When you heard about museum you must think about a boring place with some antique things. That’s the main reason why people hate museum, despite the fact that museum is an important place that capture our history. Most of them must be forced to go to museum when they’re in the school trip (me too).But, this place will blow your mind and proof that museum isn’t a boring place.
My visit to this museum begin when I’m looking for a place to spend my weekend in Jakarta. I’m browsing for ideas and they recommend for culinary in mall, escape to pulau seribu or going to ammusement park. I’m not interesting to that options because I already tried most of them. So I’m searching more and found this option, Museum di Tengah Kebun. At first I’m didn’t have high expectation about this museum because just a few review in internet and most of them are from some years ago. Beside that, I’m not a huge fan about history, but I still decided to going here because it has large green areas and why not, that’s good for refreshing.
I stalk museum di tengah kebun’s instagram and that’s not update. But in their bio written that it’s Free and just open in Saturday and Sunday (09.30 - 11.30 and 12.30 - 14.30) . In every session minimum visitor are 5-7 person and maximum 15 person. You can do reservation through bit.ly/reservasimuseumditengahkebun or just contact on whatsapp Afifa (+628999293839). I thought that if I wanna go there I must go with groups, but when I ask to Afifa she said that it’s okay if I’m alone and I will join another group in morning session. Every visitor must be transfer reservation fee Rp. 100.000,- but in the end of session it will be giving back to us. It’s like a commitment that we will come to this museum, if we already give the reservation fee but we’re not able to join in the selected session we can’t get the money back and will be used for museum. This museum located in Jl. Kemang Timur, 66 Jakarta. It’s easy to find because you will see “66” number on the door with antique mask decoration, besides there’s a mark “museum di tengah kebun” too. When I arrived, there’s a staff asking whether I made reservation or not, and I answer yes then he open the door and told me to going inside.
When I enter this place it’s like I’m outside Jakarta because you can’t heard the crowd outside and the air still fresh. So comfort and homey. After passing the small garden you’ll find your guide and another member of museum tour group. At first, you must put you bag on the antique cabinet and you can take it after the tour finished. Then, we will be gathered in the entrance door of the museum and change our shoes/ sandals with sandals they provide. While we’re changing to sandals, out tour guide Afifa introduced about this museum. Actually this isn’t just a museum but also a house of the museum’s owner Mr. Sjahrijal Djalil. In this modern world (still) there is a man who loves to collect antique things whole hearted. He passed away on April 2019. He has more than 4000 collections around the world, from time to time, and from any religions. He spend his money to buy antique things from Christie bidding . Museum di tengah kebun means museum in the middle of garden, it’s because this house have a large garden, around 3000 m2 and the house about 1000 m2, so huge for a house in Jakarta.
This museum contain of many rooms and every room have special name based on antique thing inside the room. And for your information Mr Sjahrijal Djalil arrange every single thing in the museum by himself and based on his perspective. That’s very different with common museum that arrange their collection based on year.
The first room called “Loro Blonyo”, it’s mean a cople who can’t be separated.
The second room called “Budha Myanmar” because there’s a figure of Budha from Myanmar in this room. Actually there are many Budha’s figure here, but I just take one photo and the other is Budha’s students
This is my favorite room because it’s like a cozy living room. There are many antique things and sofa, they allow every visitor to sit in sofa and take a photo there.
Such an artistic toilet
The next room called “Dewi Sri”, Dewi Sri is one of Godness in Javanese myth. Dewi Sri is a symbol of agriculture godness. As you can see, Dewi Sri’s figure placed in dining room. Beside Dewi Sri you can see another figure from different culture in this room.
The next is Prasejarah room. It’s like a private library with some antique collections
Between Budha room and Pra Sejarah room there’s a connecting pool called Nandiswara pool
Next room called Singagaruda. it’s a huge bathroom with bathub (sorry I forget to take bathub’s photo). It’s very cozy and artistic.
Next we move to bedroom. Mr Sjahrial used to sleep here when he’s still alive. Afifa told us that Mr Sjahrial didn’t have child and wife. He used to work in advertising company and he loves to travel around the world to collect antique things before Parkinson’s disease make him paralyzed.
After exploring the inside part of this house, Afifa said it’s time to move outside and enjoy the favorite part of this museum
Mr Sjahrial exchange his Canberra’s view apartment in Sydney with this figure. Can you imagine how precious this figure for him ?
There’s a room where we can’t take photos inside, because in the past there’s a visitor who take photos and use the photos for online scam.
I can’s stop being amazed everytime I see the antique things here, because there are a lot of amazing things here, even national museum didn’t have a rare collection like in this museum. I just can’t think how can the owner collect all of this, he’s really dedicated his life for history. Really proud of you, Sir
I think this museum deserve to be well known and being the most visited museum. But still, the visitor must be followed the rules here.
