From New Order Neo-Vernacularism to Russian-Inspired Modernity: Masjid Besar Ciparay, 1980–2021

Abstract

This article reconstructs the institutional and architectural transformation of Masjid Besar Ciparay in Bandung Regency between 1980 and 2021. The studies reviewed here address architectural form and mosque management through different disciplinary approaches. By integrating oral testimony, a 2002 inter-organizational notice, commemorative inscriptions, photographs, reports, and architectural literature, this study asks how changes in form, finance, and governance altered the mosque’s public role. It applies the historical method through heuristics, external and internal source criticism, interpretation, and historiography. The reconstruction identifies two major architectural configurations. From the 1980s to 2018, a locally modified, YAMP-like neo-vernacular building is remembered as supporting youth, educational, welfare, and inter-organizational activities financed through community contributions and public assistance. In 2019–2021, a total reconstruction replaced this building. Participants associate the project with structural concerns, private patronage, and inspiration from the Kul Sharif Mosque in Kazan. The new three-storey mosque introduced four minarets, a blue dome, glass-reinforced concrete ornament, modern circulation, and a management structure described by interviewees as more business-oriented. The 2002 notice documents cross-organizational rotation; later testimony recalls its continuation among Nahdlatul Ulama, Muhammadiyah, Persatuan Islam, and Sarekat Islam. The article interprets this material contrast and remembered continuity as selective appropriation: transnational imagery and private philanthropy were understood through established practices of deliberation, religious representation, education, and social service. The evidence supports this interpretation without establishing uniform community acceptance or uninterrupted practice throughout the period.