The Wayang Museum is a museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 dedicated to Java

Java

Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

nese wayang

Wayang

Wayang is a Javanese word for theatre . When the term is used to refer to kinds of puppet theatre, sometimes the puppet itself is referred to as wayang...

 puppetry. The museum is located in Jakarta

Jakarta

Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

.

History

The building occupies the site of a church which was built in 1640 under the name of the Old Dutch Church . In 1732, the church was renovated and the name was changed into the New Dutch Church . In 1808, an earthquake destroyed the church. Later in 1912, a building was constructed in the Neo-Renaissance style on the site, which initially functioned as a warehouse belonging to Geo Wehry & Co. In 1938, the building was renovated, following Dutch colonial architecture. The garden of the Wayang Museum located on the former yard of the Dutch church was the funeral site of General Governor Jan Pieterszoon Coen

Jan Pieterszoon Coen

Jan Pieterszoon Coen was a officer of the Dutch East India Company in the early seventeenth century, holding two terms as its Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies....

.
Later, the building was bought by the Batavia Society of Arts and Sciences

Royal Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences

The Royal Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences was a Dutch learned society in Batavia .The society was founded in 1778 by naturalist Jacob Cornelis Matthieu Radermacher as the Bataviaasch Genootschap der Konsten en Wetenschappen , and assumed its current name in 1910...

 , an institution dealing with Indonesian culture and science. The institution then transferred this building to the Old Batavia Foundation and on December 22, 1939, it was made a museum under the name of Old Batavia Museum . In 1957, after the independence of Indonesia, the building was transferred to the Institute of Indonesian Culture and on September 17, 1962 to the Ministry of Education and Culture, which later was delivered to the DKI Jakarta Administration on June 23, 1968 to be made the Wayang Museum. The inauguration took place on August 13, 1975. The museum is also a venue for training and research on shadow puppets.

Collections

The museum has a collection of various kinds of wayang

Wayang

Wayang is a Javanese word for theatre . When the term is used to refer to kinds of puppet theatre, sometimes the puppet itself is referred to as wayang...

, such as wayang kulit and wayang golek. It also displays various collections of wayang and dolls from countries like Malaysia, Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, Suriname

Suriname

Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

. The museum also shows gamelan sets, wayang sculptures, as well as wayang paintings. Inside the museum is the plate marking the tombstone of Jan Pieterszoon Coen

Jan Pieterszoon Coen

Jan Pieterszoon Coen was a officer of the Dutch East India Company in the early seventeenth century, holding two terms as its Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies....

. A wayang theater and a workshop of wayang-making is periodically organised in the museum.

External links