Built in 1778, but inaugurated in 1868, the National Museum is considered to be the oldest museum in Indonesia.
If you went to school at an Indonesian public school in Jakarta, the National Museum shouldn’t be such a stranger to you since this museum is a popular destination for school excursions. This museum is also sometimes called “Museum Gajah” (elephant museum) because of the elephant statue in front of the building. The statue was a gift from King Chulalongkorn of Thailand in 1871.
But actually, the museum curator told me that they are trying to get rid of this “nickname” since some tourists have complained about not seeing anything related to elephants inside the museum :) In reality, the museum holds ancient Indonesian artifacts & relics that date as far back as the Stone Age.
Before 2007, the museum consisted only of 1 building : “Gedung Gajah” (elephant building), which is the building that has the elephant statue in front of it. However since June 2007, the museum has completed the building of “Gedung Arca” (Arca building), which is on the left side of Gedung Gajah.
For those of you who are interested in the historical aspects of Indonesian culture, please visit this museum.