Museums are institutions that store and exhibit objects of cultural, scientific or artistic value.
When it comes to archaeology in Southeast Asia, museums are often national or state-owned institutions that hold the archaeological collections of the country. However, due to the effects of colonialism and also looting, many archaeological treasures from the region are sometimes held outside of the country.
In this page:
You may also wish to check out the Virtual Archaeology page where you can visit several archaeological collections online, and also the Online Lecture Library, and recent academic papers for more up-to-date research.
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Museum News Archive
News reports and information about museums and museums studies related to Southeast Asian and cultural heritage. The news reports indexed below usually link to external sites that were active at the time of posting; sometimes websites may be temporarily down or may have reorganised their underlying architecture or have even closed down – in these cases the links may not be available. Most of the news articles archived are in English, although when I am made aware of stories in this and other languages I try to index them.
Looking for something specific? You can also use this search box:
Links to Museum Websites
These are links to external sites and unless stated, I have no connection with the organisations or entities in these links or control over their content. They are sorted alphabetically, but you should also explore the Resources page which have links sorted by themes. If you have a link to suggest, please get in touch!
- Angkor National Museum – Opened in 2007, the Angkor National Museum is located in Siem Reap and promises to show visitors the splendours of the ancient Angkor civilisation.
- Asian Art Museum – Online collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
- Asian Civilisations Museum – The museum’s collection features archaeological artefacts from Southeast Asia, China and India.
- Bangkok National Museum – Official website of the Bangkok National Museum, which houses an archaeological and art history collection.
- Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture – A museum dedicated to the sculpture of the ancient Cham, centred in South Vietnam. Website is in Vietnamese and English.
- Freer|Sackler Gallery Southeast Asia Collections – The Freer|Sackler is the Smithsonian’s museums of Asian art. The Southeast Asia web resource features an organized online collection, listings of exhibitions, events, conservation activities, and current research, as well as further resources and bibliography. The centerpiece is a robust interactive map of sacred sites in Southeast Asia, amply illustrated with site photos.
- Jabatan Muzium Malaysia (Department of Museums, Malaysia) – The official government website for the Department of Museums, Malaysia.
- Jabatan Muzium-Muzium, Brunei Darussalam – The Brunei Museums Department is responsible for protecting and preserving national heritage.
- Museum Nasional Indonesia – The Indonesian National Museum.
- Museum Pusaka Nias – Or the Museum of Nias Heritage in Nias Island, Sumatra. The blogsite is mainly in Bahasa Indonesia.
- National Museum of Cambodia – Official page.
- National Museum of the Philippines – Official page.
- National Museum of Singapore – Official page.
- Ni Xue Tang – A private museum in Singapore dedicated to Buddhist art.
- National Museum of Singapore – Collection showcases the history of Singapore from the 14th century to modern times.
- NUS Museum – Featuring an Archaeology Library of finds from digs across Singapore.
- Sarawak Museum – Borneo’s oldest museum has collections featuring archaeology and ethnology.
- Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum – The museum is located in the Bangkok University. Website in Thai, but there are links to the English-language newsletter which is regularly published.
- Southeast Asian collections in the Smithsonian – The Smithsonian has recently put their collections online in Open Access. The link goes specifically to Southeast Asian material.
- Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum Archives – Digital archive of the documents found in S-21 (now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum) in Cambodia.
- Vietnam National Museum of History (Hanoi) – The Vietnam National Museum of History is a public service unit under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which is at the forefront of the system of Vietnam’s history-society museums.
- Vietnam National Museum of History (Ho Chi Minh City) – The southern branch of the Vietnam National Museum of History in Ho Chi Minh City.
- Yale University Indo-Pacific Gallery – The Gallery’s Indo-Pacific art collection represents the art of maritime Southeast Asia and includes about 1,900 objects, with strengths in ethnographic sculpture, Javanese gold from the prehistoric to the late medieval period, and Indonesian textiles.
