IO – When one thinks of museums, what comes to mind is a place that holds historical objects or stories of dioramas of colonial times. But this one museum is not at all like that: Museum Tubuh depicts the organs of the human body, that are displayed in 3-dimensional visual form. In fact, some human organs are ‘giant’ sized so that visitors can enter and walk inside them. In the Museum, located in one complex with East Java Park I tourist sites, visitors can understand the functions of organs and even their shapes.
The Tubuh (Body) Museum can be an interesting learning experience for students from kindergarten to high school. Its purpose is to make people aware of about the shape and workings of the that enable us to live and carry out our daily tasks, as the organs are like the works of a factory: they continue to work, without a stop. By understanding each organ, it is hoped that we can take good care of it, keeping it healthy.
The building form of the Museum is quite unique, namely in the form of a human, with the character of a Bagong, one of the shadow puppets of the wayang. In the shadow puppet world there are four friends, namely, Bagong, Semar, Petruk, and Gareng. The Bagong figure was chosen because of the four shadow puppets; Bagong is the figure whose intelligence is most prominent and clever and funny. The Museum, in addition to adhering to the philosophy of Bagong’s figure, also plays a role in preserving shadow puppet figures, as well as preserving culture, especially Javanese customs.
The building has six floors and 13 zones, namely, the brain, mouth, teeth, ears, nose, eyes, lungs, heart, liver, large intestine, small intestine, stomach, blood vessels, and bones. At the Museum, visitors can learn about the anatomy of the human body through modern multimedia.
In each zone in this museum there are individual educators, so visitors can receive complete information. Being in the Museum is like being brought to the real state of the body. For example, when in the ear zone, visitors like being in the ear with the details as it is the same as a real ear. Then into the nose zone which makes visitors feel like they are inside the nose and into the brain zone which introduces right and left brain functions. Then visitors will enter the eye zone and then enter the Activity Zone One. Then there is the zone of blood vessels, where visitors cross a tunnel that looks like a blood vessel. There are normal blood vessels and there are blood vessel-shaped tunnels with lots of fat. Then to the heart zone. There, there is a replica of an enlarged heart, complete with a heartbeat. Then to the lung zone. The lung replica displayed is red and black. Red lungs represent clean lungs, while the black lungs symbolize the lungs of cigarette addicts. Then enter the liver zone, then into the stomach and intestines. In the it is illustrated how the stomach digests food. Exiting the museum, visitors get facilities for health checks, such as eye examinations, and confirming blood types. (Pramitha Hendra)