Bubungan Tinggi House

1. Origin

Bubungan Tinggi House is one of the most valuable Banjar traditional houses because it usually constitutes as a palace. This house has approximately existed since the 16^th century, when Banjar Kiangdom was ruled by Prince Samudera (1596-1620 A.D). Previously, Prince Samudera embraced Hinduism and then Islam by changing his name into Sultan Suriansyah, bearing the title “Panembahan Batu Habang”.

Previously, this house had a rectangle-shape construction which stretched to the front. Further, the stretching rectangle shape got additional building on the left and right sides. The additional building seemed to stick on the original building (pisang sasikat) and protruded to the outside. Besides, additional room was also built at the back of the house which also had the same measurement (disumbi).

In the further development, there are more buildings built not only around the sultanate but also in other areas which imitated the form of Bubungan Tinggi House. Since the architecture of this house has been adopted by all people in Banjarmasin, Bubungan Tinggi House does not become the special characteristic of sultanate (palace), but it has become special characteristic of Banjar society’s house.

The existence of Bubungan Tinggi House in South Kalimantan is not only as the identity of traditional building, but also as a reflection from the social-economic layer of the society and the implementation of Banjar people’s intelligence in facing the nature where they live. As the reflection of social layer, the existence of Bubungan Tinggi House can be seen on Banjar proverb below.

Bubungan Tinggi wadah Raja-raja
Palimasan wadah Emas Perak
Balai Laki wadah Penggawa Mantri
Balai Bini wadah Putri Gusti-Gusti
Gajah Manyusu wadah Nanang-Nanangan, Raja-Raja atau Gusti Nanang 

(Bubungan Tinggi is the Kings’ room
Palimasan is the jewelry room
Balai Laki is the aristocrats’ room
Balai Bini is the princesses’ room
Gajah Manyusu is the princes’ room)

Thus, it is clear that Bubungan Tinggi House is the Kings’ residence. Later on, Bubungan Tinggi House is not only possessed by Sultans but also people who are quite wealth, such as the merchants. In this case, there is a change in socio-economic layer. The socio-economic layer was once determined by descendant, nowadays it is determined by wealth. The more wealthy the owner is, the more glorious house he builds.

The wisdom of Banjar society in facing the natural condition can also be seen on the construction of Bubungan Tinggi House. The marshy condition on the river side ,which became the first place where Banjar traditional house appeared, forces the builders to overcome all the natural condition. Through a very long empiric experience, the architecture of Bubungan Tinggi House finally finds the solution. They adapted with such situation by forming foundation, pillars, and sticks that fit the situation. Beside those elements, the selection of the building materials (wood) also showed how Banjar society could handle those geographical problems, such as the use of Kapur Naga or Galam wood as the foundation. Although it is buried inside the mud, Kapur Naga or Galam wood can resist until 70 years.

The old Bubungan Tinggi House, estimated to have existed for tens year

2.   Materials and Labors

a. The materials needed to build Bubungan Tinggi House are:

• Galam wood and Kapur Naga wood. These two kinds of wood are usually used for a house foundation. The foundation is the vital part in Bubungan Tinggi House construction. Bubungan Tinggi House is usually built in marshy and muddy area, so this foundation must be strong and sturdy to avoid getting rotten when it is buried inside the marsh or mud. Therefore, they use Galam or Kapur Naga wood. These two kinds of wood have uniqueness. They can resist until 70 years if they are buried in marshy area, and 60 years in dry area.
• Ulin wood. This wood is known to be durable, water resistance, and heat resistance. Ulin wood is usually used as pillars, sticks, gelagar (bamboo split used as the base of a seat), pegs, floors, watun barasuk, doors and window frames, and rafters of a roof.
• Lanan wood. This wood is usually used to build wall.
• White resin wood. This wood is usually used for gelagar, turus tawing, balabat, titian tikus, bujuran sampaian, and riing.
• Metroxylon sagus leaves. They are used for roof.
• Paring (bamboo). It is used to build palupuh halayung wall and hanau. Besides, Paring is also used to build floor on padu or pambayuan.

b. Labors

The construction of Bubungan Tinggi House needs expert labors who must have not only skills to build a strong and durable house but also spiritual skills so the built house can give peacefulness for the owners. In Bubungan Tinggi House, the expert labors are helped by ordinary labors/servants to work together, such as soil digging for the foundation and the assembly of the roof.

