Let me get this straight. What is WikiBarus? It’s an expedition by Wikimedia Medan Community to visit Barus, Central Tapanuli. A visit in effort to preserve and document the cultural historical heritage objects with the spirit of Wikimedia Movement’s values.
For your information, Barus is a small town located on the west coast of Sumatra. Facing straight into the Indian Ocean, making its scenery potential for tourism. It is also well known for its reputation as the ground zero of Islamic teachings spreadness in Indonesia and an historical place that connected the trade routes for many kingdoms in the past.
The most popular cultural heritage in Barus is the old Islamic cemeteries from the 7th century, such as Papan Tinggi Tomb and Mahligai Complex Tomb. Because of these historical values, we decided to propose a three day expedition to visit Barus through Dana Wiki program by Wikimedia Indonesia. A program that helps the local Wikimedia community run a small-medium project, and it can be formed as an outreach into remote areas.
Our story
We went there with a rented car for six passengers and one driver. The route that we took is quite challenging and distressful. We passed through a cave in a steep hill called Batu Lubang, and stayed overnight at a hotel in Sibolga City before going to Barus in the morning. Spent the whole day exploring the area, visiting other cultural sites besides tombs such as Fansuri Museum.
We also experiencing a tough walking track with thousand stairs to reach the Papan Tinggi Tomb because it’s located on a hill that having elevation over 200 meter above the sea. After that, we closed our expedition with exploring Sibolga City in our spare time at night.
Our impact
What were we doing there? Our activity revolves around documenting and enriching content about Barus’s presence and its historical richness on the Wikimedia projects like Wikidata, Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikivoyage.
Our expedition aims to give contributions to the Wikimedia Movement while at the same time also opening the free access of the useful information and free-licensed photos about many valuable places in Barus for everyone. At the end of the event, we able to upload more than 500 photos into Wikimedia Commons, 20 new items into Wikidata, 9 new articles on Wikipedia Bahasa Indonesia, and improving 2 articles on Wikivoyage in our activity report.
This action is expected to be a help for the local tourism industry and locals’ economy by expanding the accessibility of information about Barus in digital media. Giving a free promotion toward this tourism potential region.
Trivia
WikiBarus is the continuation from the previous activities, WikiKaldera and WikiBerastagi. All of these Wikimedan’s projects are funded by Wikimedia Indonesia through Dana Wiki program. You guys can see the detailed proposal for WikiBarus on this link.
Last but not least, Wikimedia Medan Community or can be also called as Wikimedan is a local Wikimedia community for volunteers that based on Medan city, North Sumatra.
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