Last Saturday, 25 February 2023, undergraduate and graduate students in the Architecture Study Program and FTUI Urban Regional Planning Masters students conducted a field visit entitled Heritage Trail Buitenzorg—Tjiandjoer. The tour organized by PT KAI aims to explore the various heritages along the Bogor to Cianjur railway route which was built in the late 19th century.
Starting from Bogor Station, students are invited to see the splendour of the old station building which was built in 1881 using Indis style and Neoclassical styles. The journey then continues to Sukabumi Station by using the Pangrango Train to see traces of colonial plantations along the train line. From Sukabumi Station, the group continued their journey to the Lampegan Tunnel which is located around Lampegan Station, Cianjur Regency. This tunnel is the first railway tunnel structure built in the Dutch East Indies, namely in 1879-1882, and is still strong today.
After exploring the Buitenzorg-Tjiandjoer Heritage Trail by train, the last location visited by the group consisting of 60 students and 11 lecturers was the Gunung Padang Cultural Heritage Site, a national cultural heritage in the form of a terraced pounded originating from the Megalithic civilization. Based on carbon testing of the rock and soil layers, the site is thought to have been built by prehistoric Sundanese people as early as 11,000 BC, much older than the Great Pyramid at Giza.
Apart from aiming to get to know the cultural artefacts along the Buitenzorg-Tjiandjoer Heritage Trail, this tour also aims to learn about the principles of preservation and utilization of cultural heritage around us. After participating in this field study, it is hoped that students’ sensitivity and sensitivity to the heritage-built environment will increase, so that in the future they can play an active role in efforts to preserve and utilize Indonesian cultural heritage.
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Bureau of Public Communications
Faculty of Engineering, University of Indonesia