City museum offers tantalizing clues to former glory

City museum offers tantalizing clues to former glory

Zulkifli Mohamad, Contributor, Palembang

The caretaker-cum-guide at Sultan Machmud Badaruddin II Museum
kept on apologizing about the poor state of the museum and its
collection as he took me around.

The city museum, named after the sultan who was arrested by
the Dutch and sent into exile in distant Ternate in July 1821,
was formerly the Palembang Sultan's Palace and part of the
Keraton Kuto Besar.

Later, when the Dutch took over, it became the Kuto Besar
Fortress. The museum has a few cannons pointing toward the
riverfront facing the newly built red gate, with a lotus flower
design on top of the gate and a naga (dragon) design, a symbol of
the importance of water to this former maritime kingdom.

This gave the impression of an ancient kingdom, juxtaposed
with the red-roof-tile and white concrete tropical colonial
building. The building is believed to have been extended and
renovated on several occasions since the reign of Sultan Machmud
Badaruddin II.

There were three recently discovered statues of Buddha and
Ganesha, god of knowledge, in the museum grounds, and examples of
the area's famous songket textiles and lacquerware inside. The
museum caretaker has his own way of interpreting the history and
arts of Palembang and the ancient kingdom of Sri Wijaya. He
pointed out that the wood carving of the lotus flower has been
incorporated into Islamic design although the lotus is integral
to Buddhist symbolism.

Through my guide I acquired three photocopied books on
Palembang's history, arts and culture. He later showed me to
antique and craft shops as well as textiles and costumes from
Palembang's heyday at the Pasar Illir 16 Market. Before he left
me in the middle of the market craziness, he pointed out that I
should come in the future during "Sri Wijaya Day" in June when
all things about Palembang are put on show, especially the rare
royal court performance of "Genta Seri Wijaya".

All the time, he had kept repeating his apologies, and also
announced his hope that someday someone would help redevelop and
preserve the collection. And he has a good point.

With the fame of Sri Wijaya in Southeast Asia, this museum
could easily attract visitors from the region and further afield.
Exhibitions about Palembang as an important Malay kingdom up to
the 19th century could be developed by incorporating its port and
waterways in telling how trading led to the collection of
cultural wealth. This high-potential museum could contribute to
history reconstruction and cultural revival as well as tourism
development.

What it needs is an awareness of its importance, plus
management and networking not only from the municipality, but
also from the business community, education and cultural experts
and activists. One can only wonder what others could do when
someone like a museum caretaker was able to construct the history
and tales from a very poor collection of exhibits and make it
interesting to me.