Patung Pahlawan

Hero Statue
Native name Indonesian: Patung Pahlawan
Location	Jakarta, Indonesia
Coordinates	6°10′58″S 106°50′05″E / 6.182681°S 106.834814°E / -6.182681; 106.834814Coordinates: 6°10′58″S 106°50′05″E / 6.182681°S 106.834814°E / -6.182681; 106.834814
Built	1963
Architect	Matvey Manizer, Ossip Manizer

Patung Pahlawan (Indonesian for Hero Statue) is a bronze statue located in Jakarta, Indonesia. The statue depicts a peasant man wearing a caping with a rifle on his shoulder, a woman behind him offering him a dish of rice.^[1] The caping is a traditional farmer's hat in Indonesia, thus the statue is also referred as the Farmer Statue (Patung Pak Tani or Tugu Tani).

History and design

The idea for the creation of the statue was initiated by Soekarno, the first president of Indonesia, when he visited Moscow and was impressed with the statues in the city. He was introduced to a Socialist realist sculptor Matvey Manizer and his son Ossip Manizer.^[2] In order to inspire them, Soekarno invited the sculptors to Indonesia to build a statue which embodies the fight to achieve independence, which at that time Indonesia was fighting for the freedom of West Papua from the Dutch colonialism. While exploring a rural village in West Java, the sculptors were inspired by a folklore about a mother who supported her son to win the war and to remember his parents and his land as well as giving him some rice for his journey.

The statue was built in the Soviet Union and brought to Indonesia by ship. It was inaugurated in 1963. The statue sits at the junction of Menteng and Prapatan Street, which had been an important place during the days of the August 1945 revolution. The statue has been controversial since armed peasants are sometimes identified with communism.^[2]

There is a caption on the pedestal, a sentence by Soekarno: "HANJA BANGSA JANG MENGHARGAI PAHLAWAN PAHLAWANNJA DAPAT MENJADI BANGSA JANG BESAR" (English: "ONLY A NATION WHICH RESPECTS ITS HEROES IS A GREAT NATION")^[2]

References