The Reinwardt Monument – The Remembrance of The Founder

The Reinwardt Monument. Funny, indeed but I bet that many people who takes their photo near this monument may not realize about how precious the memorial is. They are understood, however, as the place is one of the most photogenic, yet instagrammable in Bogor Botanical Garden and they may overwhelm by the beauty Gunting Lake and the galant posture of the backside of Bogor Palace.

Besides, they may not understand what the monument means. It still looks young which is not incorrect. They are not the only ones who don’t know the meaning. Many Bogor citizens don’t have a clue about what it is.

Anyway, the name of the memorial monument, formally, was actually carved on the brownish stone that mentioned a name, C.G.K. Reinwardt. Yes, the monument is called as the Reindwardt Monument.

There is a reason of why the memorial is placed on the most strategic spot in the Big Gardens, visitors can immediately spot it whenever they want to see how Bogor Palace looks like. The reason is because the person whose name is on the monument was the one who created and found the Bogor Botanical Gardens.

Monumen Reinwardt Dan Istana Bogor
Monumen Reinwardt Dan Istana Bogor

Caspar Georg Karl Reinwardt was a professor of Nature History Science from Harderwijk University, Netherland. He was born in Luttringhausen district, Reinscheid, Germany in 1773.

At the age of 27 he was appointed as the Chief of Farm, Arts and Culture for French Colonies. In 1816, as Netherland where he worked was under the sovereignty of French, Reinwardt went to Dutch East Indie (now Indonesia) to accompany the new Governor General for the colony.

One year after, he proposed an idea to set up a garden behind “te Buitenzorg“, the luxurious mansion where East Indie Governor General lived in as a place to plant species of various plants from East Indie for research. When the idea was approved, Lands Plantentuin (Lands of Botanic Garden) was born in 1817.

The lands platentuin is now the place that people know as the Bogor Botanical Gardens, the first botanical garden in South East Asia.

The monument is the memorial for the founder of the place.

Monumen Reinwardt
Penampakan Monumen Reinwardt

The Reinwardt Monument itself was still brand new. It was inaugurated in 2006 by Germany Ambassador , Joachim Broudre-Groge. At the same time, two species from Papua Island, Osmoxylon Boerlagei were planted near the location.

Probably, I should not explain why the Germany Ambassador who inaugurated the monument not the Dutch’s. It will be redundant, I believe, but for the sake of information, well it was the representative of the country from where C.G.K. Reinwardt came from, Germany.

The monument still doesn’t look an ancient artefact but definitely it belongs there. It is on the right place, the Bogor Botanical Gardens, Lands Plantentuin he created.

Mari Berbagi

2 thoughts on “The Reinwardt Monument – The Remembrance of The Founder”

  1. firstly i thought he was a founder of bogor..

    nah, i was wrong..

    hope more people will recognize him..
    because he was important person for build a great garden there…

    Reply

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