National Museum of the Republic of Indonesia (Museum Gajah)

National Museum of the Republic of Indonesia is one manifestation of European influence, especially the spirit of the Enlightenment, which emerged at about the 18th century. This building was built in 1862 by the Dutch Government under Governor-General JCM Radermacher in response to the association Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen which aims to examine the scientific research in the Netherlands East Indies. The museum was inaugurated in 1868, but the institutional forerunner of this museum was born in 1778, when the formation of Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen by the Dutch government.

The National Museum is known as Museum Gajah since it's given elephant sculpture by King Chulalongkorn from Thailand in 1871. But on May 28, 1979, the name officially became the National Museum of the Republic of Indonesia. Then on February 17, 1962, Indonesia's cultural institutions to manage it, gave the Museum to the government of the Republic of Indonesia. Since then the official museum management by the Directorate General of History and Archaeology, under the Ministry of Education and Culture. But starting in 2005, the National Museum under the management of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Notes on the website of the National Museum of the Republic of Indonesia in 2001 showed that the collection had reached 109,342 units. The number of collections that make this museum is known as the most comprehensive in Indonesia. In 2006 the number of fruit collection has already exceeded 140,000, but only a third that can be disclosed to the public.

Museum Gajah a lot of collecting antiquities from all over the archipelago. Among other things belonging to the collection are ancient statues, inscriptions, other ancient objects and craft items. These collections are categorized into the ethnography, bronze, prehistoric, ceramics, textiles, numismatic, historical relics, and precious objects.

Before building the National Library which is located at Jalan Salemba 27, Central Jakarta was established, Elephant Museum collection includes manuscripts of ancient manuscripts. These texts and collections of the Museum Elephants are kept in the National Library.

Source collection came from archaeological excavations, grants collector since the days of the Dutch East Indies and purchases. Collection of ceramics and Indonesia in the museum's ethnographic collection is the largest and most comprehensive in the world. This museum is the first and largest museum in Southeast Asia.

An interesting collection is the tallest statue Bhairawa Statue at the National Museum with a high 414 cm this is a manifestation of the god Lokeswara or Awalokiteswara, which is the embodiment Boddhisatwa (radiant Buddha) in the earth. This statue of a man standing on the corpse and rows of skulls and holding a cup from the skull in his left hand and a short dagger with his right hand the Arab style, is found in Roco Padang, West Sumatra. It is estimated that the statue came from century to 13-14. The oldest collection of Buddhist statues in the museum is a statue of Buddha made of bronze Dipangkara, stored in a bronze chamber in its own glass box, a different fate with Buddha statues, Hindu statues of the oldest in the archipelago, namely Vishnu Cibuaya (about 4M) is located in the living statue in rock without text labels and hindered by a statue of Ganesha from the temple of Banon.