Museum reshuffles history to tell a better tale

Ida Indawati Khouw, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A big city like Jakarta should have a museum with a complete collection to enable its citizens to learn about the city's history. But the Jakarta Historical Museum in West Jakarta has failed to meet that need.

"I want Jakartans visiting the museum to get the whole picture of their city. I want them to say 'now I know the city's history' when they step out of the museum," said the museum director Tinia Budiati after the opening of the exhibition of the museum's new collections recently.

Previously, the museum was not arranged in such a way so that it reflected the city's history. It did not portray the complete story of Jakarta.

"There were collections which had no connection with Jakarta's history displayed here including a relief of Borobudur temple in Central Java," said archeologist Hasan Djafar of the University of Indonesia, referring to the relief that used to be located in the Tarumanegara Period room.

Hasan was involved in the rearrangement of the museum lay out.

As of Oct. 31, the two-story museum's displays were redesigned.

"It's a huge task to rearrange around 30 rooms which will last for decades. Our first phase is to complete the first four rooms," said Tinia, referring to the Jakarta Today, Prehistory of the Greater Jakarta, the Tarumanagara (kingdom) Period I and the Tarumanagara Period II rooms.

Hasan said in the future all rooms would be divided based on periods from Jakarta's history: the Sunda Kingdom, the Portuguese, the introduction of Islam, Jayakarta Kingdom, the Dutch Era and the Republic of Indonesia Era.

The Jakarta Today room contains mostly photographs. They show the past and present of Jakarta including old maps of the city (formerly known as Batavia) during the early establishment of the old castle in 1619. They also display the multiethnic society of the 18th and 19th centuries, the conditions in the city in the 20th century up to present time with its high-rise buildings and chaotic transportation system.

"Sometimes people ignore the details of life in a metropolitan city. We aim to make visitors aware of it," said Hasan.

With only photographs hanging on the wall, Tinia said: "Everyone would probably hope for something great like in the famous museums in Europe. But we can only use what is available due to our limitations."

Next to the Jakarta Today room is the Prehistory of Greater Jakarta room where the actual history begins. There are some valuable artifacts, some of them in the form of small stone pieces.

"In terms of history and archeology, these pieces are important as they depict activities of the past. They are part of the stone tools used in daily life like adzes and axes," Hasan said.

The artifacts have been dated back to 3000 B.C. along with prehistoric remains from the neolithic stage -- the period when man had settled in Greater Jakarta and started farming. Other objects are from the period of the earthenware culture and bronze-iron age.

"Greater Jakarta has about 100 archeological sites which can still be excavated for other discoveries. The last excavation project took place in the 1980s," said Hasan.

The Tarumanagara Period I displays replicas of stone epigraphs (in Sanskrit) of Kebon Kopi I, Ciaruteun and Munjul, referring to the places where they were found. The three inscribed stones are part of the seven precious stones of the Tarumanagara Kingdom that reigned in an area that included Greater Jakarta in the fifth to seventh century.

An original statue of elephant-god Ganesh, whose height is only 58 centimeters, is located in the Tarumanagara Period II. The statue of Ganesh, known as the god of knowledge, was found in the Warung Buncit area, South Jakarta, in 1990.

There were actually five statues found in the Greater Jakarta area. They are now being preserved at the National Museum in Central Jakarta.

"The Jakarta Historical Museum deserves to have original pieces, especially those found in the Greater Jakarta area," Hasan asserted.