Museum Malang Tempo Doeloe

If you go on a holiday in Malang, you really should visit Museum Malang Tempo Doeloe. It’s a small but nice museum about Malang throughout the years, from the time of the Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms to the present day.

The first few parts of the museum are about Malang at the time of Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms, when Malang was a part of a small Hindu kingdom Kanjuruhan in the sixth century, until it became a part of the vast Hindu-Buddhist empire Majapahit in late thirteenth century.

You can see some artefacts from that era, and you can also go downstairs and learn a bit about excavation process.

  

Here are some other artefacts at the museum. On the left you can see some piggy banks from more than 700 years ago and on the right you can see some other wares from the same era.

  

The next parts are about Malang during the colonial times. There is a collection of drawings from the eighteenth century….

… and some photographs of Malang from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

  

Next areas are about Malang from the time of Japanese occupation, independence, all the way to the present day.

Oh no! Papai and Carla are in a Japanese prison!

There is a big collection of Japanese propaganda magazine covers there. It made me a bit sad to see the smiling faces of the Indonesian people on many of those magazine covers, knowing what was going to happen next.

What we like about the museum, apart from being very interesting and informative, is that it is totally interactive. Carla and Renan enjoyed playing with the old typewriter and the masks….

  

….smelling the herbs and spices…..

….experimenting with the traditional musical instruments….

… and they had so much fun playing with the traditional toys.

 

You can also play dress-up! If you look closely at the left side of this picture, there is a collection of traditional Javanese costumes and accessories… Too bad the smallest ones were still too big for Carla and Renan.

Carla and Renan is seen making batik cloth here…. Actually they were just tracing the patterns… But the museum does offer batik making classes. You can ask one of the staff about joining the class.

The museum is located next to a restaurant called Inggil. In fact, the founder of this private museum is the owner of the restaurant. You might want to have lunch or dinner there, they serve traditional Javanese dishes with very reasonable prices. The restaurant is like a museum too, with many old posters and pictures, also relics from days past.

Museum Malang Tempo Doeloe

Jl. Gajahmada 2, Malang

Entrance fee: Rp. 15,000

Opening time: 8 am-5 pm