Silaban’s Spiritual Child

Istiqlal Mosque is recognized as Friedrich Silaban’s greatest work: gigantic, grandiose, and functional.

September 4, 2007

HE kept his promise. On meeting Suharto, Friedrich Silaban kissed the floor and the feet of the President. Suharto was confused. “No, don’t do it, it’s kultus individu (cult of personality)!” he said as he tried to stop Silaban. But Silaban didn’t care. He had to keep a promise. “If the project was continued, I would kiss Pak Harto’s feet,” Silaban said in an interview with Tempo in 1978 about Istiqlal Mosque which he had designed

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