North Sumatra Museum, Provincial museum on Jalan H.M. Jhoni, Medan, Indonesia

The North Sumatra Museum is a provincial museum in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra in Indonesia, housed in a two-story building along one of the city's main roads. It holds thousands of objects ranging from early tools and weapons to burial stones and religious manuscripts, documenting the region's history and its many communities.

The museum was founded in the mid-20th century and gained its official status as a provincial cultural institution in the 1980s. Since then, its collections have grown steadily to cover the full range of peoples and events that shaped North Sumatra.

The cultural rooms trace the region's religions through objects: stone and bronze statues from the Padang Lawas temple sites and Kota Cina, a replica of the main temple of Candi Bahal I, and carved Islamic gravestones from Barus, some with Batak motifs. A replica of the Azizi Mosque stands in the Islamic section, and bark manuscripts called Pustaha Laklak represent Batak writing.

The museum is on a main road in Medan and can be reached from several nearby bus stops. Allow enough time to go through both floors at a relaxed pace, as there is a lot to take in across all the rooms.

The first stone, a pair of makara figures, was laid by President Sukarno in 1954, but the museum only opened on 19 April 1982 under Minister of Education and Culture Daoed Joesoef. Staff recall that local children once avoided the building because they found it eerie; animation and touch-screen displays added in 2006 helped draw them in.