National Museum of Indonesia
Permanent Exhibition
What do you think at a glance when someone mentions a national museum? Perhaps it will be a huge place with a ton of the country's collections. Correct! In National Museum of Indonesia, you could explore anything regarding Indonesian culture and tradition, furthermore amazed with Indonesia magnificence.
In terms of building structure, National Museum of Indonesia is divided into Building A and Building B. Furthermore, Building C is still under construction.
As additional information, many people think this museum's name is Elephant Museum due to there being a small elephant statue in front of Building A, however the statue actually was a present from Thai King when visited Indonesia.
Furthermore, National Museum of Indonesia attempted to change the image of the museum name. So that, in the middle of Building A and B there is Ku Yakin Sampai Disana Statue with a waveform made of bronze by I Nyoman Nuarta with the meaning of three dimensions of life that are divided into past, present and future. Past has meaning we will always respect Indonesian culture, present has meaning we are trying preserve Indonesian culture and future has meaning we will always optimistic with the future of Indonesian culture. Moreover, in front of Building B there is Museum Nasional big wording in red color to make anyone who passed this museum realize this is National Museum of Indonesia.
The first collection that we could explore in Building A is Ganesh Statue. This statue is located in the middle of the room that leads to the open space of Nandi's Park.
Ganesh, Shiva’s son, is the god of knowledge, wisdom and the remover of obstacles. It is for this reason that his image is found in dangerous places.
His trunk unceasingly draws up the delights from an inexhaustible bowl - for some the symbol of an endless thirst of knowledge - that he holds in his left fore-hand, while the others hold respectively an axe (his other left hand).
Perhaps
you will be confused why the embodiment of God Ganesh has an elephant head with
a human body? It is said that God Ganesh was born from the Goddess Parvati's
skin, then when God Shiva met God Ganesh they did not realize their
relationship. Furthermore, due to at that time God Ganesh forbade God Shiva to
meet Goddess Parvati who did not want to be disturbed by anyone at that time,
there was an argument between them. After God Shiva cut off God Ganesh’s head
and threw it away, Goddess Parvati was angry and ordered God Shiva to find the
head of their child. Unfortunately, due to it having been thrown far away, God
Shiva could not find the head of God Ganesh, then when God Shiva saw the
elephant, the head of the elephant was beheaded to replace the head of God
Ganesh.
The next collection will easily be found in Building A is Bhairawa Buddha, due to the big size of the statue and is really easy to attract the visitor. Due to the statue's size, I think this collection could be considered as one of the masterpieces in National Museum of Indonesia.
Bhairawa Buddha
Origin : Padang Roco, Langsat River, West Sumatera
Century : 13 M – 14 M
This statue of Bhairawa Buddha Lokeswara is thought to
be the embodiment of King Ādityawarman. This statue is depicted in the form of
ugra (violent) and raudra (scary) with long fanged teeth, bulging eyes and a
skull ornament.
The characteristic that indicates that this Bhairawa
Statue is Buddhist lies in the decoration of a small Amitabha figure on its
crown. Both of his hands held a bowl made of human skulls and knives. Both feet
stepped on the corpse of the man who was lying with his legs folded.
Do you think you could find the first collection in this museum? Museum with tons of collections will make a lot of guessing of which one the first collection is. Rather than too much guessing, following is the first collection of National Museum of Indonesia that is Shiva Trisirah Statue.
Shiva Trisirah
Origin : Magelang, Kedu, Central Java
Century : 8 - 9 M
No inv : 1a/3616
Shiva with three heads that represents the power of create, preserve and fused or destroy.
Lets
move to Building B by passing the middle room and enjoy the view from behind
the huge glass window.
When
Building A’s collections are divided into specific rooms, Building B divided
into 7 floors that 4 floors merely to display the collections by specific
theme, then the remaining floors are not allowed to be entered by the public
visitor.
The
first floor theme of Building B is human and the environment. The first
collection that we could explore is Prehistoric Burial in Gilimanuk.
Prehistoric Burial in Gilimanuk
Accompanied by Favorite Things. The prehistoric human
skeleton found in the Gilimanuk site, in Jembrana - Bali in 1985, is estimated
to be from 2,200 to 1,800 years ago. It had had a first or direct burial
(primary burial).
