Samudra Raksa Ship Museum is one of the educational tours and museums about the maritime history of the archipelago located in the Borobudur Temple Tourism Park complex and was inaugurated by the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare of the Republic of Indonesia Prof. Dr. Alwi Shihab on August 31, 2005. This museum is a creative and innovative development effort with a mission to educate the nation through visualization of the maritime history of the archipelago. This museum contains the Samudra Raksa Ship, a collection of historical objects and video documentation of the Samudra Raksa expedition. In August 2018, the Samudra Raksa Ship Museum added a new attraction, namely the Raka Adventure Interactive Cinema which uses digital technology in the form of three-dimensional animation played on an LED screen.
The Samudra Raksa ship, housed in the museum, is a replica of a ship from one of the Borobudur Temple reliefs , the Jataka-Avadana relief, panel 86. It depicts a ship equipped with sails and outriggers to stabilize the ship and break the waves. The name "Samudra Raksa" was given by Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri in 2003, meaning "Guardian of the Ocean."
The idea for the ship's construction was conceived by a former British Royal Navy officer named Phillip Beale, who visited Borobudur Temple in 1982. During his visit, he discovered a ship-shaped relief and decided to reconstruct it. In 2002, in collaboration with the Indonesian government, specifically the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, a team was formed to build the ship. Assisted by Nick Burningham, an Australian archaeologist, and As'ad Abdullah, the Samudra Raksa shipbuilder from Kangean Island, East Java, the Samudra Raksa was successfully constructed.
The shipbuilding process took approximately six months. After the ship was completed, a first test voyage was conducted from Tanjung Benoa Bali via Surabaya to Ancol Harbor. The results of the trial stated that the Samudra Raksa Ship was seaworthy. On August 15, 2003, the Samudra Raksa Ship conducted an expedition (tracing the cinnamon trade route from Ancol, Jakarta, to Tema Harbor, Accra, Ghana, West Africa, which took approximately 6 months until February 23, 2004. This expedition was released directly by Mrs. Megawati Sukarnoputri. The Samudra Raksa Ship conducted an expedition along the spice trade route in the 8th century, known as the Cinnamon Route.
The Samudra Raksa expedition ship is captained by I Gusti Putu Ngurah Sedana, a Navy Captain from the Republic of Indonesia, and has a crew of 27 people from various countries. Because the ship can only accommodate 16 people, the crew members board in shifts at each transit point.
In mid-2018, specifically in June, museum visitors were able to witness a new educational and entertaining attraction that tells the story of the Indonesian maritime history from the 8th century to the present. The maritime history at the Samudra Raksa Museum is packaged in the form of an interactive cinema using digital technology with a 115-meter-long LED floor and screen. This attraction is effective in introducing the Indonesian maritime history to the wider community, especially families, because it is made using interesting and interactive animation. In this cinema, there is also a fictional character named Raka who will invite visitors to travel through space and time to see the journey of the Indonesian maritime archipelago.
Instagram: @samudraraksa
