Ternate Palace

Ternate Palace has become a museum since the Dutch East Indies colonial government (1916). However, Ternate Palace still function as a palace for the Sultanate of Ternate and Ternate residents even if only symbolically. Traditional ceremonies are often held in this court until now. Ternate residents also still honor the descendants of the Sultan of Ternate, which is considered sacred or having an efficacy that protects people from Gamalama eruption.

In 1976, after extensive renovations with funding from the Department for Education and Culture and the province of Maluku, Sultan Ternate Palace Museum is integrated with the Directorate of Museums. Soon after that, relatives of Ternate Palace occupies the building back. This had been complained of by the Director General of Culture at that time, Dr. Haryati Soebadio, because officially the Sultanate of Ternate no longer exist.

Historical Background

Ternate and the other islands in the Maluku Islands have become the dreams of European sea explorers in the 15th century. At that time the European spice merchants got difficultes to get spices for sale in the European market. Strong Ottoman Empire hamper spice distribution channels through the Arabian Peninsula, Persia, and Egypt.

The Spanish and Portuguese authorities are willing to pay for sea explorers to find a sea route to the islands of spice, which was then known as “Maluku” (Molluca Islands) or “Spice Islands” (Spice Islands). The islands were believed to be the production center of clove, nutmeg and pepper. They hoped that with the discovery of sea routes and the production center, the spice trade in Europe did not have to depend on the land route which had been hampered.

On August 10, 1519, five ships led by Ferdinand de Magellan set out from Seville, Spain, in order to sail directly to the Maluku Islands to the west. Magellan had “around the world” by taking the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. Magellan finally killed by a native tribe of the Philippines after trying to convert them with violence.

Three of the five ships in the fleet was burned. One of the remaing two Magellan vessels, Trinidad, made it to Ternate under Sebastian del Cano, while the other ship, Victoria, reached Tidore (Hendrik Willem van Loon, 2008:203, 204). Sebastian and Victoria and crew of 18 people safely got home to Spain and gave a report on five islands in the Moluccas, the Ternate, Tidor (Tidore?), Molir, Machiam, and Bachian (Bacan?) (Lord Stanley of Alderley, 2001: 31).

Ternate by Tome Pires

The initial report of Victoria was in accordance with the Tome Pires reports, travelers from the Portuguese who set out from Malaka to Maluku in about 1513. Pires mentioned the name of the fifth island clove producer in North Maluku, namely Ternate, Tidore, Motir (Motes), Machiam (Maqujem), and Bacan (Pacham). Pires also said that among the five islands, the island of Ternate was the most important.

Pires also provides a description of the state of North Maluku at that time. According to Pires, wild clover also encountered at Jailolo port (Jeilolo) on the Jailolo island (Jeilolo). Religion of Islam, which by Pires referred to as “Mohammedanism”, already existed in the region fifty years before the arrival of Pires. The five king of the island had been converted to Islam. The population of the islands are almost always at war with each other (Tome Pires et al., 1990:213).

Not only Portguese people who want to control Maluku. Dutch East India Company tried to conquer the Maluku Islands by using different methodes. One of them is the divide et impera (divide and break-mastered) tactic. With this method, the Company seeks to destroy the local communities by helping one party and ignore the other party. In North Maluku, the Company provided assistance to the Sultan of Ternate who want to expel the Portuguese colonies in the region (Cristina Jayme Montiel & Noraini N. Noor [eds.], 2009:87).

In Ambon, Central Maluku, Duct East India Company had occupied Portuguese’s fort. In Ternate, they managed to buy the right to destroy the clove plant periodically. Soon they managed to control a monopoly in Ternate, Tidore and the other Moluccas islands. The locals tried to fight that bloody war broke, lasted from 1641 until 1646 (Maarten Roy & Dianne Webb, 2005:118).

Current Ternate Palace

Long before the ships of Magellan, Tome Pires and the Dutch East India Company arrived in North Maluku, on the island of Ternate has stood up a kingdom called the Sultanate of Ternate. Ternate at first stood as a kingdom in the year 1257, then turned into the empire that is influenced by Islam in the year 1486. First Sultan was Sultan Zainal Abidin. However, Ternate Palace that can be seen up to now only built in 1810 by Sultan Muhammad Ali.

In the palace built with the European Renaissance style is saved several historic heritage although only a few, among them the hat and shield granted by the Portuguese in 1510, a hat given by Governor-General Jan Pieter zoon Coen in 1618, the baton of command the Sultan of Ternate, and others.

One of the regalia of the most respected by the people of the Sultanate of Ternate is the crown of Ternate. It was said that there is hair in this crown that grew longer each year and should be cut. The crown is now not displayed to the public, but stored in a special room. In the 1980s and 1990s, the visitors often bring water bottle and mat. They do worship outside the room where the crown is stored. After that they brought home the bottle that is believed to have obtained good luck and can cure various diseases (Paul Michael Taylor, 1994:74-77).

The collection of the palace that are opened to the public include three staffs that allegedly sent as tribute by the Sultan of Mindanao, Sulu and Sabah. There is also a banner with a picture of the sovereign moon and stars symbolize male and female. The royal seal on the other side of this standard has been lost. While the guards hats helmets have also gone sultans - allegedly because taken by the relatives of guards.

Bibliografi

Cristina Jayme Montiel & Noraini N. Noor (eds.), 2009. Peace psychology in Asia. New York: Springer.

Hendrik Willem van Loon, 2008. The story of mankind. Charleston: BiblioBazaar, LLC.

Lord Stanley of Alderley, 2001. The first voyage round the world, by Magellan: translated, with notes and an introduction. Boston: Adamant Media Corporation.

Maarten Roy Prak & Diane Webb, 2005. The Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century: the golden age. London: Cambridge University Press.

Paul Michael Taylor, 1994. Fragile traditions: Indonesian art in jeopardy. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Tomé Pires, Armando Cortesão, & Francisco Rodrigues, 1990. The suma oriental of Tome Pires: an account of the East, from the Red Sea to China, written in Malacca and India in 1512-1515. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.

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