Despite being hundreds of years of age, the batik collections of the House of Danar Hadi neither look worn out nor dilapidated. They use a special potion called 'kembang ramping' to preserve those collections. The potion is made of rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, white frangipani, fine cuts of pandanus leaves, grated aromatic ginger and ginger, cuts of kaffir lime leaves and essence of ylang-ylang.

The word "kretek" brings to mind the distinctive aroma of the Indonesian cigarette. Kretek cigarettes are made of clove and tobacco, and that's why they used to be called simply clove cigarettes. But did you know that the word "kretek" is an onomatopoetic term to express the crackling sound made when the cigarettes are lit?

The Bank Mandiri Museum has a general ledger that is called 'Grootboek' or the "Buku Besar" in Indonesian. Interestingly, all the transactions recorded in the book are handwritten--all 1503 pages and 28 kilograms of it. The book records plantation and commodity transactions taking place during 1935-1936.

Carbon dating measurement shows that the pawon man fossil is about 9000 years old. The fossil was found in fetal position at a depth of 60 cm from ground level. This is in line with archeological studies that found that the dead were buried in fetal position 9000 years ago.

There are many ancient artifacts of Indonesia that have drawn interest from other countries. For example, the Prajnaparamita statue--the realization of the concept of perfect wisdom in the goddess of wisdom according to the Mahayana Buddhist tradition--which is part of the masterpiece collection belonging to the National Museum, was returned to Indonesia only in 1977 as the result of the Wassenaar agreement (1977) between the government of the Republic of Indonesia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which concluded that Indonesia is the rightful owner of the cultural artifact.

The 10 November battle, in which thousands were killed, galvanized the spirit of the people to fight the colonial powers and preserve independence. Estimates of Indonesian casualties range from 6,000 to 16,000. Interestingly, the construction of the Heroes' Monument uncovered skeletons of those heroes killed during the battle along with 25 skulls at the rear area of the monument. The area was eventually constructed as a monument to commemorate the contributions of those heroes whose identities would never be known in the form of the 'Unnamed Heroes' Monument'.

The Si Jagur Cannon is placed at the front yard of the museum. The cannon is 3.85 meter-long and weighs 3.5 tons. Sixteen smaller bronze cannons were melted down to produce this cannon, and this is why there is a Latin inscription on the back of the cannon of Ex Me Ipsa Renata Sum, which means "Of my own self I shall be reborn."