IHS Explorers Day

The new season for the Indonesian Heritage Society began at the end of September. One of the first events was an All Explorer morning at the Museum Nasional. If you remember, the Explorer group members take turns planning field trips to all sorts of events and venues.

First we were treated to 3 different traditional dances, two were Betawi (Java)) and the third was from Bali.

Some of you will be able to view these short videos of the dancers. Some small, hand-held devices won't support the video.

Next there was a discussion of the Wallace Line. I won't go into details here but if you are curious, do some research- see the link below. In the meantime, here's a hint:

We've been to Bali so now I am really curious to travel to Lombok. Unfortunately, there is a little volcano that's been erupting and causing travel disruptions to and from Bali and Lombok of late, so that particular trip will need to wait a bit. To help you in your research about the Wallace Line, Project Guttenberg has both volumes of The Malay Archipelago available for free online or to download I believe. Here's the direct link to Volume I:   http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2530/2530-h/2530-h.htm . At the end of the text is a link for the second volume. This is by no means a light read, but the subject is fascinating.

After this talk, the large group of Explorers was divided into small groups of 6-8 and took off with our tour leader. It seems strange to me, but they kept switching tour leaders every few minutes. One leader spoke for less than 5 minutes then we were traded to someone else. Perhaps this is due to the guides having a special focus on certain areas but for me it seemed a little chaotic. Also, while the children's tours I witnessed did seem to stay together and obey their guide, my group of adults kept wandering away. Like trying to herd cats.

I like this museum but I think I prefer roaming through it without a guide. You do pick up a few interesting tidbits from the guides but I like going at my own pace.  My favorite room is probably the room with mock-ups of the various traditional housing found throughout the archipelago.

There is also an enormous collection of porcelain and ceramics, mostly from China. All of it was imported to the islands and was part of an enormous collection (or maybe more than one) obtained by the museum. I learned why the Chinese began using blue and white themes. Apparently, it has nothing to do with a Chinese preference for blue and white. There is also a very small exhibit of local ceramics which were mostly hand molded without any glazing or added decoration.