The Multatuli Museum ( id, Museum Multatuli) is a museum located in

Rangkasbitung Rangkasbitung (Sundanese: ) (colloquially called Rangkas) is a town which is the administrative centre of Lebak Regency, in Banten Province of Java, Indonesia. It had a population of 134,945 at the 2020 Census, while the official estimate as at ...

Banten Banten ( id, Banten; Sundanese: , romanized ''Banten'') is the westernmost province on the island of Java, Indonesia. Its capital city is Serang. The province borders West Java and the Special Capital Region of Jakarta on the east, the Java Se ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. Its focus is the author

Multatuli Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 182019 February 1887), better known by his pen name Multatuli (from Latin ''multa tulī'', "I have suffered much"), was a Dutch writer best known for his satirical novel ''Max Havelaar'' (1860), which denounced the a ...

(Edward Douwes Dekker), who lived in the area in the 1850s and used it as the basis for his famous anti-colonial novel ''

Max Havelaar ''Max Havelaar; or, The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company'' ( nl, Max Havelaar; of, De koffi-veilingen der Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappy) is an 1860 novel by Multatuli (the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker), which played a key role ...

''. The museum also examines

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

colonial history, the anti-colonial movement, and the local history of Rangkasbitung. There is another Multatuli Museum in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

which houses many of the author's personal papers.

History

Discussions about opening a Multatuli Museum in Rangkasbitung began in the 2010s, with the support of Bonnie Triyana, a historian with roots in the area, as well as teacher Ubaidilah Muchtar, architect Bambang Eryudhawan, and

Tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

journalist Kurie Suditomo.

, whose real name was Edward Douwes Dekker, was a Dutch colonial official who was Assistant

Resident Resident may refer to: People and functions * Resident minister, a representative of a government in a foreign country * Resident (medicine), a stage of postgraduate medical training * Resident (pharmacy), a stage of postgraduate pharmaceuti ...

in Lebak for a brief period in 1856, before he clashed with his superiors and returned to Europe. Some of the injustice of the colonial society which he witnessed there were portrayed in his famous novel ''

''. The museum was opened in February 2018; it is operated by

Lebak Regency Lebak Regency is a regency of Banten province, Indonesia. It is located on the island of Java. The regency has an area of 3,305.072 km2 and had a population of 1,204,095 at the 2010 census and 1,386,793 at the 2020 census; the official estima ...

, the local district-level government. It is located in a 1923 building off Rangkasbitung Square that had originally been the office of the (a type of colonial official). Although the museum is not officially affiliated with the Multatuli Museum in Amsterdam, it did receive collection items from that museum in preparation for opening. The museum attempts to incorporate the sensory experience of export products such as coffee to immerse the visitor in the nineteenth century plantation economy portrayed by Multatuli, as well as examining colonial history and the publication of Multatuli's novel. The museum also contains sculptures of Multatuli and characters from his novel by sculptor Dolorosa Sinaga. In its inaugural year the museum also hosted a cultural festival ( id, Festival Seni Multatuli). The museum was forced to close during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and reopened in early 2022.

References

{{Reflist Lebak Regency Museums in Banten History museums in Indonesia 2018 establishments in Indonesia