Tropen Museum – Amsterdam
A lot of books I have been reading about Indonesia tells me that their main source of information/books comes from The Tropen Museum, Amsterdam. I finally got to visit it the other day.
Tickets are €12 for adult. To visit take tram 9 or 7 from in front of the Centraal Station of Amsterdam.
A very pretty old building from the outside, funnily enough the entrance is a bit hidden, it is not the main big doors but around the corner of the museum.
This museum of the tropics covers parts of the world with rain forests, such as Brazil, Suriname, Philipines and of course Indonesia. It talks about the importance of the rain forests for the world, the interpretation is both in Dutch and English although some of the interactive stuff are only in Dutch.
One of the interactive is a screen that plays the story Kancil and siput in wayang form. The story was told in Dutch. It was a good way of presenting both an Indonesian Storytelling and folklore in an accessible way for Dutch children.
The collection has a lot of items and photos from Indonesia, parts of it seems to have the same types of objects that Museum Gajah has, it is just better presented.
Here are some collections.
Then the bests ones are the old pictures. This one is a chemistry class.
This one is just a usual class in a bamboo shed.
The temporary exhibitions was MixMax Brazil.
MixMax Brazil was made for children to understand more about recycling and how to make things from everyday trash something that looks pretty, like apparently how the squalors in Brazil does.
Very cool exhibition. The cafe is covered with old doors and chairs.
The sofa and the stool are made of plastic bottles.
Walls from egg cartons and floor from t-shirt cuttings.
A wall of left over ribbons, so pretty.
Very interesting museum, I could easily spend a day in the museum, probably do some drawing, but had a lunch date in central Amsterdam, so you know me and food. Can’t say no to good food can I?
Anyway If you’d like to see more images of old pictures of Indonesia, check out my pinterest account.
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My house is pretty nearby! Like 15 minutes by bike. What sad is, they closed the library and the theater since they did not have enough money to fund it. They had amazing concerts, like flamenco or fado concerts in a cozy hall, very intimate and whimsical. Or in 2010, there was Opera Java performing in Tropentheater 🙂 My husband and I went there and we were blown away. Next time you are in Amsterdam, just let me know!
Really? Cool! That’s ashame, they charge for entry though don’t they I wonder why the still not have enough money. Sounds amazing. Do you think there is a possibility of them reviving it? I shall contact you when I am there again.
The maintenance cost and salary for the people who work there were way higher than the income they got from visitors, thus they couldnt cover it. Plus the government stopped subsidizing them due to economy problems. They cut back for paying debts for Greece for example.
Oh I see, in the uk the museums are free and the government support has gone down too. But now they are becoming charity and fundraise for the museums..
I was there 2 weeks ago for the Escher exhibition!
hahaha!! I was there last saturday. Well perhaps one day, we might meet. do you like the museum?
Yes, it was really cool. Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to explore it more.