Holiday Ayo - If you want to see historical objects from the kingdoms that once triumphed in Indonesia, perhaps the National Museum is the place you must visit. This museum is very famous in Indonesia especially for Jakarta residents and they call it the Elephant Museum.

The name Museum Gajah was obtained because the front page of this museum contained a bronze elephant statue a gift from King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) from Thailand who had visited the museum in 1871. Apart from the Elephant Museum, this museum is also called "Gedung Arca" because inside this building There are various types of statues dating from different historical periods.

source: tripadvisor

The museum, which is located at Merdeka Barat 12 Street, has around 142,000 collections of historical objects such as statues, inscriptions, statues, artifacts and traditional weapons. In this museum there is also a gold treasury room which exhibits a collection of historical objects made of gold and precious stones from royal heritage that once existed in the archipelago. The large number of collections in this museum makes the National Museum the largest museum in Indonesia and also in Southeast Asia.

The existence of the National Museum began with the founding of a group called Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, established by the Dutch Government on April 24, 1778.

At that time in Europe there was an intellectual revolution (the Age of Enlightenment) in which people began to develop scientific ideas and knowledge. In 1752 in Haarlem, the Netherlands, De Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (Dutch Scientific Society) was founded. This prompted the Dutch in Batavia (Indonesia) to establish a similar organization.

source: Sejarah Lengkap

Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen (BG) is an independent institution established for the purpose of advancing research in the arts and sciences, especially in the fields of biology, physics, archeology, literature, ethnology and history, Berta publishes research hashes. This institution has the motto "Ten Nutte van het Algemeen" (For the Interests of the General Public).

One of the founders of this institution, namely JCM Radermacher, donated a house he owns on Kalibesar Street, a trading area in Jakarta-Kota. Besides that, he also donated a number of collections of cultural objects and books which were very useful. It was Radermacher's contribution that became the forerunner to the establishment of museums and libraries.