Jakarta: A City That Never Sleeps

Cycling through the vintage atmosphere of Old Town (Kota Tua) with my daughter.

Jakarta is a city that never sleeps. I could smell the clove cigarettes, scooter exhaust, and humidity just when I stepped foot in the airport. I have visited this place every year for at least one month during the last five years I have been in Canada. It is very interesting to bring a story about where I came from. Yes, I come from the city of Jakarta, in the country of Indonesia.

Do you know that Jakarta is the most overpopulated and largest city in Southeast Asia and has a population of approximately 11.6 million as of 2025 (World Population Review, 2025)? It is more than Tokyo, a city that has a density of about 22,000 people per square kilometre. Jakarta is becoming a city defined by rapid growth and is undeniably modern.

Moreover, this city has a number of significant challenges, including infrastructure strain, which causes traffic jams every single day and in the middle of the night as well. Main rivers that were once sacred now carry garbage, leading to floods. Behind the scenes, the city is literally sinking up to 25 centimetres per year in some areas. Why? Because millions of people rely on groundwater for daily consumption.

Ironically, Jakarta is a place where the poorest communities struggle to survive and the "crazy rich" live in luxury, and they live side by side. Beyond the traffic and the sophisticated glass towers speaks another reality. When you discover the north area, you find an area that is not pleasant to see. The government acts in the name of development, often evicting the kampung residents by setting up fires and turning their land into luxury condos. The city’s future is being built, but for whom?

There, you will find the soul of a city that has worn many names and survived many colonial masters (Blackburn, 2009).

The Spice Route Roots: Sunda Kelapa

It is difficult to imagine how a little town became the massive engine of Southeast Asia. To understand Jakarta today, we have to review the past.

Today, grandiose views, high towers, and city lights surround the heart of the city, but long before this, there was just the sea and the spice trade. Originally known as Sunda Kelapa, this area was a strategic intersection and hub for traders and sailors from around the world, coming just to conduct transactions with the Kingdom of Sunda, a Hindu-Buddhist powerhouse (Ricklefs, 2008). It wasn't just a local dock; it was an international hub where traders from China, India, and the Middle East exchanged ceramics, silk, and precious spices.

History of Sunda Kelapa

The Sunda Kelapa Port is one of Indonesia's largest and most notable maritime heritages. It was established in the 5th century AD and provisioned a precursor to Jakarta, which is now a small port city (Blackburn, 2009). Two thousand years later, the sea port for Jakarta was flourishing and getting stronger. The ownership of this important port, with its numerous accompanying basins filled with mythos, was fought over by various powers all possessing their own stories.

Hindu Kingdoms Era

Let’s take a look back into the past. At that time, Jakarta was known as Sunda Kelapa. Sunda Kelapa belonged to King Tarumanegara. In the 12th century, it was absorbed by the Hindu Kingdom of Pajajaran which then ruled until the early 16th century. It was the destination of a two-day boat trip up the Ciliwung River from the port town of Pakuan Pajajaran (now Bogor).

During the domination of Sunda, the port was noted for being one of the most important trading ports in Sunda. It attracted local traders from all over the archipelago as well as foreign merchants from China, the Middle East, India, England, and Portugal.

That there was an important treaty done between Sunda and the Portuguese is evident on Aug 21, 1522. For the treaty (the first international treaty regarding the archipelago), they erected a stone monument in the form of a Padrão (found back again in 1918) (Ricklefs, 2008). For the Sunda King, the Portuguese alliance (and fort-building) was intended to strengthen his pepper trade; but for its neighbours in Malacca, that foreign policy was viewed negatively.

Ten decades later, in 1596, the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman made his arrival and came looking for spices. The Dutch had an East Indies president in their capital, building some warehouses and a trading post under the authority of Prince Jayakarta on the other side of the Ciliwung River’s estuarine port around 1610 (Blackburn, 2009).

Under Dutch Colonial Control

While the Dutch took advantage as much as they could from their trading posts, their ambitions expanded more and more. In time, they took the city outright, renaming it Batavia. The Dutch occupation greatly developed the port, doubling the length of the main canal from 810 metres (2,660 ft) to 1.825 km (6,019 ft).

Yet, the port fell out of favor in the 19th century. Large ships had difficulty docking, and Tanjung Priok became the principal harbour. Sunda Kelapa continued to develop as a major trading port in the 16th century, and this became its principal function when it was surrounded by enclosing walls during the reign of King Fatahillah (1521–1570).

