The Museum Negeri Aceh, popular known as Banda Aceh Museum or Aceh State Museum is one of the oldest museums in Indonesia, comprising an old traditional building (1914) and a new building (1974). The old building is actually a traditional Acehnese stage house or Rumoh Aceh with a typical kitchen, a living area, and other customary Acehnese pieces. Meanwhile, the new building features many collections of archaeological and ethnographic items from Aceh, as well as the history of Islam and local freedom fighters. If you wish to know more about the Acehnese and their culture, Banda Aceh Museum is the place to be.
A visit to this beautifully designed, hard-hitting museum commences with a walk through a dark, dripping tunnel that symbolizes the 2004 tsunami waves. This is followed by a powerful set of images of the devastation projected from tombstone-like receptacles, and a circular chamber engraved with the names of the lost. Upstairs a very graphic short film is shown, along with photographs of loss, displacement, rebuilding, hopefulness and reunited families.
Other displays explain how earthquakes and tsunamis are created and how Aceh’s landscape was altered by the disaster (look out for the ‘before’ and ‘after’ scale models of the city).
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