The great attention of foreigners to the peculiarities of the Asmat carving art which was admirably responded to by Mrs. Tien Soeharto initiated the establishment of the Asmat Museum. Located on the Golden Keong Flower Garden land with a building area of ​​6,500 m², this museum can be reached through two entrances: walk through the Golden Conch Flower Park or over the bridge of Freshwater Aquarium Park.
The museum building follows the model of the Kariwari house, the house of worship of the Tobati-Enggros tribe, a native on the shores of Lake Sentani, Papua, but developed into a building with modern architecture. The building consists of three main buildings and two connecting buildings, each with an octagonal shape, given the impression of a stage house. Three cone-shaped roofs as high as 25 meters made from GRC and on the surface are given the impression of sago palm leaves. In various parts of the building are decorated with Asmat’s distinctive colors, namely red, white and black.
The three main buildings are used for the exhibition space, the museum collections remain, while the two connecting buildings are partly used for the permanent exhibition space and partly for the administration room, as well as the museum leadership room.
Exhibition objects in the form of cultural objects that contain mighty values ​​and reflect the life view of the Asmat people who are always associated with ancestors. The inner bond with the ancestors is manifested in carving symbols on various everyday objects. To make it easier for visitors to understand the life of the Asmat tribe as a whole, the layout of the exhibition was arranged based on themes.
The theme of the first building exhibition was in the form of Humans and the Environment, displaying various traditional clothing and jewelery, diorama of living livelihoods (smelling sago), spirits of ancestral spirit vehicles (wuramon), ancestral sculptures (mbis pole), and various ornaments symbolizing symptoms life.
The exhibition on the second building with the theme Human and Culture, exhibited equipment for making sago, hunting equipment, weapons, cultural and ceremonial objects, percussion (tifa), wind instruments from bamboo (fu), and stone axes (si).
The theme of the exhibition in the third building is Man and the Result of Creativity, exhibiting contemporary art which is the result of the development of traditional art design patterns. The objects on display are in the form of Asmat modern art which refers to market demand but still rests on traditional design patterns.
