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Looking at Malang's famous cigarette maker
New look: The museumâs focus is on presenting things simply for contemporary and tech-friendly audiences
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New look: The museumâs focus is on presenting things simply for contemporary and tech-friendly audiences. (Nedi Putra AW)" border="0" height="335" width="499">New look: The museumâs focus is on presenting things simply for contemporary and tech-friendly audiences. (Nedi Putra AW)The history of the cigarette industry in Malang starts with Ong Hok Liong, who opened the Bentoel cigarette factory in the East Java city in 1930.
Visitors to Malang can follow Bentoelâs story â from a small business with a dozen workers to one of nationâs largest cigarette manufacturers â at a museum housed in a recently renovated colonial-era mansion in Malangâs Pasar Besar commercial district.
The Bentoel Museum, which reopened on Oct. 31, 2013, was previously the private residence of Ong. Inside are exhibits showing Ongâs factory from its opening until the operation was bought out by British American Tobacco (BAT) in 2009.
The museum preserves much of the 400-square-meter heritage buildingâs architecture, although some changes have been made. Ambient lighting gives the interior the feel of an art gallery.
Meanwhile, some of the equipment donated by the Ong family has been represented by photographs or multimedia displays, rather than concrete exhibits.
The museum, featuring exhibits in Indonesian and English, is divided into galleries focusing on history, the companyâs current management and notable people, the evolution of the cigarette industry and photography, among other things.
Classic architecture: The museum is housed in the former residence of Ong Hok Liong, who opened the Bentoel cigarette factory in 1930. (Nedi Putra AW)
The focus is on presenting things simply for contemporary and tech-friendly audiences.
The history gallery, once a receiving room where Ong paid his workers, now features four Dutch colonial wooden chairs, a table with a telephone and a small radio. Family photos and pictures of Ong and Bentoelâs current manager are also on display.
The next room is adorned by two sepeda onthel, or classical bicycles. One was motorized for door-todoor cigarette sales; the other was Ongâs personal bicycle. Pictures on the wall show the bemo (threewheeled motorized vehicles) that the company used to promote and sell its cigarettes on the street of Malang in the 1960s.
The Tobacco and Clove Gallery features a manual cigarette-rolling machine and another machine used to remove low-quality tobacco from handmade clove cigarettes.
Cloves from Java, Madura Island and Bali are also on display, as well as a multimedia presentation showing how the sweet smelling clove cigarettes, locally called kretek, are made.
In the employee guidance gallery, which provides information on the companyâs workers from the 1960s to the present day, stands an old US General Motors refrigerator behind the door, which was only owned by wealthy people when Ong lived there.
Ongâs bedroom, meanwhile, has a bell to call servants whenever needed. The room has been decked out to resemble a star-rated hotel from the past, complete with fine marble tables.
New look: <)
New look: The museum's focus is on presenting things simply for contemporary and tech-friendly audiences. (Nedi Putra AW)
The history of the cigarette industry in Malang starts with Ong Hok Liong, who opened the Bentoel cigarette factory in the East Java city in 1930.
Visitors to Malang can follow Bentoel's story ' from a small business with a dozen workers to one of nation's largest cigarette manufacturers ' at a museum housed in a recently renovated colonial-era mansion in Malang's Pasar Besar commercial district.
The Bentoel Museum, which reopened on Oct. 31, 2013, was previously the private residence of Ong. Inside are exhibits showing Ong's factory from its opening until the operation was bought out by British American Tobacco (BAT) in 2009.
The museum preserves much of the 400-square-meter heritage building's architecture, although some changes have been made. Ambient lighting gives the interior the feel of an art gallery.
Meanwhile, some of the equipment donated by the Ong family has been represented by photographs or multimedia displays, rather than concrete exhibits.
The museum, featuring exhibits in Indonesian and English, is divided into galleries focusing on history, the company's current management and notable people, the evolution of the cigarette industry and photography, among other things.
The focus is on presenting things simply for contemporary and tech-friendly audiences.
The history gallery, once a receiving room where Ong paid his workers, now features four Dutch colonial wooden chairs, a table with a telephone and a small radio. Family photos and pictures of Ong and Bentoel's current manager are also on display.
The next room is adorned by two sepeda onthel, or classical bicycles. One was motorized for door-todoor cigarette sales; the other was Ong's personal bicycle. Pictures on the wall show the bemo (threewheeled motorized vehicles) that the company used to promote and sell its cigarettes on the street of Malang in the 1960s.
The Tobacco and Clove Gallery features a manual cigarette-rolling machine and another machine used to remove low-quality tobacco from handmade clove cigarettes.
Cloves from Java, Madura Island and Bali are also on display, as well as a multimedia presentation showing how the sweet smelling clove cigarettes, locally called kretek, are made.
In the employee guidance gallery, which provides information on the company's workers from the 1960s to the present day, stands an old US General Motors refrigerator behind the door, which was only owned by wealthy people when Ong lived there.
Ong's bedroom, meanwhile, has a bell to call servants whenever needed. The room has been decked out to resemble a star-rated hotel from the past, complete with fine marble tables.
According to Bentoel Group corporate affairs manager Winny Soendaroe, the museum has kept much of Ong's property. 'While respecting Ong Hok Liong and family members, we also wish to tell the story of Bentoel's business so far,' she said.
Winny says that curators plan to display all of the items donated by Ong and his family over time. 'In this way, tourists returning several months later will find a different atmosphere from the previous one.'
The photography gallery offers a chronology of Bentoel's growth over the decades. These pictures on display here, as well in other parts of the museum, have minimal or even no captions. 'We make [the pictures] as strong as possible visually so as to minimize captions because they're usually boring,' Winny said.
The photos show Bentoel from its founding by Ong as a home industry, under the name of Strootjes Fabriek Ong Hok Liong, in 1930.
Ong manufactured cigarettes under a variety of brand names, including Boeoroeng, Kelabang, Kendang, Djeroek Manis and Toerki, until a spiritual journey to Mount Kawi in 1935 inspired him to settle on the name Bentoel, after a tuber plant found locally.
The home industry turned into a real company, NV Pertjetakan Hien An, in 1951, and four years later it was changed to PT Perusahaan Rokok Tjap Bentoel.
Other exhibits show how in 1968, Bentoel became the fi rst company in the nation to produce fi ltered clove cigarettes in Indonesia. It was also the fi rst to use plastic packaging. The innovations set the standard for clove cigarette production nationwide.
According to the Cigarette Industry Society Forum (Formasi), Malang had 400 small-to-mediumscale cigarette factories in 2009. The number dropped to 314 by 2010.
While cigarette taxes and public health concerns have taken their toll, the industry still fl ourishes in Malang, albeit on a smaller scale.
The companies that remain employ thousands of workers in Malang, which is remarkable, considering the region is not a large producer of either tobacco or cloves.
Bentoel itself sources raw materials from different parts of Indonesia, including Central Java and North Sulawesi.
Bentoel Museum
Jl. Wiro Margo No. 32
(before Chinatown)
Malang, East Java
Open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Closed Tuesdays