3. The Steps of Building A Raft House

a. Preparation Step

1) Discussion

The very first step of building Bubungan Tinggi House is discussion. In this part, a lot of things which are related to the building Bubungan Tinggi House are discussed, started from the determination of location, the large of the house that will be built, the materials needed, and who the labors are. Because the steps in the process of building Bubungan Tinggi House is an inherited expertise, the function of the discussion just seems to be a formality of a custom. The aim is to make people, who want to build a house, is considered  respectful to the custom.

2) Determining the house size

The breadth, dimension, scale, building proportion, or slanting angles between Bubungan Tinggi Houses are not the same. The size of house relates to the local culture of the society.

At least there are three ways to determine the size of Bubungan Tinggi House. First, the length and width are determined by using depa suami size in odd amount. Second, the size is counted by taking the gelagar. Then, it is counted in order: gelagar, geligir, gelugur. If the count ends with geligir or gelugur, it will be considered not good, so the count must be added until it ends with gelagar. The count of gelagar will bring harmony to the house and peace to the owner.

Third, the length and width of the house is measured with eight animal’s names. They are dragon, smoke, lion, dog, cow, donkey, elephant, and crow. The ideal length is symbolized with a dragon and the width is symbolized with an elephant. The size is not good if the count ends with smoke, dog, donkey, or crow. The amount of depa length is multiplied by twelve. If the house length is six depa, it means 6x12 or 72 size. So, if the count is symbolized with a dragon, 1/12 depa must be added again. To reach the size of elephant symbol, that length must be added with 7/12 depa or subtracted by 1/12 depa.

3) The collection of materials

The way to collect materials to build Bubungan Tinggi House is in the process of collecting data.

b. The Construction Step

After all preparation to build Bubungan Tinggi House is adequate, the construction will be started soon. Generally, the construction of Bubungan Tinggi House can be classified into four parts. They are the construction of the lower part, the middle part, the upper part, and the assembly of supporting ornaments.

1) Lower part

The construction of the lower part of Bubungan Tinggi House includes the foundation and the assembly of pillar and stick. The foundation, pillars, and sticks become very important parts because these parts determine the sturdiness of the Bubungan Tinggi House.

• Foundation

Generally, there are two techniques in laying the foundation, namely big trunk foundation and small trunk foundation. The foundation of Bubungan Tinggi House is a representation of the culture of people who live in wet land (marsh), particularly about how the local society uses technology as a form of adaptation toward the geographical condition where they live.

To support the weight of the building, the foundation uses wood trunks (logs) as the wedges. The foundation uses the chosen wood trunks because they can make the building which is built above the marsh float. The wood used for the foundation is usually Galam or Kapur Naga wood. There are two techniques to make the foundation of Bubungan Tinggi House.

The form of Kalang Pandal foundation

First, big trunk foundation. Like its name, this foundation uses wood trunks (logs) with big size (the diameter of one log is between 40 and 50 cm). If they use big wood, the technique used is Kalang Pandal. The steps are:

1. The upper part of the big wood which is already prepared as foundation is flatted by using belayung.
2. Then, they make holes on the top side to embed the pillars and the sticks.
3. Next, the wood trunk for the foundation is buried on the ground in a row according to the lines of the pillars and the sticks used.
4. After that, the sticks and the pillars are embedded into holes which have been made above the foundation wood. To make the sticks and the pillars which are embedded sturdy and still, they are given suduk (wedge).
5. When all the things are well installed, the batang pandal foundation is buried with soil until it is wholly covered.

