5 Great Museums in Indonesia

1. National Museum

The National Museum is the largest museum in Indonesia. This museum

is located on Jalan Merdeka Barat No. 12, Jakarta. This museum is known to the
public as the Elephant Museum because in front of it there is a statue of an
elephant given by the king of Thailand. Sometimes this museum is also called the
Arca Building because there are many statues in it.

Starting from Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen

(BG) is an independent institution founded for the purpose of advancing research
in the fields of arts and sciences, especially in the fields of biology, physics,
archaeology, literature, ethnology and history. Before the National Museum was
built, the Literary Society building was built during Raffles' reign. Because the
building was filled with collections over time, the current National Monument was
finally built.

In 1923 this association received the title "koninklijk" because of its services in
the scientific field and government projects so that it became the complete
Koninklijk Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen. On
January 26 1950, Koninklijk Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en
Wetenschappen was renamed the Indonesian Cultural Institute. Considering the
importance of this museum for the Indonesian nation, on September 17 1962 the
Indonesian Cultural Institute handed over management of the museum to the
Indonesian government, which later became the Central Museum. Finally, based
on the Decree of the Minister of Education and Culture, No.092/0/1979 dated 28
May 1979, the status of the Central Museum was upgraded to become a National
Museum.

Now the National Museum is under the auspices of the Ministry of

Education and Culture. The National Museum has a vision that refers to the
vision of the Ministry of Education and Culture, namely "The realization of the
National Museum as a cultural and tourism information center that is able to
brighten the life of the nation, increase civilization and pride in national culture,
and strengthen unity and friendship between nations."

2. Geological Museum

The Geological Museum was founded on May 16 1929 and is located in

Bandung. After undergoing renovations, the Geological Museum was reopened
and inaugurated by the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, Megawati
Soekarnoputri on August 23 2000. As a historical monument, the museum is
under government protection and is a national heritage. In this museum,
abundant geological materials are stored and managed, such as fossils, rocks
and minerals. All of this was collected during field work in Indonesia since 1850.

During the colonial period, this museum was related to the history of
geological and mining research in Indonesia. The colonial government was aware
of the importance of mineral power. The results of the investigation are rocks,
minerals, fossils and map reports.
 The Geological Museum is divided into two floors. The first floor contains
three main rooms, namely, the orientation room, the west wing room, and the
east wing room. The Orientation Room contains a geographic map of Indonesia
in the form of a wide screen relief showing geological and museum activities in
animated form, a museum information service booth as well as an education and
research service booth. Meanwhile, the West Wing Room is known as the
Indonesian Geological Room. Meanwhile, the east wing room depicts the history
of the growth and development of living things from primitive to modern.

The second floor is also divided into 3 rooms, namely west, middle and
east. The west room is used for museum staff. The middle room contains a
picture of gold mining in Papua. Meanwhile, the eastern room contains positive
and negative aspects of the geological system for human life, especially
Indonesia.

3. Jakarta History Museum

The Jakarta History Museum or what is known as the Fatahillah Museum

is a museum that was built on January 23, 1707. This museum is located on Jl.
Fatahillah Park No. 1, West Jakarta, DKI Jakarta, Indonesia. The architect of this
museum was W. J. van de Velde who designed it in a neoclassical style.

This building is the Batavia city hall which was converted into a
monument. There are three floors with earth yellow paint, the door and window
frames are made of dark green teak wood. It has an area of more than 1,300
square meters. The roof has signs of angina.

Objects that can be found in this museum include the history of Jakarta,
replicas of relics from the Tarumanegara and Pajajaran periods, the results of
archaeological excavations in Jakarta, antique furniture from the 17th to 19th
centuries, which is a combination of European styles, the People's Republic of
China, and Indonesia. There are also ceramics, pottery and inscription stones.
These collections are found in various rooms, such as the Jakarta Prehistoric
Room, Tarumanegara Room, Jayakarta Room, Fatahillah Room, Sultan Agung
Room, and Batavia Room.

Since 1999, this museum has been determined to be not just a place to
care for and exhibit objects, but also to increase knowledge and experience as
well as recreation. The Jakarta History Museum also tries to organize
recreational activities so that it can attract visitors to come to the museum to
increase awareness of the importance of cultural heritage.

4. Sangiran Antiquities Museum

Sangiran Archaeological Museum is an archaeological museum in

Sragen, Central Java. This museum has an area of 56 square kilometers. This
museum is close to the UNESCO world heritage ancient fossil site area. The
Sangiran site is in the Sangiran Dome area which is part of the Solo depression,
at the foot of Mount Lawu (17 km from the city of Solo). The Sangiran Museum
and its archaeological sites, apart from being an interesting tourist attraction, are
also the most important and complete research arena on prehistoric life in Asia,
even the world.
 In the museum itself there is complete information about ancient humans
in Java who contributed knowledge such as anthropology, archaeology, geology,
paleoanthropology. This is also where the lower jaw of Pithecanthropus Erectus
was first discovered by Von Koenigswald. Even more interesting, in the Sangiran
site area, traces of remains from 2 million years to 200,000 years old can still be
found today. Relatively intact too. So that experts can weave together a common
thread of history that happened in Sangiran in sequence.

5. Museum Ullen Sentalu

Ullen Sentalu is a Javanese abbreviation of "Ulating Blencong Sejatine

Tataraning Lumaku" which means "The flame of the blencong lamp is a guide for
humans in moving forward and pursuing life". This philosophy is taken from an oil
lamp used in wayang kulit performances (blencong) which is a light that is always
moving to direct and illuminate our life journey. This museum was founded by a
Yogyakarta nobleman who was known to be very close to the Surakarta and
Yogyakarta royal families.

In this museum, there is a lot of history of Javanese ancestors making

batik which has meaning in each pattern, there is also various history regarding
ancient Javanese culture with all its rules. When we come here, it feels like we
are in the days of the old Javanese kingdoms.

In 2014, the Yogyakarta Special Region Culture Service published a book

containing superior museum collections in the Yogyakarta Special Region,
including the superior collection owned by the Ullen Sentalu Museum. The
superior collections of the Ullen Sentalu Museum are as follows: Jumenengan
painting, this painting depicts the sacred dance procession of the Ngayogyakarta
Hadiningrat Palace, namely the Bedhaya dance which is performed once a year
to commemorate the sultan's coronation. Paes Ageng Clothing Painting, this
painting shows details of a woman's wedding dress complete with Paes Ageng
make-up.