The annual Museum Week event was back for the third run. The event themed Jalur Rempah or Spice Trail was launched at October 18th, 2015. Installation of Nusantara spice markets was showcased at Museum Nasional Indonesia from 18-21 October and 24-30 October.
The Spice Trail portrayed Nusantara holding a central role of world spice trading history in the past.
“The oldest evidence that Nusantara has been connected to the outside world is cloves inside the jar of a Mesopotamia house in Syria. The cloves are from 1700 B.C and at that time, they only grow in Ternate and Tidore, Maluku,” said historian JJ Rizal on his “Silk Road or Spice Trail?” seminar in this event.
The pleasant smell of spice market and the sight of Nusantara kingdom were brought into the main exhibition room of Museum Nasional Indonesia. Museum’s visitor could experience Nusantara ambience in the past through an hourly tour of Spice Trail provided by Museum Nasional.
In this exhibition, they were taken to the big question about the existence of spice trail through a documentary video. After the video ended, visitors were brought to Barus installation, a big seaport of Sumatera Utara where clove, camphor, sandalwood, and nutmeg were produced. Camphor, the most valuable Barus product, was used for mummies embalming in Egypt.
Sriwijaya Installation
The unique installation of Sriwijaya with many masks symbolized all the people who came to Sriwijaya in the past represented how this Nusantara kingdom controlled the trade traffic at Malacca Strait. Not only controlling the trade route, Sriwijaya also has a Buddhist higher education institution similar to Buddhist institution in Nalanda, India.
We can see international-scale trade in Java and other regions in Syailendra installation with their Chinese and Vietnam ceramics discovery in big quantities; Kahuripan installation with their Kambang Putih port for international trading; and Banten installation with their port and market as the center of pepper transaction.
Ternate and Tidore installation, which were the only lands in the world that produces clove, seemed to tell the visitor how brave their leader defended their kingdom from European kingdom that tried to monopolize clove trading.
Spice Trail also played with visitors’ emotion in The Dark Era installation, the era when many kingdoms of Nusantara were colonized and humiliated. The Enlightenment installation which shows that Indonesia now a free and independent country did not left us relieved. Instead, it left us with a big question, QUO VADIS Indonesian Spices?
Fruitful Discussions and Unforgettable Feasts
Numerous discussions were held in this event. From seminar about the existence of spice trail in “Silk Road or The Spice Trail presented by Azyumardi Azra, Hasan Jafar, and JJ Rizal; the spice in Indonesian food in “Spice and the Cuisine of the Indonesian Archipelago” presented by Amanda Katili Niode, Rahung Nasution, and Putu Fajar Arcana; to a hot discussion in “Spice and Sex” presented by Zoya Amirin, H. Saefuddin, and Jajang Gunawan.
“Spices are foundation of Indonesian food. It is also because of the spice trade that now we know many cooking technique,” said Rahung Nasution.
In order to grow Indonesian’s affection to their own spices, Museum Nasional also held some spice feast. From the land of Tapanuli, Rahung Nasution hosted Horja Mangupa-upa, an exotic 4-course-dinner as a gratitude to God. From Bangka Belitung, Kampong Bangka hosted Bedulang, a traditional dinner that usually held in Islamic feast. Suwe Ora Jamu and Sepotong Kue also presented Jagongan, a “kongkow” or chit chat session accompanied with Indonesian food and light bites.
Tags: jalur rempah, the spice trail, rempah indonesia, indonesian spice