Two-layer foundation

Second, foundation with small trunk. If the big size of Galam or Kapur Naga wood trunk is not available, we can only use wood whose diameter is between 15 cm and 20 cm. Because the wood diameter is different from the first type of foundation, the assembly technique is also different. The first foundation needs only one layer, while the second foundation needs two layers. The lowest layer is called Kacapuri and the upper layer is called Kalang Sunduk. They hold Sunduk Tiang or Sunduk Tongkat. When the pillar point and stick point are not embedded into Kacapuri or Kalang Sunduk, they are embedded into the ground until two meters depth from the ground surface.

• Pillars and Sticks

After the foundation construction is finished, the next process is the pillars and the sticks assembly. The pillars and the sticks are the vertical structure, which hold the weight from the roof into the foundation. For pillar materials, people usually use Ulin wood whose length is about 12 meters, width is about 20 cm, and thickness is about 20 cm. The amount of pillars needed to build Bubungan Tinggi House is 60. For the sticks, the length of Ulin wood needed is about 5 cm with 20 cm for the thickness and 20 cm for the width. The amount of sticks needed is about 120 to 150.

2) Middle part

After the pillars and sticks assembly is finished, the next step is the design of Bubungan Tinggi House sketch. The sketch of Banjar traditional house is pretty unique because beside the pretty high architecture, it also uses depa size and foot sole length which ended with odd count. The construction of Bubungan Tinggi House middle part can be classified into two activities. They are the floor and the wall assembly.

The floor assembly is usually based on the main pillar, which is by entering the floor block into the hole on the main pillar. But before the floor board is assembled, gelagar block is assembled first above the first floor block. Besides to tie the main pillar, the assembly also makes the wide space of the floor block does not bend easily.

After the floor block and gelagar block are assembled, the next step is the floor assembly. The board used for the floor is a board made of Ulin wood whose thickness is between 2-3 cm. There are two assembly techniques: close assembly and wide assembly (between 0.25 – 0.5 cm). Most of rooms in Bubungan Tinggi House are assembled by the first technique, except surambi sambutan, anjung jurai kiri, pedapuran, and pelatar belakang that use the second technique.

Technique to combine the parts of Bubungan Tinggi House

After the floor is assembled, the next construction is the wall assembly. The wall of Bubungan Tinggi House is to divide the rooms of house. The explanation about the kinds of room kinds will be explained later.

3) Upper part (roof)

After the floor and wall are assembled, the next step is continued with hatap assembly (roof). The roof of Bubungan Tinggi House consists of some kinds of roof. They are atap bubungan (that becomes special character of Bubungan Tinggi House), atap sindang langit (roof with stretches from atap bubungan foot until front yard), atap hambin awan (roof that stretches from atap bubungan foot until backward), and atap anjung (roof that covers ajung part). In this part, it is only the atap bubungan assembly which will be explained. It is because the assembly process and the materials used are almost the same in all kind of atap.

The form of atap bubungan is rising up high with 60° of slant. This roof type is one of the differences between Bubungan Tinggi House and other kinds of traditional houses in other areas. The materials used to build the roof are Metroxylon Sagus leaves. The process is as follows.

1. The first process, which must be done, is the construction of the roof frame.
2. It is continued with kasau and usuk assembly.
3. Then, the Metroxylon Sagus leaves, which  will be used as the roof, are arranged in layers and squeezed by Metroxylon Sagus midrib or by bamboo, which is already cut as big as our thumb
4. Next, it is attached with rope, which is made from Banban.
5. After that, it is assembled. The assembly process is started from below to the top, with position the upper part weighs down the lower part until the middle of the leave. Then, it is tied with Banban rope. This way enables the Metroxylon Sagus leaves not to be blown easily by the wind and not to leak out when the rain falls.
6. The next step is weight wood assembly on the top of Metroxylon Sagus leaves. And on the top part (the peak), the weight wood is made in the form of intersecting (layang-layang).

