TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Not many would have guessed that the classic rectangular building in Kampung Cipari, Garut, West Java, was previously a mosque, if it was not located in the middle of a pesantren (Islamic boarding school). The mosque was named Asy-Syura but people know the mosque as the Cipari mosque.

The 30x70-meter building looked more like a church than a mosque. Its roof has no dome that typically crowning mosque in Indonesia although it still had the crescent moon symbol on the roof. It also had 20-meter high tower on the main entrance, the tower was similar to those seen on churches but without the bell on top of it.

From the sides, the building looked like an office or a school building that existed during the Dutch colonial era. The lower wall constituted of river stone up to one meter high. In addition to the front side, there were also entrance doors on its northern and southern sides. People who pray inside the building would be seen from outside because the doors and windows were wide enough.

“The mosque was built with joint fund,” said Salaf Soleh, an elderly of the pesantren, to Tempo.

The 80-year-old man said that the mosque was built in 1935 after an initiative of K.H. Yusuf Tauzirie, one of the caretakers of Cipari pesantren. The construction was carried out together by the santri (students of the Islamic school) and local residents.

Not only the construction of the mosque was unique, but the secluded place where it stood holds bunch of history. The area was once the center of Islamic movements in West Java during the Dutch colonialism, Japan colonialism, as well as after the country claimed its freedom. The mosque became a fortress where local residents and the ulema seek for protection during the war.

The mosque was designed by R.M. Abikusno Tjokrosuyoso, the nephew of a national hero H.O.S Tjokroaminoto. After it was inaugurated by H.O.S Tjokroaminoto in 1936, the mosque became the gathering place for several organizations during the national movements.

SIGIT ZULMUNIR (GARUT)