Great puppet collection, shame about the museum

Agus Maryono, The Jakarta Post, Banyumas | Fri, 04/03/2009 2:19 PM

If you collect, research or are simply interested in Indonesia's puppets - an integral part of the nation's traditional culture - you would do well to visit the Banyumas Puppet Museum in the center of the Central Java city of Banyumas.

The museum's collection features an extensive collection of puppets from every corner of the country, with the oldest, made by Sultan Hadiwijaya during the time of the Mataram Kingdom, dating back to 1556. Among the more recent puppets are suket puppets, the work of a Purbalingga artist made popular by Slamet Gundono.

With meticulous detail, every puppet's history has been recorded, including the details of the puppet maker, the reasons different puppets were popular at different stages of history and the intended purpose behind each puppet's creation.

"All the historical puppets are here," Wati, 35, the museum caretaker, told The Jakarta Post. "Visitors who want to look at them are welcome, but they are not allowed to take them outside the museum."

The museum, Wati said, housed 15 types of puppets from various cultures and historical periods. In addition to the two mentioned above, there are examples of Banyumasa gagrag leather puppets, Yogyakarta gagrag leather puppets, purwo wooden puppets from West Java, menak puppets (historical Islamic stories), kancil puppets, Cirebonan puppets, Balinese puppets, krucil puppets (flat puppets made from thin wood), suluh puppets, dupara puppets, alam ma'rifat puppets and suket puppets.

Also on display at the museum are photographs of Banyumas city taken in 1937 at the museum's former location, about 25 kilometers north of the present museum in Purwokerto. Other cultural artifacts include portraits of past leaders of Banyumas regency heads and various antiques and stones.

But despite the wealth of cultural heritage on display, the museum is poorly maintained and poorly attended, according to Wati, who has been the museum's caretaker and visitor guide for 16 years.

She said that, on average during the past five years, the museum received about 1,000 visitors a year. "It would be fair to say that 90 percent of visitors are children from elementary and junior high schools on school trips organized by their teachers," Wati said.

"The statistics on visitor numbers during the past year show that numbers are decreasing," she said. According to the museum's records, in 2005 there were 1,310 visitors. In 2006 this fell to 1,039 visitors and in 2007 to 1,208. In 2008, the museum received only 788 visitors.

"I don't know why there are so few visitors and why the numbers tend to be going down," Wati said. "Maybe too few people like going to museums, or this place is not attractive - I just don't know which."

It is true that, despite its rich and fascinating collection, the museum lacks the space to ensure an enjoyable visit. The puppets are arranged in rows in narrow and musty places, each getting only a small space. The displays seem not to have been well maintained. Indeed, the arrangement of the historical and valuable puppet collection makes the building appear more warehouse than museum.

Yusmanto, the head of the technical unit at the Banyumas regency's Cultural Center, which runs the museum, admitted that the Sendang Mas Museum was not getting enough maintenance.

"We recognize this," Yusmanto told The Jakarta Post at a recent meeting in his office. "During the dozens of years since this museum was established, we've just let things slide. There's been no maintenance because the budget is so limited. I don't know why."

Yusmanto said that the museum had been established and officially opened by the National Indonesian Puppet Secretariat (SENAWANGI) in 1983. Since then, he said, there had been almost no changes, apart from additions to the puppet collection.

"Apart from the various puppets that are in this museum, we also have a collection of various antiques and Java Kuno gamelan. But arranging the displays for maximum effect and to make the place attractive to visitors - these things haven't been done," Yusmanto said. "Maybe this year we'll make reorganization a priority."

He said that in this 2009 budget year, a proposal had been made to the Banyumas regional government to upgrade the area and museum building to make it more attractive, at a cost of around Rp 60 million (US$5,000).

Yusmanto added that in the near future the museum would be actively working with three missions: "in culture, education and tourism".

"The strength of this museum is the complete collection of puppets from various regions and cultures that has been added to over time. But the weakness is that the artifacts are displayed in a room that is still musty," Yusmanto said. "This year we will try to deal with the situation again."