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Surakarta (or commonly known as Solo), is a city in the Central Java Province. It is the tenth largest city in Indonesia. Solo has magnificent potential in various sectors of products such as textile, furniture, handicraft, agriculture, farmfood, etc. Moreover it has unique and creative products that have good future chances for local market or global one. For tourism marketing purposes, Solo uses the the line “Solo the Spirit of Java” as its slogan. The slogan is expected to bring an image of Solo as one of the main cities with Javanese Culture.
Solo with it various creative products are able to increase the local income and can absorb enormous human resources. Some of Solo’s infamous products are :
- Copper cluster, Tumang, Boyolali, with its copper craft product and home accessories.
- Lurik woven cloth cluster, Bero Klaten, with its superior product, such as woven cloth bag.
- Trangsan rattan furniture cluster, Sukoharjo with its furniture products made from rattan and other natural fiber combination.
- Glass craft product from Solo with its glass made products.
- Wooden toys product “Cil-Cil”, Surakarta with its various educative wooden toys.
Geografi
The city of Solo is located about 65 km northeast of Yogyakarta. It resides in a Lowland area (around 100 m above sea level) and is flanked by two mountains, which are Mt. Merapi in the West and Mt. Lawu in the East. Solo is adjacent to Karangnanyar and Boyolali Regency in the North and Sukoharjo Regency in the South. Solo is home to approximately 552.983 people in only an area of 44 km2.
The land and soil in Solo consists of fine minerals as a result of volcanic actions from Mountains in the past years. This composition added with the large amount of water available makes this lowland very suitable for the cultivation of crops.
History
In the reign of Sri Susuhunan Paku Buwana II in 1742, an uprising occurred by the Chinese towards Keraton Kasunanan in Kartasura. The uprising was led by Sunan Kuning ( Mas Garendi). The ironic part, the uprising had support from a relative of the court who didn’t agree with the cooperation of VOC and Sri Susuhunan Paku Buwana II. The uprising had made it past the forts of Keraton Kartasura. Feeling threatened, Paku Buwana II and his relatives of the court refugeed to Pacitan until Ponorogo. After seeking help from the Dutch Company in Surabaya and Adipati Bagus Suroto from kadipaten Ponorogo, the uprising was eventually eliminated.
The serious damage suffered by the Keraton on account of the uprising, has forced Paku Buwana II to seek a new location to build a new Keraton Kasunanan. He delegated his courtiers to do the job. In their journey seeking for the new location, the courtiers finally obtained 3 places fit for the building. Those places are Desa Kadipolo (Kadipolo Village), Desa Sanasewu (Sanasewu Village) and Desa Sala (Sala Village). With much consideration, both physic and spiritual, it was then decided that Sala Village was the winning spot. Sala Village was a little village on the skirts of Bengawan Sala River and the was filled with marsh.
The courtiers then reported the location to Sri Susuhunan Paku Buwana II. The king then dispatched his other courtiers to visit the village. The courtiers obeyed the order and then went on the journey to visit the village. Upon their arrival, they met the Chief of the Village who recited about the Sala Village to them. After the meeting, the courtiers went back to report of their progress.
After hearing the report, Paku Buwana II instructed his courtiers again to revisit the village. The courtiers managed to find a water source “Tirta Amerta Kamandanu” which made Paku Buwana more than confident to start building the palace. To build the palace, they first have to clog the water source in the marsh. But their intention didn’t go out according to plan. It turns out that in order to clog the water source, a certain hermit known as Kyai Yasadipura, said that they have to use a sacred Gong instrument named Kyai Sekar Delima and some Lumbu leaf. To receive these objects, Sri Sunan Susuhunan Paku Buwana II ordered to give 10,000 ringgit to Kyai Sala. After the process was complete, Kyai Sala reclused himself, and received the objects. The objects were then clogged on to the wellspring and the building of the keraton continued.
Every piece of Keraton structure was brought to Sala Village to be rebuilt. This event happened in 1745, and it was at that year the name Sala Village was changed into Surakarta Hadiningrat and immediately became the capital of Javanese Kingdom. In 1946, after the proclamation of independence, Surakarta removed its kingdom status and became a city.
