Taru Martani: A Story of Cigars and Indonesia

By: Reza Daffi

While its liking of cigarettes is no longer a secret, the fact that Indonesia produces (and consumes) cigars remains less renowned. One of the country’s cigar factories is located in Yogyakarta, called Taru Martani. As a venture that has managed to survive after decades, Taru Martani has become part of Indonesian history.

How Indonesia Caught Smoking

The habit of “ngobong congor” (burning one’s mouth, Javanese slang for smoking) was already practiced in Java since at least early in the 17th century. A Javanese manuscript from 1601, Babad Ing Sangkal, noted that people began to smoke after the death of Panembahan Senapati, the founder of the Mataram Sultanate of which Yogyakarta was part. It is possible that they were introduced to tobacco by the Dutch who had come in 1596 under the explorer Cornelis de Houtman. By this time, smoking was already common across Europe, tobacco having been imported by Christopher Columbus’ crew from the Caribbean years before.

The Dutch, however, played an important role in spreading smoking in Indonesia. The fact that the Indonesian word rokok (meaning, cigarettes) is derived from the Dutch word roken (to smoke) provides evidence.