Huis van de resident 1886

This photograph shows the ‘Huis van de resident’, the residence of a colonial administrator, captured by Kassian Céphas. Notice the lion statues flanking the entrance. The lion, an ancient symbol of power and vigilance, appears across cultures, from the gates of Mycenae to the Forbidden City in Beijing. Here, in the Dutch East Indies, it guards the colonial presence, a sentinel far removed from its original African or Asian habitat. The very act of placing these lions speaks to the subconscious desire to legitimize power through symbols of strength, a visual language understood across epochs. The careful arrangement of the landscape, with its ordered symmetry, reflects the colonizer’s attempt to impose control, mirroring similar garden designs in Europe. This calculated display evokes a sense of authority and permanence, yet the transplanted symbol carries with it the weight of cultural displacement. The lion’s roar echoes through time.