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.