If you are visiting Indonesia and you have no time to explore all the beauty of Indonesia archipelago then I would suggest you to take a peek at all those thousand of cultural items in the Mini Indonesian Park. It is called Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII). TMII is placed in South Jakarta in the Indonesian capitol. Placed 24 km from the center, you can reach it by mass transport, or any other transportation that you choose.
In this place, you will find many Indonesian culture variations from Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Sulawesi, Bali to Papua. This since more than 200 million people live in this archipelago country, that is why Indonesian people are divided into more than 1.300 tribes which have different languages and dialects. To see most of all these tribes and their culture this place is the best way to get started (TMII).
TMII will show you how our culture is divided into 33 provinces. Each province has its own stage, which we call “Anjungan”. As each province has a lot of different cultures, you will see more than one type of cultural houses. At each house they will display how people in the region live, wear, and spend their daily life. You will find out that each tribe designs their house in their own unique way. Walk through inside the house and your eyes will get spoiled with attractive colors from the Indonesian tribe clothes and jewelry.
You will see that Indonesian tribes also have indigenous local weapons and arms. Every weekend at TMII they will have cultural performances. So, you can watch and hear our local dance and music. But they usually have the performance in different “anjungan” every week. So, you need to ask for the performance schedule when you enter this cultural park. In some “anjungan” you can also find local people making carvings and sculpture, weaving fabric or other materials. Prepare your legs, since this garden is located in a very large area to explore.
To see this garden from above, you can have a cable car ride. If you want to do a quick sightseeing in this cultural park then you can ride a white car that TMII provide for visitors. Its cheap and you can have a quick tour and drop your feet at “anjungan” if you like. One other choice is by riding the mini monorail that will take you around the park also. But this choice needs a bit more money.
Not only does this park represent cultural places, this park also has tons of museums of Indonesian science and technology, energy museum and the Purna Bhakti Pertiwi museum which showcases all gift from Indonesian befriended countries.
Others things you can also do is visiting Indonesian genuine animals and flowers which are also conserved in this park. You can find birds and reptile in Bird Park and Reptile park. Indonesia also has a large variety of chicken species you might have never heard about, you can see them in the Chicken Park. Finally they also have a Jasmine and Orchid garden. These two flowers are the Indonesian pride flowers. At this location you can also find artisan making paintings or you can buy other cultural stuff in “Kampoeng Seniman”. There is so much to do here, so one day alone might not be enough to see all in this amazing park.
/// Written by Eka Santhika, Indonesia
