Labsky's Finest History: Memories from Geology Museum

Geology Museum in Bandung

Introduction

When I was in my 10th grade, I went to Bandung in which is part of my School’s Field Trip along with my fellow school friend. After I went to many interesting places in Bandung, like the Weapon Factory that the army of Indonesia produced their weapon, artificial insemination workshop in Lembang that we have the chance to see one of the unique ways to having a best kind of breed, and finally the Geology Museum that inside contain all information about geology history in Indonesia.

The Geology Museum is located in Dipenogoro Street, Bandung. As one of the historical building, this museum has the protection of the government of Indonesia and is one of the nation artifacts. In this museum, it’s stores all the rich geology materials, such as fossils, stones, minerals, etc. All of them were collected during fieldwork in Indonesia since 1850.

History

First, let’s talk the history of the museum shall we? It was founded in 1928 when it was first used by the occupancies of the Netherland back then that needed to have a kind of place that have a further research of Geology. The museum was originally named the Geologisch Laboratorium before the Netherlands government changed it into Geologisch Museum. It was architected by a Dutch engineer named Menalda van Schouwenburg. The style of the building is followed by an Art Deco style. It was build for 11 months with approximately 300 workers and it spends for 400 gulden. The building was built in 1928 and finished on 16 Mei 1929. The opening of the museum was design to be planned same date as the Pacific Science Congress that held on 18-24 Mei 1929.

After the independence of Indonesia, the ownership is changed from Netherlands government into Indonesia Government. In the effort of to maintain our independence era in 1945-1949, the museum had in the hand of the Netherland for a while. But because of our brave spirits of our hero, the museum was retaken again in 1950.After that, the museum started to attracted attention for the Indonesian government and in 1960, the museum had became public attention because the arrival of president Soekarno.

With the fast changing of the modern era, the museum then received a help from the Japanese government for about 754,45 million Yen for rejuvenation and renovation. It was closed temporarily for about 1 year and re-opened on 20th August 2000. The president at that time, Megawati Soekarnoputri led the opening followed by the minister of energy and mineral at that time, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The Trip

The Geology Museum itself seperates in three parts. The first parts in the right side of the building contain all the fossils from the stone age in Indonesia. The second parts which is located in the left side of the building contains the information of minerals and stones in Indonesia. The last part is located in the second floor.

Because I have an interest in dinosaurs, we’ll start at the fossil section first. When you enter this section, a giant Tyrannosaurs Rex will welcome you! But don’t worry, it’s just only the skeleton. Although the skeleton is just an imitation too, because none of fossil dinosaurs founded in Indonesia, it has the same comparison of the real dinosaurs. Other than dinosaurs, you’ll see some fossil that was founded in Indonesia. Commonly, it was founded in Sangiran, an area in east Java. Why in Sangiran ? Because in Sangiran once was a paradise to prehistoric mammals. You can see ancient fossils of a prehistoric turtles, bulls, ancient giant elephant, and even mini elephant. The mini elephant fossil was founded in Flores. You can see clearly why it’s called the mini elehphant. It was so tiny that I can barely recognize it as an elephant. I thought it was a goat for the first time lol.

In the other side of the sections, you can see some human fossil exhibited. It ranges from prehistoric human to modern age human. Some shiver felt me when I came this part, because being watched by a numerous of skeletons is an unpleasant experience to have lol. One of my remembered fossils in here is the Homo Erectus. Maybe it’s the most recognized human fossil in the history class lol because it was famous in some pages. Now I can witness the fossil itself.

Moving on to the next section is the mineral section. Like the dinosaurs fossil from the last section, you will be welcomed by some of the fragment of an asteroid. It was kind a big and strange looking-shape for a stone. There are no rough edges in the asteroids. It was explained that the extreme heat and temperature when it hits the atmosphere of the earth made the stone like that. Other than the asteroid’s, you’ll see some exhibition of stones that collected around the world. Some of was found in Indonesia, Australia, Philippine, Africa, and many more. Other than stones, there are some kind known minerals that exhibit this section, like nickel, copper, iron, silver, even some crystallite. Most unfortunate is some of this exhibits were screwed by an act of vandalism. You can see some of the stones and mineral was scratch by some disrespectful person.

Next section is the second floor. All of this section focuses on how the mankind exploit the mineral to used it in daily life. You can see some of marvelous engineering is shown in the exhibits. The one that caught me is the mockups of one of the famous gold company, the Freeport. It explain the transportation and the area of Freeport work-area in Papua, from how they manage to find the exploit area, transported it, and then be processed. You can see too that the area is near to one of the tallest peak in Indonesia, the Puncak Jaya.

After the last section, our group has a chance to get in one of the auditorium of the museum. For a museum, it is well equipped for an auditorium. The museum then played one of a documenter film of how the earth was formed. It was entertaining yet boring.. Boring because I have seen this documenter before lol.

Admission

It is surprising that the entrance of Geology Museum is free-ticket or it’s free of ticket charge. You are free to bring a documentation property. For the parking ticket, it is normal like other parking ticket. Cars: Rp2000,00, Motorcycle: Rp1500,00, and Bus is Rp5000,00. The museum opens from Tuesday to Saturday from 9 am to 3.30 pm. It closes on Mondays.

Accommodation

The most spotted accommodation in this museum is the exhibit room and the auditorium. The exhibit room is well cleaned and placed, so you can easily understand what are the exhibit is trying to explain you. The other plus-value is the auditorium. It is well accommodated with surround sound, wide screen, comfy chair, etc. Sadly it is open only for groups, not individual. Oh yeah, there's a cafeteria and a souvenir shop near the entrance.

Verdict

Overall the museum is nice even there’s no ticket or it’s free for the visitor. Unfortunately, the exhibit only contains of 30% of all the collection the museum have because the lack of the space that the museum had. It is so unfortunate because if all of the collection is exhibited in the museum, it will bring more potential to the visitor who wants to go to The Geology Museum. The rest of the collection is stored in the museum warehouse. Even though, it’s a must to have a little visit to this nice museum :D