Medan

 

(mādän') , city (1990 pop. 1,730,052), capital of North Sumatra prov., NE Sumatra, Indonesia, on the Deli River, c.15 mi (25 km) from its mouth, where the city's port (Belawan) is situated. The largest city in Sumatra and the fourth largest in Indonesia, Medan is the marketing, commercial, and transportation center of a rich agricultural area containing great tobacco, rubber, and palm oil estates. Coffee and tea are also grown in the vicinity. Industries include the production of machinery and tile, and automobile assembly. Medan, gateway to the beautiful Lake Toba region, is a tourist center, with an international airport; attractions include the Great Mosque (the largest in Sumatra) and the Palace of the Sultan of Deli. The city is the seat of the Univ. of North Sumatra and the Islamic Univ. of North Sumatra. In 1994 the city was the site of labor riots that were rooted in long-standing ethnically based tensions between Chinese business owners and Malay workers.

Medan
Seal
Medan Location of Medan in Indonesia
Coordinates: 3°35′N 98°40′E / 3.583, 98.667
Country	Indonesia
Province	North Sumatra
Founded	July 1, 1590
Area
- City	km²  ( sq mi)
Population (2003)
- City
- Density	/km² (/sq mi)
Time zone	WIB ([[UTC+7]])
Website: www.pemkomedan.go.id

Medan is the capital of the province of North Sumatra, Indonesia. Located in the northern part of the province along the coast, Medan occupies 265,10 km², making it the third largest city in Indonesia. The city is bordered by Deli Serdang Regency to the east, south, and west, and the Strait of Malacca to the north.

History

Medan started as a village called Kampung Medan (Medan Village). Kampung Medan was founded by Guru Patimpus around the 1590s. Because Kampung Medan sits on Tanah Deli (Land of Deli), Kampung Medan is also referred as Medan-Deli. The original location of Kampung Medan is an area where the Deli River meets Babura River.

Based on the diary of the Portuguese merchant in early 16th century, it stated that the name of Medan was actually derived from Medina which is actually a holy city in the western of Saudi Arabia. However, other source indicated that the name of Medan actually came from Indian language "Meiden". One of the Karo-Indonesia dictionary written by Darwin Prinst SH published in 2002 wrote that Medan could also be define as "recover" or "be better".

The first inhabitants of Medan came from the Batak Karo community. It was not until the Sultan of Aceh, Sultan Iskandar Muda, sent his warlord, Gocah Pahlawan Laksamana Khoja Bintan, to be the Sultanate of Aceh's representative in Tanah Deli, that the Sultanate of Deli started to grow. This growth stimulated growth in both the population and culture of Medan. In the second year reign of Sultan Deli (between 1669-1698), there was a calvary battle in Medan.

Medan did not enjoy significant development until the 1860s, when the Dutch colonialists began clearing the land for tobacco plantations. Medan quickly became a center of government and commercial activity, dominating development of Indonesia's western region.

The Dutch governed Tanah Deli from 1658, after Sultan Ismail, ruler of the Kingdom of Siak Sri Indrapura, yielded some of his once-ruled land, Deli, Langkat, and Serdang. In 1915 Medan officially became the capital of North Sumatera Province, and officially a city in 1918.

Medan is governed by a mayor, Drs. H. Abdillah Ak, MBA (period 2005-2010). Medan is divided into 21 districts (kecamatan) and 151 subdistricts kelurahan.

Demography

The city is Indonesia's third most populous after Jakarta and Surabaya, with approximately 2.5 million people.

The city has a mix of communities, reflecting its pre- and post-independence history. It is famous throughout Indonesia as the home of the Batak people, although the ancestral sites of these people are scattered throughout northern Sumatra. In addition, there is a large ethnic Javanese community, largely made up of the descendants of people shipped from Java in the last century as part of the government's transmigration policy, an attempt to relieve the chronic overcrowding on Java.

A highly visible component of Medan's population is the large number of ethnic Chinese, who control much of the business sector. Finally, the city has a sizeable community of Tamil descent, the people known as keling. A well-known Tamil market, is the Kampung Keling. In addition to Indonesian, Javanese, Hokkien (Min Nan), Tamil and English are spoken.

Landmarks

There are many older buildings in Medan that still retain their Dutch architecture. These include the old City Hall, the central Post Office, the Water Tower, which is Medan City's icon, and Titi Gantung - a bridge over the railway.

There are several historic places such as Maimun Palace (Istana Maimun), where the Sultan of Deli still lives, and the Great Mosque (Masjid Raya) of Medan built in 1906.

Transportation

One of the unique features of Medan are the motorized becaks that are found almost everywhere. Unlike traditional becaks, a motorized becak can take its passenger anywhere in the city. There are also more common transport like taxis and minibuses, known as sudako.

Railroad tracks connect Medan to Binjai and Tanjungpura to the northwest, to port of Belawan to the north, and to Tebing Tinggi and Pematang Siantar to the southeast.

The seaport of Belawan is about 20 km to the north. Polonia International Airport is located in the heart of the city. Kuala Namu International Airport is a new airport under construction and is due to replace Polonia in 2009.

A toll highway connects Medan to Belawan and Tanjungmorawa. A plan for the extension of this highway to Tebing Tinggi and to Binjai has been completed, and the central government is currently seeking investors to build the extension.

Media

The TVRI Medan (state-owned) and Deli TV (private) are the only two local TV stations in Medan. Several local newspaper are running in the city with Harian Analisa as the oldest one.^{[citation needed]}

Sport

Football is a favorite sport game with two local clubs: PSMS Medan and Medan Jaya.

Sister cities

• Ichikawa, Chiba, Japan
• George Town, Penang, Malaysia
• Chengdu, China
• Gwangju, South Korea

External links

• (Indonesian) Official website
• Map of north Sumatra
• Medan Heritage
• Medan travel guide from Wikitravel

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