‘Urban Legend’ of Wakaf Cemeteries at Jalan Pangeran Antasari and Kemang Feby Hendola Kaluara Faculty of Engineering University of Indonesia, Depok 16424 Tel : (021) 7270011 ext 51. Fax : (021) 7270077 E-mail : febyhk@gmail.com ABSTRACT This writing is a result of my analysis on seven wakaf cemeteries at Jalan Pangeran Antasari and Kemang. These cemeteries are facing some new developments: flyover and grandeur commercial place. Knowing there must be conflicts between people who retain them and developer who is tempted by the land, I try to look beyond functional matter of the wakaf cemeteries by questioning their existence for the people around them. I try to look what the cemeteries stood up for by searching the ‘urban legend’ that spreads around them and observing the spatial relation between them and the people. Eventually, this paper tries to explain that the wakaf cemeteries have special meaning to be looked for before massive developments annihilating them. Keywords Urban legend, wakaf cemetery, development, local culture INTRODUCTION Naming the street with one figure’s name is very common in a city, including Jakarta. However, some name is not known as important as figures in short of heroes or stakeholders. Some name, such as Haji Muhi or Haji Thalib, is a name without any big historical background. At the same time, near those streets, there are also wakaf cemeteries—a benefaction land for burial—which were mostly given by the important people: Haji(s). “Haji” and “wakaf” are actually Islamic terms. In Islam tradition, there is a certain rule for wealthy people to give charity for poor people. One of the ways is to “wakaf”—to endow something “...which is dedicated in perpetuity to some pious or charitable cause” [1] . Usually the wakaf land’s status cannot be changed. It shall be maintained as what and how the giver wanted. Despite the fact about the land is potentially contested, some cemetery has even its own legend and sacred place no matter how modern Jakarta develops itself. This phenomenon also happens near Jalan Pangeran Antasari, South Jakarta. Facing the big development of Blok M- Jalan Pangeran Antasari flyover and the rise of commercial places, some wakaf cemeteries exist with their own entity. Some developer might see the cemeteries as potential property while the people keep maintaining it. Their status are in between—whether they can be functionally useful for the development if it was demolished or they can be something that makes the development restrained. This writing is not trying to answer which one of the cemeteries’ status is the best. The fact that the wakaf cemeteries striving by the people living near it leads me to some questions: “what is actually the wakaf cemetery stood up for? Why is it so defended by the people?” By answering the question, it will lead us, especially urban experts, to know beyond functional matter of the cemetery. Basically what I did to answer the question is observing seven wakaf cemeteries near Jalan Pangeran Antasari to Kemang. These seven cemeteries are currently facing the development of one of the biggest superblocks in south Jakarta: Kemang Village. At the same time there are also flyover project hovering Jalan Pangeran Antasari and the fact that Kemang itself was already gentrified by expats since long ago. For this paper, I came to the cemeteries and tried to know how the people treat them (physically and non-physically) and if there was any ‘urban legend’ that had spread around them. What I mean ‘urban legend’ in here is a story, which is always told and preserved by the people about the cemetery without knowing whether it is authentically right or not, including the story of haji that gave them the land. Knowing the ‘urban legend’ of the cemetery would inform me what the cemete ry represents for the people.