The Garden is located in the city center and adjoin the presidential palace compound of Istana Bogor. It covers an area of 87 hectares (210 acres) and contains 13,983 different kinds of trees and plants of various origin. The geographic position of Bogor means it rains almost daily, even in the dry season. This makes the Garden an advantageous location for the cultivation of tropical plants.
Founded in 1817 by the order of the government of the Dutch East Indies, the Garden thrived under the leadership of many renowned botanists including Johannes Elias Teijsmann, Rudolph Herman Christiaan Carel Scheffer, and Melchior Treub.
Since its foundation, Bogor Botanical garden has served as a major research center for agriculture and horticulture. It is the oldest botanical garden in Southeast Asia.
History
The area that is now Bogor Botanical Gardens was part of the Samida (man made forest) that was established at least around the ear when Sri Baduga Maharaja (Prabu Siliwangi, 1474 – 1513) ruled the Sunda Kingdom, as written in the Batutulis inscription. This forest was created to protect seeds of rare trees.The forest however, remain neglected after the Sundanese kingdom were destroyed in the 16th century. In 1744, the Dutch East Indies Company established a garden and mansion at the site of the present Botanical Gardens in Buitenzorg (now known as Bogor). After the successful British invasion of Java in 1811, Stamford Raffles became the island’s Lieutenant-Governor and took Buitenzorg Palace as his residence. During his rule and lived in the palace, he had the garden re-landscaped into an English Style garden.
His wife, Olivia Mariamne Raffles, died in Buitenzorg in 1814 and buried in Batavia. A memorial monument was built in the garden, as a commemoration of her.
When the Netherlands Indies were returned to Dutch rule in 1815, an extensive work of the Garden were initiated by Java’s Dutch Governor-General Gustaaf Willem and Baron van Imhoff who was the governor of Java at the time. A professor from the Atheneum IIIustre in Amsterdam (the forerunner of the University, which came into existence much later, in 1876) was sent to Java. His name was C. G. L. Reinwardt, and his task was to promote research in natural science in the tropics and to report on the practical implications of such studies. He arrived in October 1815, and within two years was able to recommend the establishment of a botanic garden at Buitenzorg, to be named’s Lands Plantentuin.
The Garden itself was officially open in 1817 by the order of the government of Dutch East Indies. The Garden were used to research and develop plants and seeds from other parts of the Indonesian archipelago for cultivation during the 19th century. Since then the Garden thrived under the leadership of many renowned botanists and boost its reputation as a major center for botanical research until today.
GETTING THERE | OPENING |
