Denpasar, In the City

Museums around Denpasar

here are many sightseeing objects around Denpasar. Following is a short summary of what museums offer in the capital of Bali.

Museum Bali
Located in the center of Denpasar on Mayor Wisnu Street. Formally opened on December 8, 1932 the Museum now has 13,026 objects, which are exhibited in four buildings consisting of five rooms such as Gedung Timur, Gedung Buleleng, Gedung Karangasem and Gedung Tababan.
Gedung Timur. The first floor exhibits are pre-historic objects from the period of hunting and gathering to the farming and agriculture and more civilized times marked by carpentry. On display are hand axes, seashells, pickaxes, hatchets, bronze axes, sarcophagus and other such interesting items. The second floor is devoted to traditional Balinese technology, which includes building instruments, kitchen utensils, gambling means and agricultural implements.
Gedung Buleleng. This building is a reflection of the northern style of building, most noticeably with the statue of the lion. Traditional Balinese cloths are exhibited here such as songket, gringsing, endek and prada. In general these cloths were used for religious ceremonies such as the rite of passage after puberty, tooth filing and wedding ceremonies and other local customs.
Gedung Karangasem. This long building reflects the construction style in the eastern part of Bali and the exhibits are implements of five types of the ceremonies (Panca Yadnya) such as to the God (Dewa Yadnya), to the dead people (Pitra Yadnya), to the priest (Rsi Yadnya), the life cycle (Manusa Yadnya) and to the magic spirit (Bhuta Yadnya) ceremonies. There are objects exhibited such as pratina, jaggarwari, Jempana, silver water pitcher, pralingga, adegan, pisangjati, kajang, cradle subeng, petitis, sungu and gentrong and much more.
Gedung Tabanan. This received a donation from the King of Tabanan and the southern art of Balinese building style is fully reflected here. Traditional Balinese art tools especially relating to dances such as barong, masks, keris and shadow puppets are on display here.

Le Mayeur Museum
This museum is located at Sanur Beach, on Jalan (Street) Hang Tuah. A Belgian artist, Adrian Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres, who died on 31 May 1958, built this museum in 1944. He was married to a Balinese girl, Ni Pollok, a famous dancer in her time. He stayed in Bali and chose Sanur beach as his residence. Here he built his house and his studio. Le Mayeur expressed his imagination about the beauty of the island of Gods on canvas. His beautiful wife, Ni Pollok, was his source of inspiration as well as his model. She appeared in most of his works, painted in many styles.
Le Mayeur museum is built on a 32-acre piece of land: 2 buildings are in Balinese architecture, ornamented with carvings. The building on the north facing the east coast is named the Bale Pecanangan, while the one on the south, which consists of 5 rooms, is named the Bale Pameran. One of these rooms was Le Mayeur’s bedroom.
In the Bale Pameran, the walls are made of polished plaited bamboo, on which Le Mayeur’s works are displayed. Most of them are dominated by his idol, Ni Pollok. One of her pictures that attracts the visitors’ attention, is the one with Ni Pollok in a tempting style. She is lying on a bamboo platform with her sarong draped above her knee. Her beautiful breasts are free and caressed by the warm sea wind. This is the picture that stuns visitors. There are 88 paintings in the collection; however, though every attempt has been made to preserve them, the colours in some of the paintings have begun to fade.

Sidik Jari Museum
This museum is on Hayam Wuruk Street in Tanjung Bungkak, about 4 km east of the centre of the city on the way to Sanur. The material on display in this museum, owned by I Gusti Ngurah Gde Pemecutan, is truly unique in Bali and not to be found elsewhere. If you have a basic understanding of the Indonesian language, you could be forgiven for thinking that this museum contains the fingerprints (sidik jari = fingerprint) of famous people from throughout the world.
Actually the collection constitutes a body of paintings made by the owner of the museum, using his own fingerprints. And here lies the idiosyncrasy and hence the exclusivity of the place. Despite fingers being the tool of expression, the paintings at the Sidik Jari Museum have a strong Balinese flavour, depicting ceremonial accoutrements, dances, village scenes, and so on. More conventional paintings are also on show at the museum, which also has a studio where visitors can witness the technique of finger painting. (BTN/doc)