Detention House of President Soekarno

In the span of 1938-1942 the Father of the Indonesian Nation, Bung Karno was exiled by the Dutch in Bengkulu. The house is now located in the middle of Bengkulu City, precisely on Jalan Sukarno Hatta, Village Anggut Atas , Sub-district of Gading Cempaka.

Bengkulu witnessed the life journey of an Indonesian proclaimator, and is Indonesia's first president, Ir. Sukarno or better known as Bung Karno. Bung Karno's past could not be separated from the shadow of exile by the Dutch colonial. There are several areas which have become the place of exile for the proclamator and one of them is Bengkulu.

In this house there are items left by Sukarno, such as the iron bed that Soekarno and his family used before, a collection of books, the majority of which are in Dutch.

This exile home original size is 162 m² with building 9 x 18 m. Rectangular shape of the building no legs and plain walls. Having a yard large enough with pyramid-shaped roof. The main double-leaved doors, rectangular with a rectangular window decorated lattice. Not yet known when the house was first established but is expected to be built early 20th century.

The house originally belonged to Chinese businessman named Tan Eng cian who worked at that time as a supplier of groceries for the Dutch East Indies government. You can still see the Chinese characteristic of the building on which there is a vent on top of window and door patterned Chinese characters. The house was then hired by the Dutch government to put Bung Karno during exile in Bengkulu.

In this house stored some furniture such as a chair, a bed and a closet that used family of Bung Karno, as well as the bike that was once used by Bung Karno. There are also many photographs during the Bung Karno activities in exile in Bengkulu.

In addition there are two cupboards containing a uniform group tonil Monte Carlo, theatrical group led by Bung Karno. However, the most valuable of the collection are books Bung Karno that reaches hundreds of pieces, unfortunately the condition is most fragile or damaged with age.