the museum situated near the national monument, monas, formerly was a noble western and dutch high official cemetery built by the netherland indie government in 1759 and was known as the kebon jahe cemetery (ginger garden for direct translation).

there are many noted dutch people buried there including two military men maj. gen. a.v. michiel and maj. gen. j.h. r. kohler, who respectively led wars in bali and aceh, as well as the founder of stovia school of medicine (now the university of indonesia ) h. v. roll. and the jakarta arc bishop 1874 - 1893: a.c claessens.

other important people buried there are olivie mariamne raffles -- wife of british governor general thomas stamford raffles (also the ruller of colonial era singapore).

bearing a skull and crossbones, one headstone at the museum that draws comment is that of pieter erberveld, who died in 1722.
erberveld, who had a wealthy german father and a burmese mother, was sentenced to death for plotting to murder several dutchmen.

It is said the sentence was carried out by the tying of a horse to all four of erberveld's limbs, which, when the animals bolted, tore him apart. this is the reason why the area on jl. jayakarta in central jakarta is called pecah kulit (broken skin).

this obscure landlord was remembered because the dutch made too much of him -- his house in batavia was whacked to the ground, and his head was put on an iron stake to crown a monument neatly scribbled with dutch and javanese scripts saying he was the filthy bastard who wanted to initiate a pogrom of europeans and lead natives to a revolution.

“as a detestable memory of the punished traitor pieter erberveld nobody shall now or ever be allowed to build, to carpenter, to lay bricks, or to plant in this place.
in memory of the 'traitor' pieter erberveld
batavia, 14th of april 1772.”


he was, many believed, only framed, though no one can tell why.

the ghastly monument with his skull disgraced jakarta for around 219 years despite the disgusted indos' appeals to have it removed -- no other testimony about the paranoia of the dutch colonists was that clear.

erberveld had to wait until the japanese soldiers landed in java and the dutch fled to australia before his posthumous torture was ended in 1941. the japanese demolished the monument to dust.