Situated on the west side of Merdeka Square in Central Jakarta, the National Museum of Indonesia is a geographical, ethnological, historical and archaeological museum. Famously referred to as the Elephant Building, the museum houses an extensive collection of exhibits covering the entirety of the country’s territory as well as its history.
The fascinating collection of exhibits at the museum features about 61,600 anthropological and prehistoric artefacts in addition to 5,000 archaeological artefacts from all across the country and Asia. This collection is considered to be among the most comprehensive, richest and the finest of its kind in Southeast Asia. The older one of the museum’s two buildings has its exhibits arranged according to their subjects; inscriptions and relics found in Borneo, Sumatra, Bali and Java and a Stone Sculpture Collection featuring Hindu-Buddhist sculptures.
The Ethnography and Archaeology collection includes precious artefacts and treasures featuring gold; these are divided into two rooms. The Ethnology Treasure Room houses treasures found in royal houses in different parts of the country whilst the Archaeological Treasure Room consists of valuable relics and other archaeological findings.
The museum’s Ceramics Collection is also of interest; it features ceramics of Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and China in addition to Majapahit terracotta. Here ceramics dating from the Qing, Ming, Yuan, Sung, Tang and Han dynasties can be seen.
Overall, the museum also features a variety of objects that have a connection with the daily lifestyle of the Indonesians, in addition to exhibits that are said to be used in local rituals and ceremonies. Within the Prehistory Collection are Stone Age artefacts including ancient weapons, Nekara, a bronze ceremonial axe, stone axe and menhir. Other significant collections worth exploring here are numismatics collection, a textile collection and a bronze collection.
The newer one of the two buildings consists of collections related to the local religious system, livelihood systems, arts, language, knowledge systems, societal systems, technology and tool systems and more.
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