WAYANG MUSEUM
Jl. Pintu Besar Utara no. 27, Jakarta
Tel: 021 692 9560 / 692 7289

Situated to the west of the Jakarta History Museum, this colonial building was originally a church. But the church building was once totally destroyed by an earthquake. Than the Bataviasche Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen (Batavia Society of Arts and Sciences), dealing with science and Indonesian culture bought this building. This building was then delivered by this institution to the Stichting Oud Batavia (Old Batavia Foundation) and on 22 December 1939.

It was made a museum under the name of Oude Bataviasche Museum (Old Batavia Museum). In 1957 this building was delivered to Lembaga Kebudayaan Indonesia (Institute of Indonesian Culture), and on 17 September 1962 it was delivered to the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia, which later was delivered to the DKI Jakarta Administration on 23 June 1968 to be made Shadow Puppet Museum. The inauguration was carried out on 13 August 1975. The Puppet (commonly known as wayang) it self, 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. The development history brings Indonesian shadow puppet to become a tradition, that it has been capable to hold out in the supporting community consisting of various elements.

Visitors of this Museum are invited to know various characters, attitude and behavior of the story from various regions through the performance of shadow puppet that has weight of high value in Indonesia culture and viewing a number of collections of puppet like wayang kulit, wayang golek, patung wayang, topeng wayang, wayang beber, wayang kaca, gamelan (traditional music instrument set) as well as wayang paintings. These rich collections of Museum Wayang are came from Sumatera, Java, Bali, Lombok, South Kalimantan, Malaysia, China, Kampuchea and Thailand. The shadow Puppet museum is one of the active museums in Indonesia. Every month, at least three puppet shows from many region are held for public. This museum is open daily from 8.30am – 2pm. Except Monday, Friday to 11am, Saturday to 1pm, Sunday to 3pm.