Museum Tekstil – A Collection of Indonesian Traditional Fabrics

Indonesia has many beautiful traditional fabrics. Almost each province has its own traditional fabric and textile, with different pattern, colors, and meaning. If you really want to understand the beauty of Indonesian traditional fabrics, you don’t need to go to all 34 provinces in Indonesia. You only need to visit and enjoy the textile collections at Museum Tekstil (Textile Museum) Jakarta.

Museum Tekstil Jakarta was founded in 1976, pioneered by Jakarta Governor at that time, Ali Sadikin. It was established to give respect for Ms Tien Soeharto (President Soeharto’s former wife) and opened in 28 June 1976.

Currently there are 2,350 collections of fabrics at Museum Tekstil. Here you can observe the patterns, textures, materials and even the coloring. And the most interesting thing is that you can enjoy the fabric collections from Sabang to Merauke.

The main building of Museum Tekstil (display room) is the biggest building in Museum Tekstil complex and used for textile exhibitions, which displays both museum’s collections as well as designers’ collections. The collection in this building rotates periodically, so visitor can find different collections every time they visit the museum.

Here you also can visit Galeri Batik (Batik Gallery), which was established exactly after 1 year UNESCO acknowledged Batik as world heritage art—2 October 2010. The gallery is designed to display ancient and contemporary Batik collections over the years. If you are a Batik lover, you will not want to miss this gallery!

Here you also can learn more about the techniques of fabric making.

In the museum’s garden you can learn about the plants that are used to color traditional fabrics, such as African Tulip tree, Caesarweed, and many more. There is also an Introduction to Wastra room, where you can see the weaving tools from various provinces in Indonesia, information about materials and the process of making traditional fabrics. You can also try to operate weaving tools in this room!

To really understand Batik you have to try your hand at it.

At Museum Tekstil you can join Batik workshop at Pendopo Batik. You only need to pay Rp 40.000 (for domestic visitors) or Rp 75.000 (for foreign visitors) to join the workshop, and make your own Batik fabric. Of course, you can bring your Batik home as the tangible proof that you love Batik. In addition, the museum also provides different courses and training such as Natural Dye courses, Ikat-Celup (Jumputan) course, Sequence application, Silk Painting, Embroidery and creating textile patterns on pottery.

The entry fee for the  museum is Rp5.000 (for adults) and Rp2.000 for children. Don’t forget to visit this museum from Tuesday to Sunday (9am to 3pm), as it is closed during Mondays and public holidays.

Enjoy your journey to know about Indonesian traditional fabrics at Museum Tekstil!

Museum Tekstil

Jl. Aipda KS Tubun No.2-4 Jakarta Pusat
Telp: (021) 560 6613
Fax : (021) 565 4401