Football Monument

Bandung people love football (American: soccer) and they are proud of PERSIB, their football team. To show this, the city goverment commissioned this monument called Monumen Sepak Bola (Football Monument). It is located on the junction of Tamblong and Sumatra streets and was dedicated on May 8, 1990. There is no information on the ground about who designed and created the sculpture.

Lapangan Tegallega

No, this is not a cemetary and these marked stones are not the tombstones. As you may have noticed, the inscription on the foreground stone reads "The Islamic Republic of Iran" and underneath it the local name of a plant and its latin name.

This is the Tegallega city forest/park where the Bandung Lautan Api (Bandung Sea of Fire) monument is located. These trees and the marker stones were planted and put in place in April 2005 to mark the 50th Anniversary or the Golden Jubilee of the Asian-African Conference. Each country that originally attended the Conference in 1955 is represented here by a tree and a stone-marker. The trees were ceremonially dedicated by the respresentatives of those countries who again came to Bandung to attend the anniversary in 2005.

The Bandung Conference, as some of you may have known, took place from April 18 to 25, 1955. Jointly organized by Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Burma (Myanmar), and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the conference - attended by representatives of 29 Asian and African nations, most of which were newly independent - was aimed at promoting political self-determination, mutual respect for sovereignty, non-aggression, non-interference in internal affairs, and equality. Specifically, this group of nations that later became the fetus of the Non-Alligned Movement (NAM) were also pursuing the agenda of Afro-Asian economic and cultural cooperation and resisting colonialism or neocolonialism by the world's superpowers.

Bandung Lautan Api (Bandung The Sea of Fire)

This is the Bandung Lautan Api (Bandung the Sea of Fire) Monument or BLA at Tegalega.

The BLA monument was erected to commemorate a historical event that took place in the city on the evening of March 24, 1946 (60 years ago today) when the inhabitants of the city deliberately burned down the city (read: their own houses and other important buildings) and evacuated it in a heroic act to prevent the city from being recaptured and used by the British and Allied Forces who were helping the Ductch to reclaim its former colony after the Japanese surrender.

The decision to burn down and abandon the city was reached at a deliberation of Majelis Persatuan Perjuangan Priangan (an organization that united all the people's militia fighting for the Indonesian independence in Bandung and its surrounding area) in the morning of 24 Maret 1946, and was announced and executed later on the same day.

Here is an old picture of the situation in Bandung after the event.

Monumen Perjuangan Rakyat Jawa Barat: A Tribute to The Heroic Struggles of The People of West Java (A Skywatch Friday Post)

Every community has their own struggles in the pursuit of their liberty and happiness. The people of West Java are no exception. The photo for my participation in the Skywatch Friday today is that of Monumen Perjuangan Rakyat Jawa Barat (or Monument for The Struggles of The West Javanese People).

Erected as a tribute to the heroic stuggles of West Javanese people (as part of Indonesia) to regain their indipendence from their colonial rulers, this monument is one of Bandung's most symbolic landmarks. It is located to the north of Gedung Sate (West Java gubernatorial office mansion). Both are linked in a straightline North - South axis by the Gasibu Square and a plaza, with Gedung Sate marking the southernmost point and the monument the northernmost point. Facing north, a person sitting at Gedung Sate can see the monument and Mt. Tangkuban Parahu (literally means: capsized boat) behind it.

Today's photograph is a partial view of the monument. I'll post some more photos of it and the plaza tomorrow. Have a nice Skywatch Friday!