In the further development, the use of Metroxylon Sagus leaves as the house roof is gradually decreasing. It is because the Metroxylon Sagus roof is very easy to be blown by the wind and Banjar society becomes more aware that the nature where they live provides abundant Ulin wood, which becomes the remain of Bubungan Tinggi House construction. Then, the remain of the construction is cut thinly so it can be functioned as the substitute of Metroxylon Sagus leaves. In other words, the creation of Bubungan Tinggi House roof from Ulin wood is one of the proofs of Banjar society’s wisdom. The process is shown below.

1. The rest of Ulin wood from the house construction is collected and cut into small parts.
2. Then, those parts are tied on the roof frame construction with rope. Further, the rope is changed with nail.
3. After all parts are assembled, a wood is given to the top of the roof and the peak in the form of intersecting (layang-layang). After Banjar society knows nail, the wood is not used anymore and layang-layang form just becomes the decoration.

4) Supporting ornaments assembly

After the roof assembly is finished, the construction of Bubungan Tinggi House has been formally finished. However, for most wealthy people, Bubungan Tinggi House needs to be completed with ornaments or carvings. The luxury of the carvings shows the level of one’s social status.

Sometime people make the carvings by themselves, but they usually order them from the experts. The carvings are usually located on the left and right sight of bubungan peak, beside the pilis, on the front side of pilis, tataban, dahi lawang, etc.

Bubungan Tinggi House that is built on the swampy land

4. The Parts of Bubungan Tinggi House

Generally, Bubungan Tinggi House is divided into four rooms, namely the front yard, living room, family room, and service room.

a. Front Yard

It is the front part of Bubungan Tinggi House. The front yard is an opened room, or half-wall and half-roof. In Banjar society, and maybe also in other societies, who live in wet area (marshy area), the front yard has an important function because most of the social activities are done in this part of house, not only for family but also for society.

Front yard of house consists of three parts: surambi muka, surambi sambitan, and lapangan pamedangan.

Front yard area consists of three parts. They are the front yard (surambi muka), the middle front yard (surambi sambitan), and the internal front yard (lapangan pamedangan). Front yard (surambi muka) is functioned as the terrace in the modern houses, because Bubungan Tinggi House is built above the marsh so the owner is impossible to have a land yard to do the activities. Usually in this part, there is a water container (balanai) to wash foot for anybody who wants to come inside the house. The middle front yard is also called surambi sambutan. This place is usually used by the owner of the house to welcome the guests. Sometimes surambi sambutan is used for a place to dry the rice. Then, if we keep on walking, we will come to internal front yard (lapangan pamedangan). This is a part which already has roof and is surrounded by a fence with approximately 80 cm. This place is usually used by the family members to relax. Besides, this place is also often used to welcome the male guests.

Front yard area and other areas inside the Bubungan Tinggi House are separated by a wall, which is called tawing hadapan. The existence of tawing hadapan seems not only to be functioned as the border of internal parts of the house but also to show that this room has special functions. On tawing hadapan, there is a door called lawang hadapan. The function of lawang hadapan is as the connector between the front yard and inside of Bubungan Tinggi House.

Lawang Hadapan is the connecting door between the front yard and the inside of Bubungan Tinggi House

b. Living Room

From the front yard, if we keep on walking through lawang hadapan, we will enter the living room, which has two characters: public and semi-public. This room consists of four rooms, which are not separated by wall, but it is only marked by floor block and the differences of floor height. They are gap room (pacira), front living room (panampik kacil), middle living room (panampik tengah), and main living room (panampik basar).

The border between living room and the deeper part of Bubungan Tinggi House is a wall called tawing halat. On this tawing halat, one can see ornaments with colorful forms of plant and calligraphy carvings. If the owner of the house holds thankfulness events or parties, such as wedding, this tawing halat is usually untied.

Tawing Halat divides between the guest room and the living room

c. Family Room or Residence

On the back of tawing halat, there is a very private room, the family room or residence. This room consists of four rooms. The first is family’s room (paledangan). This place is located in the middle of Bubungan Tinggi House and used as a place for the interaction among the people in the house. The second is parents’ bedroom (anjung and anjung jurai). This place is the bedroom of the parents. The parents’ bedroom is located on the right and left side of Bubungan Tinggi House.

