E-Introduction for FACP 2012 at Solo City

Regional - Cultural Landscape Featuring SOLO City, FACP Conference, 4 November 2012, Manila INTRODUCTION SOLO City is the nickname of SURAKARTA City, located in Central Java Province, Indonesia. The City was established in 1745 by the Kingdom of Surakarta which remained from the Islamic Mataram Kingdom and inherited Java Culture and Civilization. Historically, Java Civilization was defined during the Netherland colonial period with the discovery of the pre-historic relic, Homosapiens Soloensis, near the Bengawan Solo River and preserved in the pre-Historic Museum. The Site was registered in the World Heritage list. Java Culture was formed by some world-wide cultural influences. In 7th the Century, Hindu and Buddhist civilization arrived from India and created some famous temples, such as Borobudur, Prambanan, Mendut, Sewu, Boko, Sukuh and Cetho. In the 12th century, Islamic Civilization from the Middle East and Confucianism from China arrived. In the 16th century the Dutch colonists arrived bringing western civilization. In the 20th century and after independence came the influence of modernization and globalization. Now, we are facing the future with more advanced and modern information technology. Solo City, administratively, is a small city, with 40.44 square kilometers and a population of 536,000 citizens. The City becomes an inner city for the surrounding regencies with about 7 million people in the Surakarta Metropolitan Area. The City is an almost built-up area (80 %), with dense population and buildings, without natural or industrial resources. The main resources of the city are its people and heritage. In the absence of natural and industrial resources that can contribute to city growth, Solo City has to find ways to make people and heritage become sustainable resources. Fortunately, we inherited a strategic location, with its rich tangible and intangible heritage that contains Art and Culture, and enthusiastic people. We can and always try to manage the limited resources to spur the city's growth, and exist in the national and global levels. The awareness of this city development started in 2007. It is a hope that through the FACP conference, every city or country can learn and share with each other how to fuse art and culture with the people's welfare and prosperity. For more information, please visit the website here: http://www.surakarta.go.id/