Prasasti Cemetery

Still very eager to find a good place to shoot with my new camera, I joined this Indonesian photography group in Yahoo groups hoping to have a fresh idea for a photo shoot.  The guys at the group were planning a photo shoot at one of the historic cemeteries in Jakarta, the Prasasti Cemetery.  I was hesitant to join the photo shoot for fear of being too amateurish but the location for the shoot caught my curiosity because of its proximity.  It was less than an hour from my place.

So without much thought, I decided to visit Prasasti Cemetery last 30 January 2010 and see what's so interesting about the place.  Well, to my surprise, the place was indeed quite historic.  There were tombstones dating way back in the 1800s.  What was curious was that there were not only Dutch buried in the place but also Englishmen and Americans.  It was simply amazing to see such a variety of people in Indonesia at the time.

The only disappointment was that the place was not maintained well enough.  Dry leaves were evidently swept regularly as there was no visible pile up but the tombstones and statuettes were not cleaned nor maintained.  It is such a waste of heritage to see the condition of the place.  At any rate, it seems that the place is a favorite of Indonesian photographers for photo shoots including pre-wedding shoots.  Well that actually puzzles me.  Why would someone want to have a pre-wedding photo shoot in a cemetery?

Now I am racking my brains again for another place to shoot within Jakarta.  I hope something comes up again.