Betawi - the Origin of the Name

If you are a native Betawi, please don’t get upset on the above title. This article is only a story on the origin of the name “Betawi”. In case you do not know what ‘Betawi’ is, this is another nickname of Jakarta.

If you are a native Betawi, please don’t get upset on the above title. This article is only a story on the origin of the name “Betawi”. In case you do not know what ‘Betawi’ is, this is another nickname of Jakarta.

The story dates back as early as 17th century. It was the time when Old Batavia (now Jakarta) was ruled by VOC, a trading union controlled by Dutch Government and holding monopoly trading rights in Indonesian archipelago. It was also the time when Mataram Kingdom in Central Java was lead by Sultan Agung. How these two connected? Well, this is the story.

It was in 1629 when Sultan Agung ordered his troop to attack Batavia in order to rule out VOC from the city. Mataram attacked Fort Maagdelijn and the attack was quite successful as the troop succeeded to approach the fort. VOC’s soldier was outnumbered and they were surely to loose the battle. The story goes that there were only 15 soldiers left inside the fort without ammunition whilst Mataram’s troop were beginning to climb up the fort using rattan ladder. In that desperate situation, one VOC soldier suddenly ran, to pick up one basket full of human faeces and thrown it all to Mataram’s soldier who was just trying to climb up the fort wall.

The Mataram’s soldier cried out and ran away as those human faeces touched their heads and bodies. They cried “mambet tai…mambet tai...” which means “smell of shit…smell of shit...” This is where the name Betawi (mamBet Tai) comes from. Mataram’s troop cannot stand the smell of the faeces and thus stopped their attack. The battle was eventually won by VOC. Off course there are other factors which cause Mataram’s troop to retreat from the city, such as lack of food and disease. You don’t expect shit alone will do the entire work for VOC, don’t you?

In “Nostalgia di Jakarta” written by Zaenuddin HM and also in nighttime stories told when I was a kid, in the past, human faeces was often used in battle as defense tools against the enemy. Old Batavia was once described as a city smell of shit. Was it? Well, not really, you can still smell shit nowadays in several slump and squatter areas scattered through out Jakarta.