turned to be economic objects. Meanwhile, local residents who became objects also experience changes as the site of consumption (Urry, 2002). In the 1913 guidebook, the Sundanese were described as people who behaved politely, honestly, always cheerful, and believed in superstition (Bureau, 1913). Natives who were colonized for hundreds of years had been built a loyalty to their masters. It was also revealed in a travel note that the natives always bowed in front of the Dutch (Scidmore, 1899). They were servants in colonial households, as a maid, a gardener, or a cook. In the tourism business, this role started to shift but it was still in the context of serving (Sunjayadi, 2017), such as hotel housekeepers, tourist guides, or a driver.

The Representation of the City
As a tourist destination, Bandung had many taglines, such as Parijs van Java, Geneve van Java, Montpeiller of Java, and Switzerland van Java. The beauty expression of Bandung still exists until today. In 1913 guidebook, the popular tourism objects in Bandung were landscape that was promoted as beautiful nature, tropical, and clean air. This aesthetic quality was represented by imitating European cities: Paris, Geneva, Montpeiller, Switzerland to increase sales. Tourism businessmen sold adventure dreams to their customers. They promoted a dream-like adventures in order to shape the tourist imagination. Dream-like is the quality of experience which tourist could get from a journey that was different from daily life. The tourist who had a routine daily life would need an adventure (Simmel, 1997). The dream of Bandung tourism was spread through tourism guidebooks, brochures, and advertisements in mass media.
The content in promotional media were a description of the place, local language, travel fares, travel schedules, with some photographs. The tourists would be disappointed if the representations were different with the reality. Scidmore complained about the far and boring trip, but this was not informed in the brochure. However, Barnouw actually had a better experience than he had imagined. The representation they got was turned out to be very different as the reality. Representation was not enough to give a complete information about the tourism object, but it contained some knowledge that was made by people from certain discipline (Borden & friends, 2000) to help tourists when they made tourism itinerary. Some places of leisure and entertainment places in Bandung was mentioned in the tourism brochures, such as parks, annual fair, and sport facilities. The old building object (such as Sundanese dwelling or Chinese Temple) and modern architecture in Bandung was also being the new tourism object.

Spatiality of Bandung as a Tourist Destination
The city of Bandung in the end of 19 th century was not a tourist destination. In the traveling notes, it was only mentioned once that the tourist visited the mosque near the Regent house in Bandung. Nature was a popular destination, such as Dago waterfall, Halimoen, Lembang, and Papandayan mountain. Europeans who lived in the city was only 9 people in 1846 (Smail, 2011). But the number drastically increased to 500 Europeans in 1893, when they started a plantation business around Bandung in the era of economic liberalization. The city was opened to another region after the establishment of Lintas Priangan railway. The town Vol 2, No 2: May 2020 "Europa in de Tropen", The Colonial Tourism and Urban Culture in Bandung Nurwulandari, Kurniawan center in 1891 was around the Regent's house which located in the south of Daendels' road. In 1905, the number of Europeans in Bandung reached 2.000 people and the total of Bandung citizen, including Natives and the Chinese, were 17.000 people. After the Decentralization Act in 1905, the city had been planned to support economic and government activities. There were new places for leisure but it was not promoted for tourism yet. Leisure activities in Bandung was initiated by the elite middle class in Bandung that was originally the Preangerplanters or plantation businessmen. Together with local elite and colonial officials, they made a social group or community that had significant contribution to the city development and tourism.  Bureau, 1924) H. Tillema, a pharmacist and health practitioner, in 1916, released his research that stated about the bad quality of the port cities (including Batavia) and he said that Bandung could be the ideal place to replace Batavia as a capital city (Hermawan, 2010). He got supports from the Dutch administrators which was formed a special team for the city planning. Throughout 1917, Dutch architect and urban planner F.J.L. Ghijsels together with AIA Bureau and Heetjans, were commissioned to design Bandung Development Plan. The idea was to develop the north of railway area for new buildings, offices, and the European houses. The southwest of Bandung was intended for the new industry and commercials. The construction was set up in 1918, and in 1921, the construction of Gedung Sate had begun (Akihary, 1996).
The Bandung urban planning in 1918 was intended for the preparation of the city to become the capital city of the Dutch East Indies. The development was concentrated in political, business district, and its supporting facilities. Bandung as a city was started to be promoted as a tourist destination since 1920. Simmel said that eventhough a metropolis (city) was man-made, they could become to be tourism objects, as long as it had aesthetic qualities for leisure (Fisby, 1992). Unlike nature that appeared as it is, the aesthetic quality in the city was must be created. Nature did not have "pieces", while the city were composed of elements, such as architecture, moving traffic, and human interactions. Aesthetic quality in the city can be created through new attractions on each city's elements. In 1927, the city plan was revised-with the role of Bandung Vooruit that established in 1925. In the new plan, there were some new leisure places such as sports centers, parks, exhibition building, the zoo, and museums. Then, the Bandung Vooruit promoted those leisure places to become a new tourist destination. The participation of professional architect had brought a modernism in Bandung. Modern architecture was also become one of the new tourist destination that was promoted in tourism guide and brochures.
In 1926, The Gemeente suggested that the city would need more comprehensive design because Bandung at that time had already become a Stadgemeente or the capital city of West Java. So, they did some plan revisions. The new development plan was ready in 1927, the plan was following Thomas Karsten idea about garden city. American tourist, A.J. Barnouw, who came to Bandung in 1927, noted that the Dutch people in the Indies at that time really wanted Bandung to become the capital city, considering that Batavia was unhealthy for living (Barnouw, 1927). Barnouw also visited the Departement of Government Industry (Gedung Sate) that had already built in 1924. At the same time, the elite community of "Bandung Vooruit" started to initiated the new leisure places in the city. They also promoted the city for tourism purpose, such as buildings with modern architecture, shopping activities in Braga, asphalt roads for pleasure driving, the city parks for healthy recreation, sport facilities, and Jaarbeurs exhibition buildings (Vooruit, 1930).

Conclusion
Tourism in Bandung after the establishment of Lintas Priangan railway was not a new activity because the nature of Bandung had been popular for tourist since the 19 th century. However, the existence of modern transportation had made the number of tourists increased. In the era of economic liberalization, the railway line also became a trigger to the European to open the new business in Bandung.
Mass Tourism in the city of Bandung after 1884 did not have a direct contribution to the urban planning of Bandung. It was because the planning of the city in the beginning of 20 th century (since 1906) was intended to support economic and political activities in the city as a gementee (municipality) and stadgementee (the capital city of West Java). However, since 1925, the role of elite middle class in Bandung and their social activities had contributed to create aesthetics qualities in the city in order to encourage the tourism activities. There were new places and attractions that had built for tourism and leisure, such as parks, zoo, museum, exhibition centre, and sport facilities. The role of Bandung Vooruit community had a significance contribution to the urban planning in Bandung.
The new tourism object in the city was originally a leisure place and entertainment center for the elite middle class in Bandung that had already existed in the end of 19 th century. These old leisure places had been renovated as well as the new one had been created, and then it was promoted to the world through tourism guides, brochures, and magazines. Bandung was promoted as Europa in de Tropen that promised the tourist who visited Bandung could get the modernity of Europe with the tropical atmosphere.