Patung Pahlawan, Bronze independence monument in Menteng, Indonesia
Patung Pahlawan is a bronze monument in the heart of Jakarta showing a young peasant with a rifle and a mother offering rice to her son. The figures rise on a marble base at a busy intersection in Menteng.
President Sukarno commissioned Soviet sculptors Matvey and Ossip Manizer after a visit to Moscow in the late 1950s. The work was inaugurated in 1963 after arriving by ship from the Soviet Union.
The pedestal carries a sentence by Sukarno: "HANJA BANGSA JANG MENGHARGAI PAHLAWAN PAHLAWANNJA DAPAT MENJADI BANGSA JANG BESAR" ("Only a nation that exalts its heroes can be a great nation"). The peasant's caping, a traditional farmer's hat, gives the monument its popular name, Tugu Tani (Farmer's Monument).
The sculpture stands at the intersection of Menteng and Prapatan Street and is clearly visible from the sidewalk. Visitors can walk around the base to view the bronze figures from all sides.
The pedestal carries a sentence by Sukarno: "HANJA BANGSA JANG MENGHARGAI PAHLAWAN PAHLAWANNJA DAPAT MENJADI BANGSA JANG BESAR", meaning only a nation that exalts its heroes can become a great nation. The armed peasant figure has at times been read as a communist symbol, making the monument controversial.
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