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Ngawi (town)

Capital and city of Ngawi, Indonesia

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Through Islam, European people and Buddhism

In mid 2024 the population in Ngawi town was estimated at 85,817 with a density of around 1,058 people per square kilometre. Almost one-tenth of the total population of Ngawi Regency is domiciled in this district, which has an area of 81.08 km2 of which around 48 percent is paddy fields, rivers and plantations, the remainder is in the form of residential land, offices or agencies, shops, industry and other urban infrastructure.

This District is directly adjacent to Pitu and Margomulyo Districts, Bojonegoro Regency to the north, Kasreman District and Pangkur District to the east, Geneng District, Kwadungan District and Paron District to the south and especially Paron District to the west.

History

Etymology

Ngawi comes from the word "AWI", which means bamboo which then gets the nasal letters "Ng" to become "NGAWI". As is the case with names in other areas, there are lots of place (village) names associated with plant names. As Ngawi pointed out, a place around the edge of Solo River and Madiun River is overgrown with bamboo.

Kingdoms

In the past, Ngawi came from the word awi/bamboo and at the same time indicated Ngawi's location as a district on the banks of the Bengawan Solo and Madiun rivers. Based on research on ancient objects, it shows that in Ngawi there has been a religious activity since the Airlangga government which still lasted until the end of the reign of the Kingdom of Majapahit.

This is reinforced by several inscriptions, one of which is the Cangu Inscription which is a legacy of King Hayamwuruk (Sri Rajasanegara) from Majapahit which has the Saka year 1280 (1358) which states that Ngawi is a private area. The enshrinement fragments show a spiritual nature which is closely related to the worship of Mount Lawu (Girindra), but over time there has been a shift due to the influence of Islam as well as the culture brought by the Europeans especially the Dutch who long enough dominate the government in Indonesia.

Dutch colonial

Another relic is in the form of the Van den Bosch fortress. Now it is called Pendem fort because the location of the fort is underground so it is not visible from the outside. As for its location at the confluence corner between the 2 rivers Bengawan Solo and Madiun. Fort van den Bosch was built between 1839 and 1845 by the Dutch East Indies government, at which time Ngawi had an important position in the field of transportation. With quite an important role in the past, so that Ngawi can survive and develop into a subdistrict and even the forerunner of the regencial itself. Besides that, Ngawi has played an important role in traffic since prehistoric times, having an important geostrategic position.

Position of the Dutch government

Fort Van den Bosh is administratively located in the region Pelem, Ngawi (city), Ngawi. This fort is known to have been built in the mid-19th century. The reason the Dutch colonial government built Fort van den Bosch began when Ngawi was successfully occupied by the Dutch in 1825. At that time, Ngawi was known as the center of trade and shipping in East Java via Solo river and Madiun river and is one of the gateways to districts and cities in East Java.

The Dutch colonial government wanted Ngawi's strategic position and function and control of the trans-Java trade route at that time. For this reason, the Dutch finally decided to build a government building in the form of a fort, finally it was named Fort van den Bosch. The Dutch colonial government used this fort as protection when fighting Prince Diponegoro's struggle. In this fort there is the tomb of K. H. Muhammad Nursalim, a prominent cleric who was also a fighter and companion of Prince Diponegoro.

Then he was arrested by the Dutch, then imprisoned and buried alive. Kyai Muhammad Nursalim is also known as the figure who first spread Islam in Ngawi.

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