The Independence Day “Merdeka”

By the 20th century, Batavia became the center point of the Indonesian spirit. All born here, the intellectuals, students, and freedom fighters, gathered to dismantle colonial rule. In Indonesia freedom means “Merdeka”; they are very proud of this statement.

When World War II ended and the Japanese colonization collapsed, the city reclaimed its freedom. On August 17, 1945, Sukarno and Hatta declared independence. The colonial name Batavia was stripped away, and Jakarta was born as the capital of a newly free republic (Ricklefs, 2008).

A Transjakarta bus passes by at night with the illuminated National Monument (Monas).

Jakarta Today: A New Era

Today’s Jakarta is not only a living museum. It is the financial heartbeat of Indonesia, but the old world still bleeds through. You can find more stories from here, and understand why Jakarta is becoming overpopulated and difficult to untangle.

• In Kota Tua (Old Town), you can walk the cobblestones of the Dutch era, surrounded by Dutch-style buildings.

• The Istiqlal Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia, stands proudly across from the Catholic Cathedral. This is a symbolic testament to the nation's diversity.

• The Betawi People, the descendants of the diverse groups native to Batavia, keep the city’s indigenous culture alive with vibrant festivals and cuisine.

  
  

While the city faces modern challenges from flooding to congestion, where the government cooks the rules and implements them, they pretty much gave up. No wonder the capital is being relocated to Kalimantan, where green forests and wide-open spaces promise a fresh start—an easier alternative than fixing Jakarta’s complexity. Indonesian people are competing to come to Jakarta with a dream to be successful. Jakarta is not just a place you visit; it is a story that you need to adventure and experience.

History shows that flood management in Jakarta has always relied on infrastructure solutions, and the floods keep coming. The government has never taken serious action to solve this major problem. Throughout the modern era, flood management has not been easy, as it has consistently depended on infrastructure as the primary solution (Blackburn, 2009).

However, the infrastructure-based approach has environmental impacts and increases flood risks in other areas. Moreover, relying solely on infrastructure does not address the root causes of flooding, which are believed to be a combination of reduced water absorption areas and high rainfall intensity

A Deeper Look: The Jakarta Paradox

My husband and My Dad are enjoying clove cigarettes during an independent day of Indonesia

Jakarta’s history is indeed rich. In another perspective, seeing Jakarta through environmental science, especially as explored by Leon Kolankiewicz in Overpopulation versus Biodiversity, describes more stories and the dark reality underneath.

When studying Jakarta’s phenomena, it seems like this city is one example of Homo colossus, where a giant resource appetite has grown so titanic that the local environment can no longer fulfill it. I found one particular concept that represents the mix of cultural vibrancy and density in Jakarta. The concept is called “Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production" (HANPP) (Kolankiewicz, 2012). Every square meter of concrete covers up the soil. We are taking energy from the land for human use and leaving no space for nature.

Nevertheless, we are living the dangers of what ecologists call "Ghost Acreage" or "phantom carrying capacity" (Kolankiewicz, 2012). Jakarta is a prominently financial hub where over 11 million people live, yet the city itself cannot support such numbers. We are living beyond our ecological means, surviving only by importing goods and food from other cities or other countries.

Even the government's attempts to modernize are circling back to more risk than ever. We often hope that better infrastructure will solve our traffic and flooding issues. However, Kolankiewicz (2012) warns of the Jevons Paradox: the economic theory that as technology improves efficiency, it often stimulates further growth and consumption rather than reducing it.

As Jakarta grows into a modern city and improves its infrastructure every year, the "IPAT" formula (Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology) suggests that our rising affluence and technology, combined with its massive population, will continue to create complicated and unsolved issues for the longest time.

So, Jakarta’s future doesn’t depend only on building taller towers and adding more train tracks, but on taking a breather to recognize that the entire city is living right now on borrowed ecological time, where every brick they add is costing them a natural disaster.

In the end, Jakarta is a city full of dilemmas, caught between its history and an unsteady future. From the spice sources bay of Sunda Kelapa to a  named Homo colossus, the city has ever been a survivor. Yet as oceans swell and populations explode by the day, the resilience that long helped drive colonial masters away must now be applied to healing the land itself.

I’m returning to Canada with the smell of clove smoke still attached to my skin and the humidity imprinted on my soul. Jakarta is not just a warning about ecological debt; it is a test for all of us. If we can solve the problems here—in the midst of garbage issues, floods, and traffic—then maybe this city that truly never sleeps can actually survive. I hope that one day, the 'crazy rich' and the kampung residents can both live in a city that isn't sinking.