David Archuleta visits the "Elephant Museum" of Jakarta, Really Cool...

Yes, David Archuleta - American Idol 2008 runner-up - was in Jakarta in order to promote his new album on Asia tour, The Other Side of Down. He sang so beautifully in front of thousands of spectators, mostly teenage girls for about two hours on stage Teens Concert 2011, Saturday, July 16, 2011 night at the Lapangan D Senayan, Jakarta.

He was happy in Jakarta, his first visit in front of fans. David Archuleta writes on his twitter account, @DavidArchie, "Just went to the Elephant Museum and learned about some Indonesian culture and history. Really cool..."

So, what is the Elephant Museum, yes a museum owned by the Indonesian government which was built in 1862 by the Dutch Government under the Governor-General JCM Radermacher (wikipedia.org)

The Museum several times moved to several places, among others, when Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1811-1816) who served as Director of Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen ordered the construction of a new building located on Jalan Majapahit 3. Then by the Dutch East Indies government the building was moved again to new premises at Jalan Merdeka Barat 12.

Why the name Elephant Museum? Sure there are stories in there, when King Chulalongkorn of Thailand, 1871 presented a bronze elephant statue, elephant museum community then named it, although the official name of this building since 1979 is the National Museum of the Republic of Indonesia which is managed by the Directorate General of History and Archaeology.

The collection of ancient objects that reach more than 140,000 pieces, which are grouped to the ethnography goods, bronzes, prehistoric objects, including ancient manuscripts, ceramics, textiles, numismatic, historical relics and other valuables.

David Archuleta had time to observe one of the collections of sculpture in there on the advice of the museum management, which Bhirawa Statue, a statue which stands out because it looks very high, 414 cm as a manifestation of Avalokiteswara, as the embodiment of Bodhisattvas (Buddhist light on earth). Fascinating!

Excited and he wanted to come back to Jakarta!

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(Various sources /Image CC)