Indonesia Traveling Guide

Jakarta is the dynamic capital city of the Republic of Indonesia, a country composed of more than 17,000 islands with a population of over 200 millions. Comprising more than 300 ethnic groups speaking 200 distinct languages and dialects, the Indonesian population exhibit incredible diversity in its linguistic, cultural and religious traditions. As the nation capital, Jakarta is truly a "meeting point" of representatives from troughout the archipelago.

Jakarta is the lively social, cultural, economic and political hub of the nation, carrying a legacy of more than 30 years of largely uninterrupted economic expansion. It is home to many of the country's finest research institutions, educational facilities and cultural organizations, and uniquely serves both as the seat of national as well as regional government.

Strategically positioned on the west side of the island of Java, the Capital City is the principal gateway to the rest of Indonesia. From Jakarta, sophisticated land, air and sea transport is available to the rest of the country.

Jakarta Major Attractions

Jakarta History Museum (Picture - above showing)
Jl. Taman Fatahillah No. 1 West Jakarta

Located in the historic Old Jakarta Kota area, the Taman Fatahillah square offers three of the city's most interesting museums. Once the heart of the colonial administration in the 18th century the square underwent a major restoration in the 1970's.

The Museum of History of Jakarta, is the one displaying the history of the development of the City of Jakarta, both the events and the community, from the prae-history until these present days. This museum is located in a building of cultural property which in the past known as Stadhuis, the City Hall of Batavia. As written on an inscription of the Museum collection, the building was constructed in 1707 by the city government of Batavia during the period of the VOC and it was inaugurated in 1710 by Governor General Abraham van Riebeeck.

Shadow Puppets Museum
Jl. Pintu Besar Utara No. 27 West Jakarta

Shadow Puppet (commonly known as wayang) in Indonesia, especially on Java Island, was originally a product of the Royal Court culture. It was first used as an instrument of worship to the ancestors, and after the Hindu culture entered Indonesia in around the 5th century, it developed shifting of values.

Visitors of this Museum are invited to know various characters, attitude and behaviour of the story from various regions through the performance of shadow puppet that has weight of high value in our culture and viewing a number of collections of shadow puppet like wayang kulit, wayang golek, patung wayang, topeng wayang, wayang beber, wayang kaca, gamelan (traditional music instrument set) as well as wayang paintings.

This Museum also displays various collections of wayang and dolls from friendly countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Suriname, China, Vietnam, France, India and Cambodia.

Fine Art and Ceramic Museum
Jl. Pos Kota No. 2 West Jakarta

This museum has around 400 fine arts, which consist of many different techniques and materials, such as sculpture, graphic, wood totem, sketch, and painting batik.

Among those collection there are some masterpieces, collections that useful for the art history in Indonesia. Traditional clasiccal sculpture from Bali, magical and symbolic wood totem.

There are plenty of ceramic collections in this museum, consist of local and also foriegn ceramic. the local ceramic comes from Aceh, Medan, Palembang, Lampung, Jakarta, Bandung, Purwakarta, Yogyakarta, Malang, Bali, Lombok, etc.

This Museum has also Majapahit ceramic from the 14 th century, which show beatiful extraordinary characteristic and have history value with various shapes and functions.

The foreign ceramic of various shapes, characteristics, functions, and styles from China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Dutch, Germany. and Middle East. The greatest numbers are from China, especially from Ching and Ming Dinasty.

Textile Museum
Jl. Aipda K.S. Tubun No. 4 Central Jakarta

Kain batik, ikat and pelangi are the leading types of traditional kain and forming the ways of creating decorated pattern of kain. As to silk- screening (sablon), hand-painting and tin-coating (prada) belongs to coloring techniques. Already hundreds of years those traditional motifs have been developing, changing and turning into scarcity, parts of which are kept in the Textile Museum. Principally, the collections kept in this Museum are objects of collection associated to textile world, especially textile from within the national territory. The collections are divided into several groups, namely:
a. Kain tenun (woven cloth) collection group
b. Kain batik collection group and
c. Mixed collection group.

The other part of the Museum also displays traditional instruments closely related to kain products like weaving and batik instruments from various regions which have an apart attracting power.

Jakarta Art Center
Jl. Gedung Kesenian 1, Pasar Baru, Jakarta Central Jakarta

This neo-renaissance structure was meticulously restored, and is now one of the proud landmarks among the many Jakarta buildings which have been conserved. Some of the city's best performances of music, dance and theater by both Indonesian and visiting artists are presented here. (Another popular Jakarta venue for exhibitions and performing arts is the Taman Ismail Marzuki.) Gedung Kesenian publishes a monthly calendar, with event announcements in the daily news-papers.

There are so many great attractions vacationers can explore within Jakarta. For more information click HERE