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“Look here, someone is going for a walk… Whose daughter is it?”
Never mind, he was just teasing me.
Last week, September 12th 2014, we were going
to, once again, carry out our kind of massive desire that we could not make it
the other day. Yep, going to museums! If any of you remember the uninteresting
(uninteresting, because it actually was, and also the hype was not as huge as
the far exaggerating presidential one) legislative election held last April,
that time, we recklessly left for Central Jakarta. Following the news from
Detik Travel which we had browsed the day before, saying that museums were
definitely the destination you had to visit on legislative election leave, we
just went there only to find all of the museums entirely closed. Very well,
such a deception, Detik Travel…
First museum to visit is National Museum of
Indonesia. Located at Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat No.12, Gambir, this museum is my
favourite one. I consider it has pretty much exhaustive collections, both domestic
and foreign. The collections are divided into seven kinds; historical,
geographical, prehistorical, ceramic, ethnographic, archaeological, and
numisnatic and heraldic collections.
Historical collections consisted of items like
furnitures, cannons, ceramics, glasses, potteries, decorative lights, etc.
While for the geographical collections, this museum had fossils, rocks, maps,
navigational equipments, and ship miniatures. There were also human and animal
bones, artifacts like hunting and farming tools, and objects related to
veneration of ancestors as the prehistorical collections. Ceramics kept in this
museum mostly came from outside Indonesia, which became the historical data
proving the relations between Indonesia and other countries (China, Vietnam, Thailand,
Japan, Middle East, and Europe) in the past, especially in trading.
Ethnographic collections presented various cultural objects from the whole
Indonesian tribes, for example traditional house miniatures, textiles,
ornaments, equipments used for ritual and daily needs, etc. For the
archaelogical collections, there were multifarious cultural objects from
Hindu-Buddhist era in Indonesia consisting of sculptures, jewelries, ritual
stuffs, constractions, inscriptions, etc. The last was numisnatic and heraldic
collections which included items like coins, banknotes, money printing tools,
medals, and amulets used during the ancient kingdoms, colonial, and
independence era.
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| There, the man with nothing to lose, disrupting my capture |
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| National Museum of Indonesia, better known as Museum Gajah, had a bronze elephant statue which was famous as the icon of the museum |
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| The bronze elephant statue placed in front of the museum was a present given by King Chulalonkorn from Siam (Thailand) when he was visiting Batavia (Jakarta) in 1871 |
The front countyard of the museum. There was a
horse-drawn vehicle there. Poor baby…
“You know what, take pictures and upload them
to internet. Then, if there is someone from other nation happens to copy the
items, I would undoubtedly blame you.”
Alright.
Since I was not allowed to take pictures
inside the museum by this grumpy guy, I can’t come to show you any of the
collections I saw. My sincere apologies.
Stepping into the front room of the museum, we
could see a pretty huge man statue standing tall. As if he welcomed us, this
statue somehow looked like a cook stirring a dough. Contrast to what it looked
like—at least to my sight—this statue actually represented a dreadful ritual of
human sacrifice to give protection against evil. Yep, Bhairawa statue, the
embodiment of Adhityawarman. He held a bowl filled with blood and a dagger.
With eight skulls displayed on his feet and a tiny creature that looked like a
baby being stepped on, it was quite terrifying indeed. Duh, I really can’t show
you the picture. So, for those who have never seen him yet, you might as well
just go see the man by yourselves.
In the central courtyard and both of its sides
were the varied Hindu-Buddhist sculptures, which were very, very breathtaking.
I was genuinely astonished how talented and artful our ancestors were. Damn,
those magnificently detailed carvings! My admiration continued to brim over
seeing other collections in the next rooms, especially when I observed the
cultural objects of the multiple tribes from the entire Indonesia, with their
own great characteristics. See, we are absolutely beyond rich!
Aside from my amazement towards the diversity
of this country, there was one thing that I wondered quite a lot. First, can
you guys just help me by simply raising your hand—that, if you are a fan of
Star Wars. And you do care about this.
So, there was this statue that looked exactly
like our captious dear friend, C-3PO! I mean, it looked so much like that piece
of humanoid protocol droid. Believe me, some things are just enigmatically
synced with the universe, and one of those is this thing.
“Picture or it didn’t happen!”
Guys, guys, I don’t want to be in trouble, so
let me just give you some definite clues. One day you deign to visit National
Museum of Indonesia just to prove my previous statement—better do it for the
educational purpose, you can still ask your lover to go with you, though—about
this C-3PO separate twin, go look for a cute, ancestor wooden statue holding a
chalice that is originally from Tanimbar, Maluku. You’re welcome.
“Typical teenagers…”
“Ugh. Do you think you can be a professional
photographer by taking those pictures? Really?”
“These foreigners capturing every single item
in this museum… Who do you think you are? These are ours, you all don’t have
the right.”
He was right, though. There was indeed a
warning not to bring your camera with you while getting into the museum. My
bad, I have these pictures I took—obviously minus the selfies taken by stepping
on the precious objects and smiling horribly in front of the camera—from the
previous visit last year which still I keep in my laptop. Teehee, I promise not
to upload them!
Um, before I finish this not-so-late post,
there is one thing that should be noted. Leaving at about half past seven in
the sunny morning, I never thought I would be wet. As the adherent of bring
your own tumbler principle, I failed miserably. Trusting your tumbler lid is
substantial, you know. And I was wrong, ’cause I ended up buying mineral water
nonetheless. Unless it could stay tight, my good intention would work. For that
matter, do the check before leaving! (Errr… As I’m writing it, I realise I have
to stay consistent with my decision of avoiding plastic use, where I have been
pretty inconsiderate lately. Sigh… Sorry, Mother Nature!)
P.S. If you didn’t get much information from
this post, please be assured that this is not an informative text. Plus, I was
actually struggling with the major lack of documentation while I could possibly
describe things. In the end, I just hope the youth can appreciate the
existence of museums more and be enthusiastic in exploring what our country
has. Besides the ticket price which is way cheap to purchase and the nice
accessibility, going on a date to museums is hella fun. See it yourself,
Indonesia is wonderful. See ya next post!
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