Balaputradeva Museum (Indonesian Museum Balaputera Dewa), officially the State Museum of South Sumatra Province "Balaputradeva", is an

ethnographic museum Ethnographic museums conserve, display and contextualize items relevant to the field of ethnography, the systematic study of people and cultures. Such museums include: List by country/region Albania * Ethnographic Museum of Kavajë, * Gjirokast� ...

located in Southern Sumatra's capital

Palembang Palembang () is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River on the eastern lowland of southern Sumatra. It had a population of 1,668,848 at the 2020 Census. Palembang ...

. The museum is the state museum of the Province of

South Sumatra South Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Selatan) is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southeast of the island of Sumatra, The province spans and had a population of 8,467,432 at the 2020 Census. The capital of the province is Palembang. The pro ...

. The name ''Balaputradeva'' is derived from

Balaputra Balaputradewa was the maharaja of Srivijaya in the 9th century CE as well as the former head of the Sailendra dynasty. He was the youngest son of the preceding Sailendran maharaja, Samaratunga, through marriage with Dewi Tara who was in turn the d ...

, a 9th century sovereign of

Srivijaya Srivijaya ( id, Sriwijaya) was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th t ...

kingdom and the former head of the

Sailendra The Shailendra dynasty (, derived from Sanskrit combined words ''Śaila'' and ''Indra'', meaning "King of the Mountain", also spelled Sailendra, Syailendra or Selendra) was the name of a notable Indianised dynasty that emerged in 8th-century ...

dynasty whose main center was located in the vicinity of Palembang. Balaputradeva Museum displays the history and traditions of the province of South Sumatra.

Description

Balaputradeva Museum is one of the so-called State Museums of Indonesia, representing each province in Indonesia. Construction of the museum started in 1978 and the building was inaugurated on 5 November 1984. The decision to name it "Balaputradeva" is based on the 9th century Indian sovereign

who was recorded in an

inscription Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

discovered in

Nalanda Nalanda (, ) was a renowned ''mahavihara'' (Buddhist monastic university) in ancient Magadha (modern-day Bihar), India.India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The Nalanda inscription mentions his connection with the building of a Buddhist monastery under his sponsorship. The second mention of his name is found in a 9th-century Javanese inscription which relates his defeat in Java to

Rakai Pikatan Rakai Pikatan was a king of the Sanjaya dynasty Mataram Kingdom in Central Java who built the Prambanan temple, dedicated to Shiva, which was completed in 856 AD. Rakai Pikatan was also called Mpu Manuku. The monarch of the Mataram Kingdom before ...

, a ruler of the

Sanjaya dynasty The Sanjaya dynasty () was an ancient Javanese dynasty that ruled the Mataram kingdom in Java during the first millennium CE. The dynasty was an active promoter of Hinduism in ancient Java. Origin and formation According to the Canggal inscri ...

, which prompted Balaputra to leave Java to settle in what is now

Collection

Balaputradeva Museum houses traditional crafts and artifacts discovered in the Province of South Sumatra, from the prehistoric era to the Dutch colonial period. The collection is showcased in three main exhibition rooms described below. Balaputradeva State Museum is one of the three local public collections of Sriwijayan artifacts, the other is the

Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Museum Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Museum is a municipal museum in Palembang, Indonesia. The museum is established inside a 19th-century building former of the office of the colonial resident of South Sumatra. The building also houses the tourist departme ...

and the

Sriwijaya Kingdom Archaeological Park Srivijaya archaeological park ( id, Taman Purbakala Kerajaan Sriwijaya), formerly known as Karanganyar archaeological site, is the ancient remnants of a garden and habitation area near the northern bank of Musi river within Palembang vicinity, S ...

Megalith section

The megalithic culture in South Sumatra was centered in the highlands of Pagaralam, in the

Barisan Mountains The Bukit Barisan or the Barisan Mountains are a mountain range on the western side of Sumatra, Indonesia, covering nearly 1,700 km (1,050 mi) from the north to the south of the island. The Bukit Barisan range consists primarily of volca ...

on the west side of South Sumatra. In the highlands, 22 megalithic culture sites were discovered. Some examples of artifacts displayed in this section are megalithic statues of a mother carrying a child; statues of people riding a buffalo; and statues of men coiled by snake.

Sriwijaya section

The Sriwijaya section contains items related to the

, the Malay Buddhist kingdom centered in the city of Palembang. Artifacts found in this room are pottery crafts, beads, metal cast objects, and inscriptions. Most of the inscriptions are replicas, the originals are mostly housed in the

National Museum A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...

in Jakarta or in the

. Examples of the inscription replicas displayed in the Balaputradeva Museum are the 7th century

Kedukan Bukit The Kedukan Bukit inscription is an inscription discovered by the Dutchman C.J. Batenburg on 29 November 1920 at Kedukan Bukit, South Sumatra, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), on the banks of Tatang River, a tributary of Musi River. It is th ...

, Telaga Batu, Kota Kapur, Talang Tuwo, Boom Baru, Kambang Unglen I, Kambang Unglen II, and the Siddhayatra inscriptions. This section also displays Hindu-Buddhist statues from the period.

Palembang Sultanate section

This section features relics from the 18th-century

Palembang Sultanate The Sultanate of Palembang Darussalam (كسلطانن ڤلامبڠ دارالسلام) is a sultanate in Indonesia whose capital was the city of Palembang in the southern part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It was proclaimed in 1659 by ''Sus ...

period e.g.

songket ''Songket'' is a ''Tenun'' fabric that belongs to the brocade family of textiles of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. It is hand-woven in silk or cotton, and intricately patterned with gold or silver threads. It is hand-woven in ...

looms and clothes. Among the most notable songket in the collection is the six-meter songket cloth with ''Naga Besaung'' motifs. Other collections displayed include Palembang wooden carvings e.g. couches, chairs, and doors in traditional carvings. The courtyard features a traditional Palembang's rumah limas and South Sumatran rumah ulu.

References

Cited works

* * {{Authority control Ethnographic museums in Indonesia Palembang Buildings and structures in South Sumatra Tourist attractions in South Sumatra