An oasis of beauty and tranquility in the bustling Tanah Abang district of Jakarta, the Museum Tekstil Jakarta offers visitors a captivating window into the world of traditional Indonesian textiles. The Museum’s main building, a graceful early-19th-century structure with Tuscan columns and fluted pilasters, was once used as headquarters of the Pioneer Youth Front and the Civil Defense Force in the struggle to defend Indonesia's newly proclaimed independence. Today this national monument houses display rooms where rotating exhibitions showcase textiles from the museum’s own collection or those of private collectors. The museum also periodically exhibits the work of national and international textile artists.
In 1976, at a time when Indonesia’s textile traditions were in decline,
leading Indonesians banded together under the leadership of then Governor of
Jakarta, Ali Sadikin, in order to conserve Indonesia’s textile tradition and
encourage public appreciation of this vital part of Indonesia’s cultural
heritage. The collection, which comprises some 2800 valuable and rare textiles
from all over Indonesia, got its start when members of Himpunan Wastraprema
(Society of Textile Lovers) donated 500 high-value textiles from their private
collections.Next to the Muesum Tekstil’s main building is the Batik Gallery, which was opened on October 2, 2010, exactly one year after UNESCO recognized Indonesian batik as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In the Batik Gallery, visitors can admire classic and contemporary batiks belonging to Yayasan Batik Indonesia and its members. Each room focuses on a particular area of batik production in Indonesia.
