Bengkulu Museum, State museum in Bengkulu City, Indonesia
Bengkulu Museum is a state museum at Jalan Pembangunan No. 8 in Padang Harapan, Bengkulu City, standing on a 9,974 m² site. Its collection covers the traditional cultures of Bengkulu's ethnic groups, from wedding costumes and traditional weapons to Enggano woven cloth and besurek textiles.
The museum was originally established elsewhere and relocated to its current location in 1983. State museum status was granted a few years later, establishing its role as an important regional institution.
Besurek cloth is cotton made with a batik-like technique, and its motifs resemble Arabic calligraphy without forming readable words. The museum also holds woven cloth from the Enggano community and 126 old manuscripts, of which ten have been translated into Indonesian; these contain pantun, historical accounts and advice.
The museum opens daily from 08:00 to 15:00 except Saturdays and Sundays, so plan a weekday visit. It stands at Jalan Pembangunan number 8 in Padang Harapan, on a site of 9,974 square metres. Its roughly 6,000 objects are grouped into categories such as ethnography, archaeology, numismatics, philology and technology.
The museum holds a Drukkey Populair printing press made by Golden Press in the United States in 1930. The Indonesian government used it to print "uang merah," a Bengkulu-only currency issued as legal tender.
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