A Little Vacation for Andalusias

Saturday (7/1/2017)

At about 10 am, Nova, Novi, Icha, Linda, and Sini was already in a good outfit. Everyone brought a small pouch on their shoulder. They're ready for a little reward for their good exam report last semester. They would go to National Museum of Indonesia in Central Jakarta. Finally they had a little fun thing to do outside the dorm in their last school holiday.

Cultural classes

It was their first time visiting National Museum of Indonesia. Entering the front hall of the building, they found some people practicing traditional dance. They froze for a moment watching people practicing Pendet, a traditional dance from Bali. Every participants wore a colourful shawl and corset on their belly. They moved their body and made a beautiful motion as the music played.

Exploring another corner, the girls moved their eyes to some people who played Gamelan (javanese music instrument). They walked to the Gamelan corner and watched people pushed the instrument that created a great sound. This traditional music instruments usually used as a musical accompanishment for javanese dance or javanese traditional shadow puppet.

Beside the gamelan corner, there was an old man making Batik (Indonesia traditional pattern). The girls came to the Batik corner and welcomed to practice making batik. The man gave the girls some patterned fabric, and what they need to do was just thickening the pattern using a tools called canting. This tools was just like a pen that filled with traditional ink. Everyone tried making batik one by one and realized that making batik was not that easy. They had to be careful in moving their hand, or the ink would just flowover the pattern. It needs a good accuracy and patience. That's why a hand made Batik is always expensive.

Every Saturday, National Museum of Indonesia provide some cultural classes and the visitors can join for free. It was the latest innovation of this museum to bring traditional culture closer to the people. It was really good program to educate people by giving personal experience. However, those cultural class is just an appetizer to attract visitors. The main course was actually in the room next the hall where various collections are placed.

Precious Collections

Entering the collection room in the ground floor, these five girls welcomed by a replica of ancient humans. This rooms brought the visitors to prehistoric life. There were some human fossils and other relics that found in Indonesia. 

Tabuik

The girls took some picture before they found a replica of tabuik in the corner of the room. It's a ceremony to remember the death of grandson of Prophet Muhammad SAW, Husain Ali. The word tabuik was originated from Arabic which means coffins. Some muslims believed the body of Husain was lifted up to the sky by Buroq. Buroq was symbolized by the figure of a horse with human head. 

Finished exploring the first floor, the girls went upstairs and they found another collections. There were many kind of inscriptions written in Sansekerta, Tionghoa, and Arabic language. They also found many traditional tools from all around tribe in Indonesia such as compas, globe, watercraft, and many others. There were also displayed replica of Borobudur, and traditional houses from various province. This floor was about the result of science and technology from ancient people.

Went one more upstairs, they found precious historical collections made from gold and ceramics. In the past, ceramics brought by traders when sailed to Indonesia. The collections were so fabulous. However, this floor was quite restricted. The visitors were prohibited take picture due to security of the stuffs. The regulator of the museum anticipated of any criminality by imitating the collection for specific purpose.

@kusdwilestarin