Singkawang: City of a Thousand Temples

Singkawang

According to the data from the 2010 Census, the population of Singkawang was 186,306, most of which are Chinese descents. The largest group of Chinese descent is Hakka people â€" about 42% of the population. The other major group of Chinese descent is Chaozhou People which is better known as Teochew. The rest are Melayu, Dayak, Javanese, and other ethnicities.
The distribution of the religion practically follows the distribution of the ethnic groups; the largest groups are Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam, Protestantism and Catholicism.
From the middle of the 18th century the Chinese governed trading in the city. During the Dutch East Indies era Singkawang was a Roman Catholic main station and permanent residence of Roman Catholic clergy. The mission there was called the 'Apostolic Vicariate of Dutch Borneo' and founded among others schools, a hospital and a leprosy colony.
Singkawang is also well known as the City of a Thousand Temples since there are so many temples can be found in the city and its surrounding. Nearly every god and goddess in Chinese Mythology are worshipped here. People also worship popular historical figures like General Guan Gong, Admiral Zheng He, or even Emperor Sung Tai-zu, which was found to be worshipped in the temple outside the north side of the city.
Chinese food especially Hakka style dominates the food stalls or small restaurants, but Teo Chew style is also available. Minang style food can also be found here. Unique food like "Rujak Ju Hie" is one of delicacies in Singkawang. Tofu (bean curd) Singkawang is famous in West Kalimantan, also "Kembang Tahu" (silky smooth tofu with sugar gravy) is very popular in this city. Singkawang is also famous for its cakes. The variety of cakes is surprising and available from early morning till midnight. Kopi Tiam (local coffee shop) with strong bitter robusta coffee can be found every where. Peaceful and safe feeling for everyone makes Singkawang to be one of the cities with lively night. One may enjoy various food in Pasar Hongkong from porridge, kwetiau, fried rice, nasi lemak, rujak (fruit & vegetables salad), cakes coffee stall. And the prices of the food are surprisingly cheap. Local people enjoy the night with their friends discussing the local hottest issues, singing, or playing cards.
Beside it is well known as the City of Thousands Temples, as there are many small and large temple from any corner of Singkawang region, Singkawang is also known as one of the Indonesian Chinatowns since the majority population is Chinese descendant, consisting of mostly Hakka and some other sub-ethnic of Chinese. They still practice their culture in any ceremony or official events, from weddings to funeral ceremonies. The culture is seen as the closest to the original tradition of Chinese people, making Singkawang known as the Indonesian Chinatown.
Singkawang people use Indonesian as the primary language not only in conversation or trading, but they also use their own mother tongue. As Singkawang consists of three major ethnic groups, Chinese, Malays and Dayak, Hakka Chinese is the most among all, then almost all of the Singkawang people use Hakka for conversation beside Indonesian, even some parts of the other ethnic people can use it too. The Indonesian used in Singkawang commonly for daily conversation isn't standard Indonesian, but has some Malay influence on vocabulary as Malay is the closest language to Indonesian, as Singkawang people have for years been accustomed to Malay.
There have been a large number of reported incidents of Human trafficking in Singkawang, mainly the trafficking of women. Most of the men who travel to Singkawang looking for young women to marry are from Taiwan, China, Malaysia, or Singapore. These men arrive and get in touch with brokers, these brokers then approach families with suitably aged daughters and generally offers these parents about five million rupiahs for each girl.
It is most normal for a majority of these foreign clients to pay an amount exceedingly more than what is requested by the brokers and most payments are at an average of 30 million rupiahs. Contracts are often drawn between the brokers and the clients. It is a fact that each contract includes a time period clause and most of these marriages are contractually bound for two to five years, some for even shorter periods of time. It is also common for these relationships to not be legally bound marriages.

Related Sites for Singkawang

• United Singkawang read Singkawang
• Cinta Singkawang read Singkawang
• Singkawang Travel Guide - VirtualTourist read Singkawang