NIAS MUSEUM: A GOOD PLACE FOR LEISURE AND TO LEARN NIAS CULTURE
 |
| Pastor Johannes Hammerle with Nias Megalith Handicrafts |
The Nias Heritage Museum is never quiet from the visitors, who come from all walks of life. As an institution that collects cultural and historical items from the ancestors of Nias people, the museum is an interesting place to visit, particularly for foreign tourists, who want to know more about Nias.
Before entering the museum complex located in the center of Gunungsitoli city, visitors are required to pay Rp 2,500 for adults and Rp 1,000 for children. The tariffs have included the parking fees inside the Museum complex.
Established by the Nias Heritage Foundation in 1995, the museum was built on a two-hectare land and keeps some 6,000 collections, starting from jewelry, household equipments, traditional music instruments, statues, replica of Nias traditional house and the products of Nias handicrafts bola nafo (betel vine storage) with a specific motifs, including the giant one measuring 3 x 3 square meters, which is recorded by the Indonesian World of Records Museum (MURI) as the largest betel vine storage in Indonesia.
To help visitors understand the history, the meaning and the function of the collections, each item of the collections, was provided with written explanation both in Indonesian and English.
“The regular maintenance is just wiping the dust from the items. We use certain chemical materials to preserve the collections in the Museum,” said Hezatulõ Nduru (38), who is also known as Ama Elsa Nduru, one of the museum security officers.
The job of the Hezatulõ, who has been working for the museum for about five years, however, is not just to guard and to clean up the collections, but he has also to play traditional music instruments liketutuhao, bamboo music instruments, which is played by striking it).
To enter the display room, the visitors have to pay another Rp 2,000 for adults, Rp 1,000 for school and university students, and Rp 2,000 for foreign visitors. For the sake of the security for the collections, visitors are not allowed to take pictures there. But still some visitors ignore the ban and take pictures when the Museum officers were not around.
The place for leisure and to learn Nias culture
Before entering the museum complex located in the center of Gunungsitoli city, visitors are required to pay Rp 2,500 for adults and Rp 1,000 for children. The tariffs have included the parking fees inside the Museum complex.
Established by the Nias Heritage Foundation in 1995, the museum was built on a two-hectare land and keeps some 6,000 collections, starting from jewelry, household equipments, traditional music instruments, statues, replica of Nias traditional house and the products of Nias handicrafts bola nafo (betel vine storage) with a specific motifs, including the giant one measuring 3 x 3 square meters, which is recorded by the Indonesian World of Records Museum (MURI) as the largest betel vine storage in Indonesia.
To help visitors understand the history, the meaning and the function of the collections, each item of the collections, was provided with written explanation both in Indonesian and English.
“The regular maintenance is just wiping the dust from the items. We use certain chemical materials to preserve the collections in the Museum,” said Hezatulõ Nduru (38), who is also known as Ama Elsa Nduru, one of the museum security officers.
The job of the Hezatulõ, who has been working for the museum for about five years, however, is not just to guard and to clean up the collections, but he has also to play traditional music instruments liketutuhao, bamboo music instruments, which is played by striking it).
To enter the display room, the visitors have to pay another Rp 2,000 for adults, Rp 1,000 for school and university students, and Rp 2,000 for foreign visitors. For the sake of the security for the collections, visitors are not allowed to take pictures there. But still some visitors ignore the ban and take pictures when the Museum officers were not around.
The place for leisure and to learn Nias culture
Different from other museums, the management provides visitors with recreation facilities although its capacity is relatively small. But with those recreation facilities, the visitors could enjoy two different entertainment things by only visiting one place.
Various kinds of Nias traditional clothes, the collections of the Nias Heritage Museum
“We can enjoy our free time with friends here. The distance of this place is not so far (form our residence),” said Amrin Harefa (15), a vocational school student in Gunungsitoli, while gathering with his friends. Amrin said he and his friends often visited the museum, particularly after the school hours.
Other tourist facilities in the museum located on Jl. Yos Sudarso No. 134A, Gunungsitoli city include beach recreation, collections of various rare animals, various Nias specific plants, meeting rooms and a number of Nias traditional houses.
“(The additional facilities) are not designed since the beginning, they were developed one by one to make people stay longer here, particularly for Nias people,” said Nias Heritage Museum President Director Father Yohannes Hämmerle who has been in Nias for 40 years. He is an initiator of the museum.
For the beach recreation, there are a number of supporting facilities like cottages, canteens and bathrooms. The visitors could swim near the beach but they are suggested not to go too far from the beach because there are many rocks and heavy waves in the sea.
For visitors, who could not swim, they could enjoy collections of the museum; watch hundreds of rare animals like deer, mouse deer, parrots, crocodiles, turtles, civets, porcupines, herons and various kinds of other birds. Those animals are mostly the contribution from Nias people. There are also various kinds of Nias endemic rare plants like sinasa (a kind of pandanus), which is material for mats, and fositrees.
“In the old faiths of Nias people, fosi is a tree, which could give signals to certain events. As an example if its branch is broken, it indicates that there is the death of royal family member,” said Nias Heritage Museum Deputy Nata’alui Duha about the sacred tree.
A number of Nias traditional houses were constructed in the museum complex and the visitors, who want to try staying at those traditional houses, are given opportunity to spend the night there by paying maintenance fee of Rp 150,000 per night.
The stone statues in Megalith Era of thousands of years ago are parts of the collections of the Nias Heritage Museums
“We do not call the traditional houses as inns because the main objective of their constructions is to give opportunity to tourisms, particularly foreign tourists to learn about the Nias traditional houses,” said Nata’alui, adding that the maintenance fee exclude the accommodation service.
In the museum, there are two meeting venues with a minimum tariff of Rp 200,000. The two meeting venues are Omo Bale (a specific wooden meeting venue of Bawõmataluo village in South Nias) with a capacity of 60 people and Bintang Timur (East Star) with the capacity of 100 people made up from stone with a curving roofs. This meeting venue was designed to help people inside it to enjoy both sunrise and sunset.
Barometer of Nias culture conservation
The awareness of Nias people to conserve their culture needs to be continuously improved. Various activities carried out by the management of the Nias Heritage Museum are parts of the efforts so that the Nias culture will be always well-conserved.
In a library of the museum with hundreds of book collections about Nias, school and university students as well as general public, including those from outside Nias, could learn deeper about Nias people and their culture.
“The writing materials could affect the people more. Therefore, the existence of this library will gradually give better understanding about Nias culture to the visitors,” said Father Yohannes.
Currently, Nias Heritage Museum in cooperation with the International Labor Organization (ILO) are carrying our renovations to dozens of Nias traditional houses in all over the Nias Islands like those in West Gunungsitoli district in Gunungsitoli city; Hiliserangkai district in Nias regency; Lahõmi district in West Nias regency, and other houses in North and South Nias regencies.
Reference : http://www.nias-bangkit.com/2011/10/nias-museum-a-good-place-for-leisure-and-to-learn-nias-culture/
Post a Comment