Museum Nasional yang Merekam Sejarah (in English)

My trip to Museum Nasional

On September 7^th, during the long school break for Ied holiday. I went to Museum Nasional or National Museum which is located in Central Jakarta. Museum Nasional is also known as “Gedung Gajah” because of the elephant statue in front of the museum. The entrance fee for an adult is Rp 5000, I also asked for a handbook and was quiet shocked to see a very well put together, full colored book. To be honest, I was expecting an unattractive photocopy of history material that is passed as a guidebook. I was also shocked when I heard that the price of the book was Rp 80.000, but I bought it anyway. I examined the book, and was satisfied with it. I guess it was expensive because it was meant for international tourists. The book is 100 pages, all in English, full color, and has lovely photographs of the museums collections. It also uses that thick kind of paper, you know, the expensive one that usually good books use. I realized that the book was sponsored by American Express, no wonder it’s such a good book, I thought.

This museum covers all of Indonesia’s territory and almost all its history, it has been preserving our heritage for two centuries and still continuing. It was hard to choose what collection to focus on, since this museum holds so much collections. Prehistory collection, bronze collection, ethnography collection, traditional houses, historical relics collection, etc. I never got to see the whole museum before, and honestly I was pretty amused when I did. For some reason I was expecting dark and damp rooms, but most of them were already using air conditioning. Also there was a new part of the museum which seemed much more modern, though it was still a bit empty.

I was interested to see that there were about 3 groups of foreigners that came to the museum as well. One of those groups even had a tour! The tour was in English and the guide was a white man, he’s probably a foreigner that works for the museum. I checked my guide book realized that the museum had tours in Engllish, Japanese, and German. Dutch and French tours can also be obtained by appointment. Pretty cool, I thought. Then I read again that the admission charge for adults is Rp 750 and for students Rp 250. Whoa, not cool, good thing I’m not a foreigner.

From the courtyard, I randomly wandered into one of the rooms and saw exactly what I wanted to do my assignment about. Barong and Rangda.  Before going straight to the exhibit, I read a bit about the ethnography of Bali.

Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 33 provinces with the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the south of the island (strictly speaking, the province covers a few more islands than the isle of Bali).

Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, about 93.18% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. Minority religions include Islam (4.79%), Christianity (1.38%), and Buddhism (0.64%). These figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia. Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual.

The island of Bali lies 3.2 km (2 mi) east of Java, and is approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km (95 mi) wide and spans approximately 112 km (69 mi) north to south; its land area is 5,632 km².

After reading about the ethnography of Bali, I came closer to the Barong and Rangda exhibit. It was positioned next to the Balinese gamelan exhibit. The Barong and Rangda were both positioned as if being paused in the middle of their dance, and placed in one big glass container.

The Rangda Mask exhibit was originally from South Bali. Made of horse hair, hemp fibers, leather, and gold leafs. It has a length of 29 cm, and width of 29 cm, also its tongue is 64 cm.

Rangda is the demon queen of the leyaks in Bali, according to traditional Balinese mythology. Terrifying to behold, the child-eating Rangda leads an army of evil witches against the leader of the forces of good, Barong.

Rangda is important in Balinese culture, and performances depicting her struggles with Barong or with Airlangga in that tale are popular tourist attractions as well as tradition. She is depicted as a mostly nude old woman, with long and unkempt hair, pendulous breasts, and claws. Her face is traditionally a horrifying fanged and goggle-eyed mask, with a long, protruding tongue

Bali is a Hindu island, and it is suggested that Rangda may also be closely associated with Durga. She has also been identified with the Hindu mother warrior goddess, and Kali, the black mother goddess of destruction, transformation and protection in Hinduism.

While Rangda is seen as fearsome and by many as the personification of evil, she is also nevertheless considered a protective force in certain parts of Bali, much like Kali is seen as a benevolent mother goddess in the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam and Kerala. The colors associated with her — white, black and red — are identical with those associated with Kali. Her iconography is similar to that of both Kali and Chamunda, who are closely related.

Other interpretations claim that Rangda may be derived from the 11th century Javan queen Mahendradatta who was exiled by the king, Dharmodayana, for allegedly practising witchcraft. The tale surrounding this is that she proceeded to take her revenge by killing off half the kingdom, which by then belonged to her and Dharmodayana's son Erlangga, with plague before being overcome by a holy man. The name Rangda means "widow".

The Barong Keket exhibit was originally from Denpasar, Bali. Made of pule wood, gold leaf, cloth, and leather. This exhibit has a length of 1,418 cm and height of 204 cm.

Barong is a character in the mythology of Bali. He is the king of the spirits, leader of the hosts of good, and enemy of Rangda in the mythological traditions of Bali. Banas Pati Rajah is the fourth "brother" or spirit child that accompanies a child throughout life. Banas Pati Rajah is the spirit which animates Barong. A protector spirit, he is often represented by a lion, and traditional performances of his struggles against Rangda are popular parts of Balinese culture. The Barong is often portrayed with two monkeys.

The animal/ mythical creature would dance along the street to the calonarang dance. A priest would throw Holy Water at it.

It is known as the Demon Queen and Mother of All Spirit Guarders.

The lion barong is one of five traditional Barong. In Bali each region of the island has its own protective spirit for its forests and lands. Each Barong for each region is modeled after a different animal. There is a boar, a tiger, a dragon (or serpent) and the traditional lion. The lion is the popular one as it comes from the Gianyar region where Ubud (the home of tourist viewed ritual) is located. Within the calonarang, the dance drama in which the Barong appears, the barong responds to Rangda's use of magic to control and kill her to restore balance.

Beside of the big glass container which contains Barong and Rangda, there were also a collection of other barong masks. There was the Cow Barong Mask, the Elephant Barong Mask, the Bangkal Barong Mask, the Barong Landung “Jero Gede” Mask and its miniature.

“Bangkal” is the word for a big old boar and the barong mask depicts the image and spirit of the wild boar. In Bali, it can also be known as Barong Celeng or Barong Bangkung. Rwo dancers enact the dance with the mask, going from village to village on certain holy days or in the event of an epidemic. There is no specific script or dialogue, the dancers being accompanied by a simple percussion group.

The Barong Gajah or Elephant barong, danced by two people, is now quite rare and is therefore considered sacred by the people who look after it. The dance is performed by going around the village, without a scripted story and accompanied by a simple percussion group (gamelan batel or tetamburan). This type of barong is found in the areas of Gianyar, Tabanan, Badung, and Bangil.

The Barong Lembu ( a cow with horns) is performed at Galungan ceremony and it is believed to protect its caretakers from danger and bad spirits. However, it is now rarely performed.