Lawang Sewu - Entering a Thousand Doors

Setting foot in Lawang Sewu, Semarang, you sense not only the remnants of a bygone beauty, but also a mystical atmosphere. 

Entering Lawang Sewu through the main door, you are struck by the sight of an elegant stained-glass window at the top of the stairs. The window is both artistic and full of symbolism. Its most prominent feature is two young Dutch girls, with an image of a wheel between them. Suranto (64), the caretaker of this Dutch colonial building, explains the imagery. "Each square in this window represents something. The crown in the upper center is a symbol of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The wheel between the two girls symbolizes the railroad. Below the wheel, these sheets are meant to be Javanese batik."

On this clear morning, the sunlight illuminates the window, sharpening its colors, and fills the space with a gentle warmth. Lovely.

Beyond the stained-glass window lies the office of the head of the Dutch colonial railroad. Suranto, familiarly called Mbah (Grandpa) Ranto, refers to it as "the Commander's room". It's well ventilated and very comfortable, with a good view of the city park from its balcony.
Given its stunningly unique architecture, it's not surprising to learn that it took three years and hundreds of local workers to build it.

The Railroad Building
NV Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg-Maatschappij (NIS), the Netherlands Indies Railroad Company, was the pioneer of Indonesia's railroads. On 17 June 1864, NIS began construction of the Semarang-Yogyakarta railway line, with the first shovelful dug by the Netherlands Indies Governor General, Sloet van den Beele.

This increased activity meant that NIS needed a new, more suitable office for the related administrative work. The location they chose was at the end of Jalan Bojong (now Jalan Pemuda). According to the official history of PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), the building, located at the intersection of Jalan Pandanaran, Jalan Dr. Soetomo and Jalan Soegijapranata, was designed by the architect Ir. P. de Rieau.
Several of the building's blueprints are extant, including A 387 Ned. Ind. Spoorweg Maatschappij made in February 1902, A 388 E Idem Lengtedoorsnede (September 1902), and A 541 NISM Semarang Voorgevel Langevlenel (1903), all drawn up in Amsterdam. But Sloet van den Beele died before the construction began. The Dutch government then appointed Prof. Jacob K. Klinkhamer and BJ Oudang to handle construction of the NIS building in Semarang, referring to Dutch architectural style.

Apparently, the building site's location at the end of an intersection inspired the two architects to create a building with several wings: a main building, a left wing, and a right wing, in a style that was then quite modern, a forerunner of the art deco style that became popular between the World Wars.

Before construction began, the entire building site was excavated to a depth of four meters. The excavated space was then filled in with volcanic sand from Gunung Merapi. The foundation was laid starting on 27 February 1904, using heavy cement construction, and upon that was erected a wall of split stones. All the main building materials were brought from Europe, apart from bricks, mountain stones, and teak wood. The building now called "Lawang Sewu" was inaugurated on 1 July 1907.

The building, which still belongs to the Indonesian state railroad company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (PT KAI), served as the head office of Jawatan Kereta Api Indonesia immediately after independence. It was then used as the office of the Infrastructure Agency of Regional Military Command IV/Diponegoro, and then, until 1994, as the Central Java Regional Office of the Department of Transportation. Since then, Lawang Sewu has been empty, occupied only by four consecutive caretakers, of whom Suranto is one of them.

Typical Dutch Drainage
The Dutch are famous for their excellent water management; they plan ahead to prevent floods even where none have ever occurred. This building is equipped with such a drainage system. Below the building are empty cavities always ready to accommodate rainwater. These spaces are connected to one another, and then flow to the river leading to the sea. These culverts are not small-scale ones that tend to clog; they are large enough for people to walk through, and were regularly maintained.
The twin towers on the building are rainwater cisterns, which supplied all the building's water needs.

A Thousand Doors
According to Mbah Ranto, there are 53 main rooms and several large halls, not including toilets, electrical control panels, and the canteen, in the building's three blocks. I tried to count the doorways in one of the smallest rooms; there were five, and each doorway has on average four doors.

This architectural feature of having many doors in each room served to adapt Dutch architecture to the tropical climate. It's not surprising that each room has five doors, or even more. Having all the doors open provides excellent air circulation and well-distributed natural light. I imagined how cool and comfortable it must have been to work in Lawang Sewu in those pre-air-conditioning days.

It is this abundance of doors that gave the building its present name, Lawang Sewu. In Javanese, lawang means "door" and sewu means "thousand". But are there really a thousand doors? No one has actually tried to count them, but according to one story, if you do try, the number keeps changing: one time it will be 999, and when you count again, 1001.
The difficulty in counting the doors probably arises from the building's complex structure; with so many rooms and hallways all connecting to one another, it's easy to get confused and lose count.

Ghosts at Lawang Sewu
Since it was the railroad company office during the Dutch colonial era, Lawang Sewu was not a military barracks, nor were any independence fighters executed inside it. So why is there such a spooky atmosphere? It began with the Japanese presence.

During the historic five-day battle in Semarang (14-19 October 1945), this old building was the scene of heavy fighting between the young workers of AMKA (Angkatan Muda Kereta Api, Railroad Young Generation) and the Japanese secret police (kempetai) and shock troops (kidobutai). An untold number of freedom fighters fell here; it is said the river beside the building ran red with blood, from both sides.

Several years later, mystical elements began to be added to the story of this heroic battle. Wandering spirits, ghosts of young Dutch girls, sounds of boots, and spirits inhabiting mango trees became more popular than the actual historical events.

With television programs about the supernatural so popular in Indonesia these days, several TV stations have competed to air shows featuring the mystical side of this old building, and have even "recorded" apparitions of the resident spirits. Since then, the building's haunted reputation has grown, especially since it has been unused and uninhabited for ten years. The building is deteriorating; dusty, leaky, musty and dark. With the once-sturdy wood starting to rot in places, the old building certainly looks haunted.

Many such stories are circulating. It is said, for example, that the wells at Lawang Sewu connect to the South Sea, ruled over by its Queen, Nyi Roro Kidul. Mbah Ranto says this is nonsense. "It's true that the well is up to a kilometer deep, but it doesn't lead anywhere."
Another legend tells of a tunnel built by freedom fighters that leads to a nearby high school, SMA 3, which was then closed up. The caretaker says there is no evidence for this. Though the story claims that the underground drains were used as secret tunnels by the freedom fighters, Mbah Ranto says that the drains that connect to SMA 3 Semarang then lead to the sea, and this arrangement was quite normal for large buildings such as Lawang Sewu in those days.

"Looking at the building's condition, and its history, it's certainly understandable that these ghost stories arise," says Suranto. "But this is a matter of individual opinion. If someone believes in it, feels it, and sees evidence of apparitions, they're entitled to believe in it. However, I've been living around here since the 1970s and I've never seen or felt anything like that, not even on Jum'at Kliwon eve, when mystical things are supposed to happen."

Mbah Ranto feels that it is much more important to view the building in terms of its unique architecture and its historical value, rather than spreading spooky stories and neglecting the building's maintenance. It would be very sad if Lawang Sewu were neglected and seen merely as an old haunted building, with its far more important and exemplary values ignored.