The picture of Anjung room

The third room is children’s bedroom (karawat and katil). This room is used for children’s bedroom or girl’s bedroom who does not have husband yet. This room is located above panampik pananggah and panampik padu. The last room is backyard. This room is used as a place to take a bath, wash, and dry clothes. This backyard room is surrounded by a fence made of Ulin wood, which is pretty high but without shutter above it. The floor of the backyard is rather loose around 0.25 – 0.5 cm to make the remained water of taking a bath and washing flow down easily.

d. Service Room

On the backside of Bubungan Tinggi House or the backside of residence room, which is separated by border wall (tawing pahatan padu), there is a service room. This room is divided into four rooms. Those rooms are dish room and dining room (panampik dalam or panampik padu), kitchen room (pedapuran or padu), and storage room (jorong). Actually, above this service room, there is still one room, katil room, which is used for children’s or girl’s bedroom. This place can only be accessed from the residence room.

The floor of service room is lower than the other rooms, about one meter from the residence room. To get to the service room, we have to pass a door from the residence room, which is in the middle of the border wall (tawing pahatan padu) and go down three stairs (three tatang).

This room is used not only for cooking place but also for preparation place and food storage, dining room, baby-sitting place, bedroom, etc.

5. Varieties of Decoration

The varieties of decoration of Bubungan Tinggi House are made by using chisel method. There are three kinds of chisel methods used, namely tatah surut (carvings in relief form), tatah babuku (carvings in three dimensions form), and tatah baluang or bakurawang (carvings which pierce into wood sheet).

The decoration pattern used to make carvings on BubunganTinggi House can be generally classified into three patterns. They are plant, animal, and calligraphy patterns.

a. Plant pattern

Plant pattern that is used considers not only the esthetics factors but also the factorof its utility. There are four forms of flora that are generally used, namely sulur-suluran, kambang barapun, kambang dalam jambangan, and kambang malayap. Meanwhile, there are three forms of plants that are commonly used. They are fruits, flowers, and other special plants.

• The fruit pattern is the fruits that are very important for the society. They are starfruits, mangosteen, Morinda Citrifolia (mengkudu/pacekap), and pineapple.
• The flower pattern used is the flowers that are available around the environment, beautiful, and also used in the most custom ceremonies. They are gardenia, Canangium Odoratum, fern, rose, jasmine, lotus, and Spomoca Pescprae.
• Kinds of other special plants are various plants, which grow around the environment, can be processed into food and can be used as medicines. Those special plants are Ipornoea Reptans, fungus, cloves, Parkia Roxburghii, bamboo bud /Pucuk Rabung, Jaruju, and betel vine.

Flora motif with tatah baluang or bakurawang model

b. Animal pattern

Animal pattern used in the architecture of Banjar traditional house are Rooster (Babulungan Hayam Jago), Cacak bird, Ophiocephalus Striatus, centipede (halilipan), beetle (Kumbang Begantung), fowl (I-itikan), beehive (wanyi), hornbill, and dragon.

In using this pattern, the animals that are made as the carvings are not shown completely, but it is just some particular parts of the animals. It relates to the society’s belief that the making of complete animals form is forbidden by the religion. Therefore, the animal pattern has experienced the complicated carving process for some small parts, so it is only considered and seen symbolically.

c. Calligraphy pattern

This pattern started to be used since the Islamic spirit got stronger in Banjar society.

Decorations on the Bubungan Tinggi House

6. Values

Bubungan Tinggi House is not only a place to shelter from sun light, rain fall, and wind blow, but it is also a masterpiece of human civilization, which is based on the wisdom of the human. Bubungan Tinggi House is a reflection from human’s ability to adapt with their environment, the social system formed, and the belief and the art expression of Banjar society, South Kalimantan.

a. Adaptation pattern

Bubungan Tinggi House is the adaptation of local society toward the wet (marshy) natural condition. The Kalang Pandal and Dua Lapis foundations that use Galam and Kapur Naga wood show clearly the local wisdom and knowledge of Banjar society in facing such natural condition. Although the ground which is used to build Bubungan Tinggi House is a labile ground, they can build their house sturdy and durable by appropriate architecture and the chosen materials.

