BERITAJAKARTA.COM — 5/5/2010 12:10:46 PM

Jakarta as a metropolitan city has markets with their names were based on the names of days in a week. Out of those seven days` name, the most popular until now are Pasar Minggu (Sunday Market), Pasar Senen (Monday Market), Pasar Rebo (Wednesday Market) and Pasar Jum’at (Friday Market). Those names have been used for the name of some areas.


Meanwhile, Pasar Selasa (Tuesday Market), Pasar Kamis (Thursday Market) and Pasar Sabtu (Saturday Market) are not known anymore.

Their names were related to trading activities in specific day. For example, Pasar Senen. Long time ago, people traded in Pasar Senen only on Monday. And now Senen has become a name for a Sub-district in Central Jakarta. The same reason applies to the other names of markets.

Betawi cultures observer who is also a Deputy for Betawi Culture Association (LKB), Yahya Andi Saputra, said it is mentioned in colonial archive that the first market was established by Justinus Vinck, a Dutch person, in south of Batavia Castle in 1730s. The market was named Vincke Passer or at present known as Pasar Senen. It was Vincke Passer that for the first time implemented transaction in trade using money .

In the 19th century or in 1801, government under VOC made policy in building market to landlords. The rule was that the markets to be built should be different in their days. Vincke Passer was open every Monday; native Indonesian often called Vincke Passer as Pasar Senen (Monday Market) until now.

Besides Vincke Passer every Monday, there was a market open every Tuesday, namely Pasar Koja (Koja Market), Pasar Rebo was open every Wednesday and now it has been changed as Kramatjati central market, Mester Passer was open every Thursday and now it was changed to Jatinegara market, markets which were open every Friday were Lebakbulus market, Kelender market and Cimanggis market.

“Markets which were open every Saturday were Tanah Abang market; Pasar Minggu which was known as Tanjung Oost Passer was open only on Sunday. This differentiation was done by VOC considering the security and to make people easy to go to the markets and to know more about them,” said Saputra, Wednesday (5/5).

Unfortunately, that market operation policy based on day was not long lasting. Since VOC was bankrupt because of corruption, Dutch government in Batavia was taken by Dutch Indies. Ever since, the policy was not valid anymore and some markets operated every day.

In the end of 19th century, during the Dutch Indies era, said Saputra who is also a lecturer in University Indonesia (UI), a lot of new markets were emerging like Passer Baroe, Passer Glodok and Toko Merah.

The markets emerging in the end of 19th century until early 20th century inspired the appearance of modern market like supermarket and mall.

Translator: ajeng