Beside the skeleton there was a metal weapon in the
shape of a chopping knife or spear. The tools might have been for daily use or
favorite things of the man when he was alive.
Beside the primary burial, there is also secondary
burial that the skeleton of the family member will be allocated to a jar that
the family could bring it on to their journey to the new place. The secondary
burial method can be applied due to the nomadic process which is there is
merely a small opportunity the family will go back to the previous living
places.
Heading
to the second floor, there is a view of some stone collections lined up tidily
and one of those inscription collections is Mulavarmman Inscription. Then
continue to another stone collection that is a replica of the Ciaruteun
Inscription.
Mulavarmman Inscription
Material : Stone
Origin : Kutai,
East Kalimantan
Century :Early
5th Century
This
inscription is written in Pallawa script and Sanskrit language. The content of
the script is about the genealogy of the King Mulavarmman, the biggest king in
the ancient Kutai. His father named Asvavarmman and his grandfather named
Kundunga.
Replica of the Ciaruteun Inscription
Material : Fiber
Origin : Ciaruteun
River, Ciampea, Bogor, West Java
Century : Mid 5th
This inscription was previously known as the Ciampea Inscription with Pallawa script and Sanskrit language. Currently the inscription has been lifted from the river and is in the Bogor area. This inscription consists of four lines written in the form of Indian poetry, it contains praise to King Purnawarmman. The interesting point is that there are "curls" which until now can’t be read.
Walking
around the collections then we will see the scales collection, the scales
pattern looks captivating, and we will wonder what’s the function of this
collection.
Scales
Material : Wood and iron
Origin : Sultanate
of Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan
The
scales were used for the measurements of the taxes in the form of food crops,
purportedly, the Sultan of Banjar would sit on one side of the scale and the
amount of tax was determined by his weight.
Actually
this is the newest collection that we could explore in this museum. The newest
one is not seen from the production time of the collection but from the time
this collection was displayed in National Museum of Indonesia.
The World's First Vehicle
On January 29, 1986, Carl Benz filed for a patent for "vehicle powered by a
gas engine".
What do you think regarding this collection? Could you guess what the function of this collection is?
Sesako
Material : Wood
Origin : Lampung
Sesako
is an ornament which is located at the backside of a short chair, used for
appointment of the head of tribe in Lampung during the ceremony back in the
day, candidates sitting cross-legged above the seat for reception of
legalisation of authority. According to the locals, Papadon chairs have
invisible snakes which can alert the owner about others who have bad or evil
purposes. Sesako estimates came from 16 - 17 BC.
Currently, many rooms in Building A are under
renovation, while in Building B the collections on the 4th floor in the gold
room and foreign ceramic room are not allowed to be photographed at all, merely
the small room in front of the gold room can be photographed.
National Museum of Indonesia still has a lot of fascinates collections which we could
explore together, that are:
Nandi Statue : The bull that is used as the vehicle of God Shiva.
Prehistoric Human Life : There is a real-size modest simulation of prehistoric
human life.
Boat : If you think this boat is only used as the
transportation, you are wrong! Because this boat is also used as a residence.
The inhabitants only go to the land when selling fish and looking for clean
water.
Gamelan Set : At one free space in Building B near the museum cafe,
there is a complete set of gamelan equipment. In the pre-pandemic period, one
of these museum facilities held a gamelan workshop and was open to the public.
This is a museum facility and since it is not a museum collection, visitors are
allowed to touch it.
During
the pandemic, at this time many museums and galleries haven’t yet had open
visits, many temporary exhibitions have also been postponed. So let's see which
one of the other museums or galleries we can explore together.
For
further information:
National
Museum of Indonesia
Jl.
Medan Merdeka Barat No. 12, Jakarta 10110, Indonesia
+6221-386-8172
Social
Media:
Website: www.museumnasional.or.id
Twitter:
@museumnasional
Facebook:
Museum Nasional Indonesia
Instagram:
museum_nasional_indonesia
YouTube
Channel: Museum Nasional Indonesia
Reference:
Personal
photos and documentation
Personal
impression and experience
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