National Museum home to precious artifacts

National Museum home to precious artifacts

By Ida Indawati Khow

The National Museum is a landmark of advanced researches on
ethnography, anthropology and the languages of the Indonesian
archipelago in the 18th century. This is the 47th article on old
and protected buildings in Jakarta in this weekly column.

JAKARTA (JP): Museum Nasional, the grand old building on Jl.
Medan Merdeka Barat No. 12 in Central Jakarta, is more than just
a place housing an extensive collection of precious artifacts. It
is also an historical site where ethnographical, archeological
and language researches in Asia began in the early 18th century.

It was here that the oldest scientific institution in Asia,
the Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenshappen (Batavian
Society of Arts and Sciences) conducted researches on artifacts,
published findings and displayed them.

Some artifacts in its collection date back to a period of
40,000 years ago. Records show that most of the priceless pieces
were collected during the time when the society was still active.

"About 98 percent of the museum's 110,000 collected items are
findings of past society," said Diani Purwandari, the museum's
chief of registration.

The collections reveal important information on Indonesian
history dating from some 40,000 years ago. The classical period
of the fourth to the 15th centuries is well represented, as is
the coming of Islam in the 16th century and the period of
European influence beginning around the 17th century.

The building, also known as Gedung Gajah (elephant building),
is easy to find as it is situated on a main thoroughfare.

The building, in its early days, was located at the nearby
Koningsplein (the National Monument area), the housing complex of
the high ranking government officials has the popular name of
Gedung Gajah after the bronze elephant statue at the entrance.
The statue was bestowed by Siam (Thai) King Chulalongkorn during
his visit in 1871.

The typical neo classicist building with its Doric pillars,
was constructed between 1862 and 1868 by the Dutch engineer
Beijenrinck, following the model of a Roman villa.

Increasing collections

According to the Laporan Penelitian dan Pendokumentasian
Gedung Museum Nasional (Report on Research and Documentation of
the National Museum), the 11,500-square-meter building underwent
expansion many times due to the growing number of collections
which came from private contributions or from the close
cooperation between the Dutch colonial government and the public.

Due to limited space, some collections are now displayed in
the open air of the building's courtyard.

"It is not an ideal situation. Actually, all the artifacts
should be placed in closed rooms. I hope that the new annex can
accommodate all of the objects," said the museum director Endang
Sri Hardiati, referring to the new building next to the museum
which has the same architectural style.

Originally, the building was not designed as a museum but as a
place where members of the Batavian society analyzed and
researched every cultural aspect of the Dutch East Indies (what
is now Indonesia) and its people.

The society was founded on April 24, 1778 by Jacob Cornelis
Mattheus Radermacher, an active reformist who was influenced by
the intellectual revolution known as the Enlightenment of Europe
in the 18th century.

The society's motto was "work for the public benefit". "It was
the first of the kind in all of Asia," Wardiman Djojonegoro said
in the book titled Treasures of the National Museum Jakarta.

At first, their activities on scientific researches and
analysis were conducted in Radermacher's house at Kalibesar of
the present day Kota area in West Jakarta.

During the British interruption here between 1811 and 1816
Governor General Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles provided a place for
the society in an annex of the Harmonie club house in Central
Jakarta.

In 1868 the scientific organization -- which became world
renowned for its work in ethnography, anthropology and the
languages of Indonesian archipelago -- moved to the vast building
complex, the present Museum National building.

Endang described the society as the "very real scientific
research institution." They had regular publications of their
works, which are now saved at the National Library on Jl. Salemba
in Central Jakarta.

Wardiman said that the results of the society's work were
encapsulated in the 79 volumes of the Transactions publication
published between 1779 and 1950.

"They contained more than 31,000 pages of text, covering very
broad array of subjects ranging from practical areas such as new
irrigation methods, to the most detailed analysis of old Javanese
texts," he said.

From 1853 through 1952 the society published Tijdschrift voor
Indische tall-land-en volkenkunde (the journal of languages and
ethnography of the Indies), while from 1926 through 1951 it
published Jaarboek a compilation of mostly scholarly material
published annually.

Watchdog

The institution rendered many services to Indonesia during the
country's development it functioned as "watchdog" to protect and
preserve Indonesia's cultural heritage when actions taken by the
government or other related agencies were insufficient or even
destructive.

For example, after complaints by the society's board about the
serious neglect of the Borobudur temple in Central Java, a
government commission -- directed by the society's Hindu-Javanese
specialist Dr. Brandes -- was appointed in 1900.

Establishing the commission led to subsequent restoration
efforts and the society successfully opposed the transfer of
ethnology objects from Batavia to the State Ethnographic Museum
in Leiden.

"It argued that anthropological research should be conducted
in the filed and that an increasing number of scholars visited
the society museum for this purpose," Wardiman noted.

In 1860 five local natives were recorded as society members.
One of them, the famous painter Raden Saleh, was elected as
honorary member in 1866 after presenting the society with a
valuable collection of manuscripts and archeological objects.

The great naturalist painter also funded excavation of
prehistorical sites in Central Java, Wardiman said.

In 1987, the society's collection of books and rare
manuscripts were moved to the National Library while collections
of artifacts became part of the National Museum.