Sono Budoyo museum has rooms with a view on history

By Ahmad Solikhan

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The two ancient cannons stand guard to welcome visitors to the Sono Budoyo museum in Yogyakarta, and protect the 48,000 archeological and ethnographic treasures inside.

The cannons date back to 1846 and 1871 during the reign of Sultan Hamengku Buwono III. Along with them in the front courtyard of the pendopo are 16 statues from the Indonesian classic period of the 8th to 10th centuries. These include representations of Syiwa, Buddha Amithaba and Ganesha from the 9th century, and Batara Wisnu embracing the goddess Laksmi from the 8th century.

Stepping inside Sono Budoyo is like entering a time machine to relive Indonesian civilization from prehistoric times (1.9 million years B.C.) up to the 19th century. Like chapters in a history book, the museum is laid out in chronological order.

The first room introduces visitors to contemporary symbols of Yogyakarta as a city of culture, a pivotal hub in the struggle for independence, and site of tourism and education. In the next room begins the journey from the earliest Indonesian civilization to the prehistoric period.

The display shows 25 tools used in the paleolithic until the neolithic eras. There are utensils made of stone and bone for peeling, and axes exhibited in glass cases. In the middle of the room is a white sarcophagus resting on black sand.

Ancestor veneration from the middle of the neolithic period is evident in the megalithic structures which are simplistic representations of men and animals. Increasingly rapid technological development in the next civilization is revealed in groupings based on work. In that era Indonesian prehistoric men already had the skill to melt, mix, forge and mold metal into nekara, a cylindrical kettledrum adorned with frogs, human figures and geometrical patterns. The kettledrum found at Pejeng, Bali, was both for ceremonial use and a mark of social status. There are also bronze axes and statues of horse and riders, dancers and archers collected from sites in Bangkinang, Riau, Palembang, South Sumatra, Bogor, West Java, and Lumajang, East Java.

The next room features objects from the classic and Islam eras, including archeological relics from the Hindu-Mataram kingdom (732 A.D.) in Central Java. This kingdom was ruled by the Sanjaya and Syailendra dynasties. The locations of many temples in Central Java and Yogyakarta yielded many objects now in Sono Budoyo's collection.

Museum director Basuki, said that Professor Stutterheim was instrumental in collecting the archeological objects in the areas of Prambanan, Kalasan, Central Java and East Java. There are many objects in various forms but all are made of bronze -- drums, a small statue of Dewi Sri, the goddess of fertility, Dewa Kuwera, statues of Ganesha and Buddha statute.

There is even a bronze bust of a god inlaid with 18-carat gold, believed to date from the 10th or 11th century. Basuki said the bust was discovered by a farmer at Patuk, Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta, in 1956. A gold mask is thought to belong to the Majapahit era in the 14th and 15th centuries. "This object was part of the decorative equipment for Hindu and Buddhist ceremonies," Basuki said.

The Mataram Islamic kingdom is represented by Arab calligraphy wall decorations, made of teakwood in the shape of a boat. There is also the ancient book of Tajussalatim transcribed in the Arab Malay alphabet during the Sultan Hamengku Buwono V era in the 19th century. The book, still in fairly good condition, illustrates the family tree of the king of Samudra Pasai in Aceh.

There are fascinating examples of the acculturation between Islam and Hindu cultures, including yellow and green calligraphy from Cirebon in the form of Ganesha from Hinduism. There is even calligraphy in the design of an elephant atop a dog, even though the latter is considered haram (proscribed) by Islam.

After the glory of the Islamic kingdoms, traditional art emerges in a room full of batik cloth. The batik on display comes from traditional producing hubs such as Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Pekalongan, Lasem, Rembang and Cirebon. Next is the room for wayang (shadow) puppets. These consist of Wayang Purwa made in Yogyakarta in 1915, Wayang Suluh made of buffalo skin and found in Yogyakarta in 1947 and Chinese puppets made in East Java in 1850.

Although the Sono Budoyo is not a big museum, one to two hundred people from every corner of the world visit it daily. The majority of the visitors are foreign tourists. The museum is only 500 meters north of the Yogyakarta keraton (palace). During the school holidays visitors, mostly students, may number 500 a day. The entrance fee is just Rp 200 (US$0.08), but there is no air- conditioning and a visit can be uncomfortable if there are many people.

The Sono Budoyo museum was set up at the initiative of Indonesian and Dutch intellectuals in the Java Institute, a cultural foundation established in 1919. The foundation acted on the authority of the Dutch East Indies colonial government to preserve and develop indigenous cultures. In 1924 the foundation, concentrating on the cultures of Java, Madura, Bali and Lombok, held a congress in Yogyakarta which decided to establish a museum in Yogyakarta. It took 10 years before a small pendopo was established on a plot of land donated by Sultan Hamengku Buwono VIII. The inauguration took place one year later in 1935 on the Sultan's birthday.

The collection of the museum grew gradually. Objects came from other people's discoveries, personal collections on loan, or bequests, including from the sultan. The museum also received ancient objects from the Office for the Preservation of Historical and Archeological Relics.

"The museum's collection grows nearly every month," said Basuki. This has compelled the management to use an old building called Dalem Cokrodiningratan, situated east of the northern square of the Yogyakarta palace.

An electronic infra-red security system and alarms guard the valuable collection. Curators make regular inspections of the objects. "With this protection system, I hope there will be no thefts," Basuki said.

Like other museums in Indonesia, the Sono Budoyo lacks funds. Revenues from visitors are inadequate. Government funds are also insufficient to meet the museum's operational requirements.

"We lack funds to maintain the museum's collection," said Basuki. He said the need for increased funding was pressing as many items in the collection were ancient and required constant upkeep.