AMPENAN—The Old City

I pass Ampenan everyday when I go to work and I’m always in rush. I haven’t noticed this old special city until one Friday afternoon I read an article about three main cities in Lombok. Then in the following day, I drove my motorbike to the west, passed through the traffic jam, headed to Ampenan to find remains of its history.

For the first time, I took a walk under sunny sky among some verdant old buildings that are influenced by Dutch architecture. There were some tables and chairs piled up in front; some street vendors were preparing their spots; some old men were chatting in Sasak while sipping their cigarette. I felt like I went back to the past, drifted to the story when it was a harbor city. Nowadays, Ampenan is the second biggest trading center in Lombok. This beach front city is inhabited by Chinese Indonesian, Arabic Indonesian, Javanese, Bugese and Sasaks. Besides, its black beach is still being the favorite place of local tourists. On the beach, there are some pillars of jetty remain. They still firmly stand against the waves. 

About 200 meters before entering the beach gate, in the northern part of the road, stands an old Buddhist Temple called Po Hwa Kong. I put my shoes off, went in through the red opened door. A golden big jar with the incents planted was right in front of me, upon me there were tens red lampions written with many names hanging on the ceiling, in the right corner, a buffet was staffed by lotus shaped origami, red candles and some staffs that I couldn’t name it for praying. I went on, said hi to the man who stood in front of it. I shook his hand and asked his permission to look around the temple. This temple consists of three main parts—left, right and middle area. In the middle part stood five statues of angels that were put in the opened golden red case. In front of it, a rectangle table lies for putting some offerings and two giant red candles were in flame, added the spiritual and tranquil ambience. In the left area, there was Buddha statute. It stood among some beautiful angels and figures. In the right area, I found a big statue of war lord holding his sword and hundreds scripts written in Mandarin were neatly arranged in the glass cabinet. 

I went back to the main part and asked the man how old this temple was. “It is 129 years old and in 1942 this temple was safe from the Japanese bombing, we have never done any permanent reparation, the roof is never changed since it’s firstly built” he added.  He also explained that this Temple was not only visited by Buddhists. Some Muslims Hindust and Christian came to ask for luck and future reading.  Before leaving, I took a leaflet that’s written about Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva which contains 20 things that human should do in their everyday life. As I went out, the sky was getting red; I walked along to the beach. 

Ampenan is easy to reach. It is 20 minutes drive from Sengigi and or 5 minutes drive from Mataram. Public transportation is available especially if you travel from Mataram or Sengigi.