Rumah Kebaya

Syarifah Hana Alhaddad
Artikel oleh : Syarifah Hana Alhaddad
Foto oleh : hokky saavedra
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You can know a lot about a person by going to their house. At least that’s the common notion that most people are aware of. And I agree. 

To most people, the house they live in is personal. It builds your character and vise versa. Yet the deep core to which a house is built or lived in are matched based on the personal values the person holds. Such values include the kind of tradition a person has. 

Yes, this is not the Kebaya traditional clothing that is mostly associated with Indonesians. Rumah Kebaya is one of Betawi’s most popular traditional house known in Indonesia. There are other types of Betawi’s traditional houses like Rumah Kandang and Rumah Joglo, but it seemed that Rumah Kebaya is most popular to the Betawi culture. Like any other houses, Rumah Kebaya has drawn much of the personality of the Betawi people. 

Rumah Kebaya is known for its uniquely designed roof of four sides. The tip of the roofs are ended with a kind of ornament that is shaped like ‘gigi balang’. This creates a sort of solidarity character to the house, which is meant to inspire the youth and generally, the society to have a fighting spirit. The interior of the house is generally very open with minimal partition. Even when presented, the functionality of the partition is to divide the rooms into hierarchy from a public space when entering the house to a much more private area inside the house. However so, hierarchy does not seem to play a significant role within the Betawi culture, which is why their house is majorly focus towards having a big and open living room that creates a very welcoming atmosphere. 

Going through such house, we could really feel the inner personality and behaviour of the Betawi cultural values. It seemed that the design of this house has really affected the way Betawi people acts amongst guests and each other. 

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