Museum is one man's homage to Javanese culture

Museum is one man's homage to Javanese culture

Cynthia Webb, Contributor, Kaliurang, Yogyakarta

In this village on the slopes of Mt. Merapi is Ullen Sentalu
Museum, arguably the best museum in the Yogyakarta area. The
museum of Javanese art and culture is exceptionally well
presented, interesting and informative.

There is a gift shop selling traditional arts and crafts of
only the finest quality, and a restaurant offering a special
ambience.

In the higher altitude location of Kaliurang, 26 kilometers
from Yogyakarta, the air is cool and fresh. The buildings of the
complex are architecturally designed and built from local stone,
sheltered by trees and featuring walkways over water, large
courtyard spaces and gardens.

The museum was built about five years ago, but the restaurant
is a new addition. You will be escorted around the complex by an
English-speaking guide who has a deep knowledge of Javanese
culture, after first being welcomed with a cup of delicious spicy
tea made to the special recipe invented by the wife of a past
sultan of Surakarta.

The Ullen Sentalu Museum is privately owned by Thomas
Haryonagoro, a retired businessman, who expressed his immense
love and appreciation of his own culture by investing his savings
in this homage to the traditions of Java. It is a "labor of love"
-- not making a profit, but not necessarily intended to.
He wants to give something back to Java, the land of his birth,
the homeland he loves. Thomas also has hopes that he can interest
schools in bringing students to the museum to study and learn
about the richness of Javanese culture.

The Art Deco style Beukenhof Restaurant opened recently, and
perhaps this will gain the reputation it deserves as a high
quality venue for elegant dining. As you climb the stairs and
enter this quiet and classy space, the atmosphere of times gone
by washes over you, transported back to an era when life was
slower, more refined -- and there was time to sense and savor it.

This restaurant is the antithesis of the modern fast food
outlet.

There is a particularly unusual and endearing feature to the
museum in that special attention is paid to the wives of the
sultans and other notable women of Java. At the Yogyakarta
Kraton and other museums, the sultans get all the attention and
women are all but ignored.

Thomas explained that he and his siblings had a wonderful
mother whom he very much loved, and whose favorite he was. His
happy childhood has given him a strong awareness of the enormous
contribution of women in family life -- in fact into every aspect
of life, including the lives of sultans.

Some of the consorts of past sultans of Surakarta and
Yogyakarta have been beautiful, intelligent, well educated and
accomplished women in their own right, whose presence was much
sought after in high society circles in Europe. Visiting Ullen
Sentalu may well be the only time you ever hear of them today.

In the Ullen Sentalu Museum you can see photographs of the
palace during the century, as well as other interesting
historical photographs of people and events during the colonial
era. There are various artifacts, and many oil paintings,
including painted portraits of various sultans and also their
wives. Carefully displayed in glass cabinets are the actual items
of clothing being worn in the portraits.

The women's batiks were usually made by their own hands --
batik tulis (hand painted batik) of course, and there are also
the finest kebayas (Javanese blouses) and other garments and
accessories.

Special permission had to be acquired from the Yogyakarta
court to give this equal attention to the women of the royal
courts, and was granted because Kaliurang was deemed to be far
enough outside Yogyakarta that this breach of usual tradition
could be permitted.

There is also a batik museum where you can compare examples of
the batik styles of Yogyakarta and Surakarta, and also batiks
exhibiting Chinese influence from the northern coastal towns of
Java. For the serious student of traditional textiles, this
museum is a must. The final part of the escorted tour takes you
to a room where the traditional Javanese wedding garb is
displayed and explained. Every item has a meaning and it is
beautiful to delve into these old traditions.

All of the exhibits are fascinating. There is much to be
absorbed, and the place is a welcome relief from the noise,
traffic pollution and crowds of modern Malioboro. The visitor is
rewarded with a deeper appreciation of the depth and refinement
of Javanese culture, which is sometimes hard to find amongst the
razzamatazz of Sosro, Malioboro and Prawirotaman.

It is well worth the trip to Kaliurang, if only to visit Ullen
Sentalu, but there are many other things there to enjoy. You can
walk around in the nearby tourist village of Sambi, or you can
check into one of the many small hotels and stay the night Gunung
Merapi. And the energetic tourist can climb Merapi with a guide.

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Ullen Sentalu Museum is situated at Taman Kaswargan, Jl.
Boyong, with a signpost on the main road where you must turn off
to the left approaching the village of Kaliurang.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. (closed on
Monday). Tel. 0274-895161
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