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Gatot Pranoto: Fossil hunter leaves past behind
JP/Tarko Sudiarno"When you're visiting the museum, please don't comment on its displays, OK? Just keep the objective of its founders at the back of your mind," an avid museumgoer said to The Jakarta Post before visiting the Mahameru Museum in Blora Regency, Central Java
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JP/Tarko Sudiarno
"When you're visiting the museum, please don't comment on its displays, OK? Just keep the objective of its founders at the back of your mind," an avid museumgoer said to The Jakarta Post before visiting the Mahameru Museum in Blora Regency, Central Java.
Within seconds of entering the museum, the penny drops, a fossil of an ancient buffalo head with a long horn measuring 240 centimeters is missing its right horn.
"This is the result of our carelessness when we held an exhibition at the regency office to commemorate National Education Day. Once the exhibition was over, the fossil was left unattended outside while we waited for transport," said Gatot Pranoto, the head of Mahameru Museum located in Taman Wisata Tirtonadi, and also the chairman of the Mahameru Foundation, as he began to explain details of his museum.
And yes, a motorcyclist crashed into the fossil of this ancient buffalo breaking its horn. This ancient buffalo head is one of hundreds of valuable items belonging to the Mahameru Museum. The private sector manages some of the collectible items, which include ancient fossils, artefacts of the Mataram Hindu period and an old Holy Koran.
The fossil buffalo head is not the only collectible in the museum to have suffered damage.
Above a heap of sand and red soil rests an ancient elephant tusk, nearly 3 meters long and in very poor condition.
"This fossil of an elephant tusk was destroyed during the excavation.
"Because we were in a hurry we didn't pay enough attention to the oxidation process. Had we been patient, this ancient tusk could have remained intact when we lifted it."
Gatot Pranoto is no stranger to fossils. At the age of 21 - in 1980 - he was already a well-known trader of antique goods in Central Java, East Java and Yogyakarta.
Some of those antiques were ancient fossils. Blora and its surroundings is a treasure chest for fossil collectors, as the region was once home to the Bengawan Solo River, a site where millions of fossils long buried are only now being discovered.
Diggers last year stumbled upon the elephant tusks now kept in the museum. They also found fossils of an extinct Asian species of mammoths, still intact. These fossils are now kept in the Bogor Museum.
For nearly 10 years, Gatot Pranoto, who graduated with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta, worked as a hunter and seller of antique goods including fossils.
Which means he has sold countless thousands of this nation's cultural heritage to buyers overseas, especially historic artefacts from Blora city.
"When I was on the top of my trade, I became an antique goods trader, mainly concerned with satisfying my materialistic needs," he said.
"I could purchase whatever I wanted, whether it was an index finger or a toe. I was doing very well in the 1980s. At that time, I could afford to stay for days on end at the Ambarrukmo Hotel, the only five-star hotel in Yogyakarta at the time.
But it was dissatisfaction with this material existence, and the insane pursuit of wealth that brought Gatot Pranoto some of his darkest moments.
"Apparently there are limits to everything. By 1990, my business had been destroyed and I fled to Kalimantan," he said, describing the turning point that ended his career as an antique trader.
After spending 10 years in Kalimantan, he came back to Blora in 1999, but not as an antique trader.
This time, he used his keen sense of smell for valuable items at the service of history preservation.
Along with his city friends who had the same ideas, he established the Mahameru Foundation, focusing on culture and the arts.
Together with the members of Mahameru Foundation who live throughout the Blora regency, he has collected fossils, artefacts, and other valuables to be displayed in the History House. "We work as volunteers and are fully aware of the importance and meaning of the heritage of our ancestors.
"Slowly we are also trying to educate people to appreciate the many cultural objects scattered around Blora. So now if there's a fossil discovery, people will immediately report their finding to the authorities or to us."
But not all communities have shown such concern, and many fossils discovered are still secretly sold, he adds.
"Now my resolve to protect is strong," he added. "Many antique traders still chase after museum collections *to sell on to private collectors*. Once upon a time they wanted to swap a fossil of an ancient buffalo head for a new Kijang car.
So Mahameru Foundation slowly started collecting historical objects from around Blora. After seeing the results of the work of these volunteers in 2004, the local government of Blora regency provided the foundation with a two-storey building to establish the Mahameru Museum. Now the museum is open to the public.
Every day, members of the public donate valuables from their private collections. Recently Gatot Pranowo received a box of old leather puppets from Jatisari village, Banjarejo sub-district, Blora.
These leather puppets are said to be very sacred, and cause illness to family members of the owner.
"It's not worth paying attention to that myth. The important thing is that these 70 ancient shadow puppets can now be preserved at the museum," he said.
"We are constantly receiving gifts. Almost all the contents of this museum are contributions from the community. The remaining collection are antiques I collected in the past. Well this is my way of making up for past sins."
