Ullen Sentalu Museum, Yogyakarta

One man's homage to Javanese culture, the Ullen Sentalu Museum offers a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the women of the royal courts.

In the village of Kaliurang, on the slopes of Mount Merapi, is Ullen Sentalu Museum, arguably the most fascinating museum in the Yogyakarta area. Built about seven years ago, the museum of Javanese art and culture is exceptionally well presented, interesting and informative.

Ullen Sentalu Museum with beautiful design

In the higher altitude location of Kaliurang, 26 kilometers from Yogyakarta, the air is cool and fresh. The buildings of the complex are architecturally designed and built from local stone, sheltered by trees and featuring walkways over water, large courtyard spaces and gardens. You will be escorted around the complex by an English-speaking guide, after first being welcomed with a cup of delicious spicy tea made to the special recipe invented by the wife of a past sultan of Surakarta.

The Ullen Sentalu Museum is privately owned by Thomas Haryonagoro, a retired businessman, who expressed his immense love and appreciation of his own culture by investing his savings in this homage to the traditions of Java and now is managed by Ulating Blencong Foundation. It is a ‘labor of love’ – not making a profit, but not necessarily intended to. He wants to give something back to Java, the land of his birth, the homeland he loves. Thomas also has hopes that he can interest schools in bringing students tot hemuseum to study and learn about he richness of Javanese culture.

A newer addition is the Art Deco style Beukenhof Restaurant. As you climb the strais and enter this quiet and classy space, the atmosphere of times gone by washes over you, transporting you back to an era when life was time to sense and savor it.

A particularly unusual and endearing feature of the museum is the special attention paid to the wives of the sultans and other notable women of Java. At the Yogyakarta Kraton and other museums, the sultans get all the attention and women are all but ignored. Special permission had to be acquired from the Yogyakarta court to give this equal focus to the women of the royal courts, and was granted because Kaliurang was deemed to be far enough outside Yogyarakta that this breach of usual tradition could be permitted.

Some of the consorts of past sultans of Surakarta and Yogyakarta have been beautiful, intelligent, well educated and accomplished women in their won right, whose presence was much sought after in high society circles in Europe. Visiting Ullen Sentalu may well be the only time you ever hear of them today.

In the museum, you can see historical photographs of the palace as well as other interesting images of people and events during the colonial era. There are various artifacts, and many oil paintings, including painted portraits of various sultans and also their wives. Carefully displayed in glass cabinets are the actual items of clothing being worn in the portraits.

There is also a batik museum where you can compare examples of the batik style of Yogyakarta and Surajarta, and also batiks exhibiting Chinese influence from the northern coastal towns of java. For the serious student of traditional textiles, this museum is a must. The final part of the escorted tour takes you to a room where the traditional Javanese wedding garb is displayed and explained. Every item has a meaning and it is beautiful to delve into these old traditions.

All the exhibits are fascinating and the visitor is rewarded with a deeper appreciation of the depth and refinement of Javanese culture, which is sometimes hard to find amongst the razzamatazz of Sosro, Malioboro and Prawirotaman.

It is well worth the trip to Kaliurang, if only to visit Ullen Sentalu, but there are many other things there to enjoy. You can walk around the nearby tourist village of Sambi, or you can check into one of the many small hotels and stay the night at Gunung Merapi. And the energetic tourist can climb Merapi with a guide.

Ullen Sentalu Museum is situated at Taman Kaswargan, Jl. Boyong, with a signpost on the main road where you must turn off the left approaching the village of Kaliurang.
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 9am-4pm (closed on Monday)
Telp: 0274-895161