Elephant Museum Or Temple Of Science

JAKARTA - "So far, this is the best museum in this part of the world, and contains what can be called a perfect ethnology exhibition about Malaya from Sumatra in the west to New Guinea in the east."

The compliment was directly expressed by George M. Reith, who wrote the Handbook to Singapore. Reith was immediately amazed when he made his first visit to the Bataviaasch Genootschap Museum - now the National Museum - in 1896.

Hopefully, anyone who comes to the museum, which was originally an association of arts and sciences, will of course say the same thing. Anyone, would be amazed to see the museum collection.

King Chulalongkron of Siam also expressed admiration, who in his three visits (1871, 1896 and 1901) to the Dutch East Indies always visited this museum. Sanking was amazed that on his first visit in 1871, he presented a bronze elephant statue to the museum.

Apparently, the gifts given have conditions. By John Miksic, in a book entitled Borobudur: Golden Tales of the Buddhas (1990), the King of Siam then asked permission from the Dutch colonial government to bring home nine carts full of statues and works of art from the Javanese classical period.

Among the collections are 30 reliefs, five statues of Buddha, two statues of lions, and several types of times that are usually at the top of the temple entrance. In addition, there is also a dvarapala statue which is a finding of Dagi Hill, which is a hill several hundred meters northwest of Borobudur Temple.

Although this exchange was calculated to be very detrimental to the Dutch East Indies government, souvenirs in the form of a bronze elephant statue placed in the front yard of the museum became the basis for people to call the Bataviaasch Genootschap Museum the Elephant Building (het olifantenhuis). Interestingly, the title has been pronounced so far.

The temple of science

Although relatively new to its time, the Elephant Museum has been known as a temple of science throughout America, Germany, England and France. This was revealed directly by the Dutch soldier, HCC Clockener Brousson in a book entitled Batavia Awal 20th Century (2004).

He, who had briefly taken a trip in Batavia, expressed his admiration for the museum, which in the past was considered a furniture building by the Dutch. “I bet there are many people in the Netherlands who think that the Indies are still a wild land where there are lots of tigers and snakes and sugar and tobacco plantations here and there. They would be surprised to know that there is a world-famous museum here. "

It is in this ancient Greek style building that Clockener enjoys the entire collection of the museum. The knowledge he got was quite a lot. To the point that he assumed, "scientists from all over the world come here to enrich their knowledge."

What Clockener has revealed is true. Not only admiring, many of those who came to take advantage of the visit to find out about Indonesia's history and the development of the museum that was founded by JCM Rademacher, a member of Raad Van Indie on April 24, 1778.

In addition, as the oldest museum in Southeast Asia, the museum's collection is quite complete. How could it not be, the owner of the Radermacher art association has donated a number of ancient objects in the form of stone statues, bronze, ethnographic objects and books as many as six cabinets for the museum's first collection.

The association founded by Rademacher became increasingly successful when the Dutch East Indies came under British rule through Governor General Thomas Stamford Raffles (1811 - 1816). Stamford Raffles has long been known to have an extraordinary interest in culture and history.

Therefore, it is natural that this museum became popular and was awarded as one of the mandatory tourist objects in the Dutch East Indies when visiting Batavia by one of the 19th century tourist guidebooks. Its popularity is side by side with tourist attractions such as the Kota Tua area, Weltevreden, Koningsplein, and Sosieteit De Harmonie.

The description of the popularity of other museums was also revealed by Achmad Sunjayadi in a book entitled Tourism in the Dutch East Indies 1891-1942 (2019). He revealed that in the museum, there used to be exhibitions that introduced Indonesian culture from Sabang to Merauke.

Call it an exhibition on the theme of crafts from all residents of the archipelago in 1929. "On the initiative of the Koninklijk Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, in the museum hall an exhibition of handicrafts from all residents of the Dutch East Indies was held."

The purpose of the exhibition was none other than to provide an overview of the congress participants, the Pacific Scinence Congres, about the diversity of the population in the Dutch East Indies, both in the form of habits, dances, clothes and their skills.

Not only being a medium of learning for Europeans, the National Museum was often used as a temple of knowledge visited by Indonesian writers. One of them is Pramoedya Ananta Toer. This description is obtained from the narrative of Rosihan Anwar in the small history book "petite histoire" Indonesia, Volume 3 (2009).

He often imagines the memory of the moment at the Elephant Museum, at which time the owner of the book met Pram. "I am returning to the officer the books that have been read and cannot be taken home," he wrote.

"Next to me, at a distance of one meter, stood Pramoedya Ananta Toer. He was wearing a cap. He put some books on the table. Like in the theater world there was eye-to-eye contact. Pram didn't say hello, neither did I.”

In fact, former Indonesian First President Soekarno also has memories of the Elephant Museum. Bung Karno at that time often bound his books here with fine linen covers and their titles were written in gold ink.

The story was written by a former employee of the Elephant Museum Wahyono Martowikrido in his book entitled Stories from the Arca Building (2006). He said, "He (Bung Karno) was satisfied and conveyed his praise for the job."

"Indeed, the bookbinders in the library are experts who have worked there since ancient times of the Netherlands. Most of them have now passed away, and some have retired but are still actively working, ”wrote Wahyono.