Another ability of local society to adapt with climate can be seen in the building of the front yard. The existence of the front yard is the Banjar society’s way to solve the problem of insufficient land to do social activities. The use of Ulin wood as the frame, floor, and wall of the house is also the another form of Banjar society’s adaptation. By using Ulin wood, Bubungan Tinggi House construction can resist until 60 years. Besides, the society’s adaptation ability can also be seen in the roof form which rises up highly until 60° slant. By using this way, although they just use Metroxylon Sagus leaves or Ulin wood slices as the roof, Bubungan Tinggi House will not leak in rainy season.

b. Social system

Bubungan Tinggi House is a portrait of the Banjarmasin society’s social system. When Banjar Kingdom still existed, Bubungan Tinggi House was the residence of the Kings and aristocrats, and after Banjar Kingdom was destroyed, Bubungan Tinggi House is now only possessed by people who are pretty wealthy. It means Bubungan Tinggi House is a reflection of social stratification in society. Besides, the social stratification is also shown by the amount of kinds of variety inside Bubungan Tinggi House.

Besides, Bubungan Tinggi House also shows social ethnics. It can be seen in the division of rooms, which cause the appearance of public and private room concept. The social system in Bubungan Tinggi House actually can also be seen since the beginning of the house construction, that is in the discussion step. This step not only to ask the society’s opinion formally about the affairs that are connected to the house construction but also relates to the custom and politeness. People, who build the house without having a discussion, can be considered as bad-mannered and impolite people.

c. Expression of belief and hope

Bubungan Tinggi House is also the expression of the belief and hope of Banjarmasin society. The use of depa to construct houses and animals to determine the width of the building shows that the building of Bubungan Tinggi House has sacred element. The use of the expert labors not only in the technical construction but also non-technical construction proves that Bubungan Tinggi House is in both profane and sacred dimension.

Besides, Bubungan Tinggi House is also as the form of society’s expression of hope. This hope can be seen in the use and the placement of decoration, which are in the form of plants, animals, and calligraphy. The use of mangosteen put in Sungkul Tangga is aimed to make people who live inside Bubungan Tinggi House become hard workers, as the need to work hard to eat the mangosteen. The use of Arabian calligraphy decoration is not only for esthetics but also for the hope in order to make the house avoided from dangers and disasters.

If the exploration of Bubungan Tinggi House keeps continue, we will certainly get more knowledge. In this way, the society will have a lot of wisdom to face the condition of the place where they live. What is needed now is exploring those values and applying them in the present time.

(KK/ter/04-08)

References:

• Anjungan Kalimantan Selatan in http://www.tamanmini.com/anjungan/kalsel/profil. Accessed on December 10^th, 2007.
• Daud, Alfani. 1997. Islam dan Masyarakat Banjar.
• Anjungan Kalsel Makin Bungas in http://www.indomedia.com/bpost/012007/4/ragam/art-4.htm. Accessed on December 8^th, 2007.
• Muhammad, Bani Noor & Mentayani, Ira. 2007. Anatomi Rumah Bubungan Tinggi. Banjarmasin : Pustaka Banua.  
• Brotomoeljono. 1986. Rumah Tradisional Kalimantan Selatan. Depdikbud.
• Rumah Tradisional Banjar: Rumah Bubungan Tinggi. Depdikbud. A project of museum development in South Kalimantan in 1980-1981.
• Mewujudkan Gagasan Konservasi Perkampungan Rumah Adat Banjar in http://kompas.com/ver1/Negeriku/0708/30/194253.htm. Accessed on December 10^th, 2007.
• Rumah Banjar in http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumah_Banjar. Accessed on December 10^th, 2007.
• Rumah Banjar in http://www.urangbanua.com/wisata%20banjarmasin.htm. Accessed on December 10^th, 2007.

---

Insert your comment here :