The National Monument
Source: cdn-images-1.medium.com
As we all know, almost every country in the world has its own national monuments. For example, Paris has the Eiffel Tower, India has the Taj Mahal, and in the United States, there is the Statue of Liberty. Indonesia has a national monument too that is called Monas.
Monas is located at the center of Merdeka Square in Central Jakarta. The monument symbolizes the fight for the independence of Indonesia from the invaders. The enormous monument encapsulates the philosophy of Lingga and Yoni. Lingga resembles an alu which is a rice pastel and Yoni resembles a lesung which is a rice mortar, both of these are important tools for the people of Indonesia at the time. The top of Monas is decorated with gold foiled stone resembling a burning flame that is referred to as the Flame of Independence. Monas is equipped with an observation deck at the top of the monument at a height of 115 meters above ground level. Visitors and tourists can ride a lift to get to the observation deck, and there is also a staircase for use in emergency situations.
The construction of Monas started in 1962 and was completed in 1975. The work was done in batches, from the first stage from 1961 to 1965, the second from 1966 to 1968, and the final stage from 1969 to 1976. In the first stage, the construction was supervised by the National Monument committee and the budget was obtained from citizen donations. The second stage was almost identical, but the budget used was obtained from the central government. In the final stage, the dioramas for the historical museum were added. Monas was officially opened to the public on the 12th of July 1975. The total budget that was used to build Monas amounted to 58 billion rupiahs or about $3.7 million.
References:
https://www.indoindians.com/monas/
https://www.kompas.com/stori/read/2022/04/18/170000379/sejarah-monumen-nasional-monas-?page=all
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