Mpu Tantular

Sidoarjo is known to as a delta city because it is located between 2 major rivers from the Brantas river, namely, the Mas River and the Porong River. However, one of the places that I will explain is the Mpu Tantular museum which is located in the Buduran sub-district, Sidoarjo, East Java.

On the other hand Sidoarjo which is known as an industrial area. The tourist can visit one of the educational tours, namely the Mpu Tantular Museum. This museum is located in Buduran sub-district, Sidoarjo, East Java. The Mpu Tantular Museum was built in 1933 by the cultural institution Stedelijk Historisch Museum Soerabaia by Godfried Hariowald von Faber, a German citizen of Surabaya. From the construction of this cultural institution which became the forerunner of the history of the Mpu Tantular Museum, it was inaugurated on July 25, 1937.

The museum, formerly the Stedelijk Historisch Museum Soerabaia, on November 1, 1974 officially became the East Java State Museum of Mpu Tantular. The inauguration received a handover from R. Banu Iskandar to the Director General of Culture, Prof. Dr. I.B. spell. The name of the Mpu Tantular museum is taken from the name of a famous poet during the reign of King Hayam Wuruk. One of his famous works is the Kakawin Sutasoma Book because half a stanza from this kakawin has become Indonesia's national motto: Bhineka Tunggal Ika. The name Mpu Tantular has its own meaning, Mpu is a title and it means an intelligent person, while Tantular means uninfected, unaffected, undeviated, unchanging.

The collection of the "Mpu Tantular" Museum is approximately 15,000 pieces which are classified into the collections of Geology, Biology, Ethnography, Archeology, History, Numismatics, Heraldry, Philology, Ceramics, Fine Arts and Technology. The collections exhibited in the permanent exhibition room of the museum consist of collections from Prehistoric, Classical (Hindu-Buddhist), Islamic, Colonial and Modern times, including the science and technology collection. Because the collection of the Mpu Tantular Museum continues to grow, the location of the museum has moved from its original location three times. The Mpu Tantular Museum was first located on Jalan Pemuda, then in 1975 it moved to Jalan Taman Mayangkara. Then in 2004, they moved to Jalan Raya Buduran, Sidoarjo. In addition, the location of the Mpu Tantular museum is in two points, namely in Surabaya and Sidoarjo. The museum collection in Sidoarjo focuses on culture, while in Surabaya it focuses on history.

To visit the museum, tourists should pay around Rp. 3,000. In addition, the museum has an area of 3 hectares which contains exhibitions of pre-historic times such as the era of the Majapahit kingdom, in the form of ancient money, fossils, and the history of Majapahit. There is also a diverse collection of weapons, honours, ceramics, and ethnographic objects. This is marked by the early entry of Europeans to Indonesia in the early 15th century. On the other hand, this museum has a collection of mostly Buddhist and Hindu statues such as the Ganesha statue, the Durga Mahesasuramardhini statue, the Shiva statue, and so on.

In addition, outside the Mpu Tantular museum there are street vendors. They sell in front of the museum gate, so that visitors can buy snacks when hungry or thirsty. The price offered is also friendly in the pocket of students. Most of those who visited the museum were schoolchildren with different backgrounds, ranging from kindergarten to elementary school children. So, parents need not fret when their children are hungry or thirsty.