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 -------------------------------------------------------