On the Street-names in Batavia and the Meaning of Place-names in Java

Abstract

From the standpoint of urban geography, Batavia, the colonial city in the tropic, includes various interesting problems. Among them, the distribution of street-names of the city is rather unique. Besides many names originated from things Netherlands, name-groups due to natural or historical facts in Indonesia are more often given as street-names. Among them, we can distinguish islands, flora or fauna in Indonesia, volcanoes or rivers in Java, places in Sumatra, personal names of ancient Javanese Kingdom or various gods of Hindu religion. As mostly these name-groups are given collectively to various parts of the city, together with the special atmosphere which every parts creates, they are playing a big role on the formation of geographical pattern of the city.
This synthetic expression of natural and historical characteristics in whole Indonesia seems especially suitable, because the city is the capital of the archipelago. By the way, when we investigate about the meaning of place-names in Java, we know the greater majority is occupied by the names originated from volcanoes, rivers, fauna and flora of the island. Here, where the natural strength is powerful, it seems quite natural, too.