Was Surabaya's Sorcery Museum Really About Magic?

Introduction

The so-called “Sorcery Museum” in Surabaya was never a standalone museum devoted to proving magic. Instead, the nickname grew around one section of the Dr Adhyatma Health Museum, a specialist medical museum that explored how Indonesians have understood illness through both scientific medicine and long-standing cultural beliefs. Rather than presenting supernatural attacks as established fact, the museum collected objects associated with protection, healing and alleged sorcery as part of Indonesia’s health history.[east-java.com]east-java.comOpen source on east-java.com.

This distinction matters. Visitors expecting a museum of curses and paranormal evidence instead encounter an institution attempting to document how beliefs about invisible forces have influenced healthcare, traditional healing and public attitudes to disease. The collection is unusual precisely because it places allegedly magical objects beside historical medical equipment, encouraging visitors to consider where cultural belief, ritual practice and medical history intersect rather than treating them as entirely separate worlds.[east-java.com]east-java.comOpen source on east-java.com.

Was Surabaya’s Sorcery Museum Really About Magic?

The sensational nickname emerged because one gallery within the Dr Adhyatma Health Museum focused on health traditions connected with supernatural belief. Media reports and visitors often referred to this section simply as the “Sorcery Museum”, even though it formed only one part of a much larger institution established by Indonesia’s Ministry of Health to preserve the country’s medical heritage. The museum itself opened officially in 2004 after collecting health-related artefacts from across Indonesia since the early 1990s.[east-java.com]east-java.comOpen source on east-java.com.

The museum’s purpose was considerably broader than occult curiosity. Alongside displays of hospital instruments, reproductive health, genetics, disease vectors and public health history, it included a gallery examining cultural approaches to illness that involved unseen forces, ritual specialists and protective objects. Museum descriptions explicitly frame these traditions as cultural phenomena worthy of study rather than as verified supernatural events.[east-java.com]east-java.comOpen source on east-java.com.

The health museum behind the sensational nickname

The gallery most responsible for the museum’s reputation is commonly described as the Culture Health Room. According to museum descriptions, it examines health practices “based on belief or supernatural” and presents them as part of Indonesia’s cultural heritage. The stated aim is to encourage investigation and understanding of these beliefs rather than unquestioning acceptance.[east-java.com]east-java.comOpen source on east-java.com.

Within the wider museum, this room sits beside displays devoted to conventional medical history. Visitors therefore move from historical clinical equipment to exhibits illustrating traditional explanations of illness. The juxtaposition is deliberate: it shows that many Indonesians historically sought help from both biomedical practitioners and ritual healers, depending on the perceived cause of a sickness.[east-java.com]east-java.comOpen source on east-java.com.

This curatorial approach differs from commercial “haunted museums”. The emphasis is educational, showing how ideas about invisible harm have shaped healthcare decisions rather than inviting visitors to believe the objects possess paranormal powers.

Objects linked to sorcery, protection and healing

Reports from visitors and museum descriptions indicate that the collection includes objects associated with alleged magical attack, protection and traditional healing. These have reportedly included:

The significance of these artefacts lies less in whether they “worked” than in what they reveal about health beliefs. Across many societies, objects believed to offer protection have historically existed alongside recognised medical treatments. Modern medical museums increasingly interpret such items as evidence of how people tried to manage uncertainty, fear and disease before—or alongside—scientific medicine, rather than as proof of supernatural forces.[Science Museum Group Journal]journal.sciencemuseum.ac.ukScience Museum Group JournalA history of amulets in ten objects – Science Museum Group JournalMay 1, 2019…Published: May 1, 2019

Seen in this wider context, the Surabaya collection is unusual but not unique. Its distinctive feature is that it places Indonesian ritual objects within a museum devoted to the history of healthcare rather than isolating them as paranormal curiosities.

Belief, medicine and the limits of museum claims

Perhaps the most important feature of the museum is what it does not claim.

Although some objects are linked in popular tradition with curses, magical attacks or supernatural healing, the museum does not present them as scientific evidence that such phenomena occur. Instead, it documents the existence of these beliefs within Indonesian society and recognises that they have influenced real health decisions, treatment choices and cultural practices.[east-java.com]east-java.comOpen source on east-java.com.

This distinction reflects a broader principle in medical history. Museums often preserve artefacts connected with practices that modern medicine does not endorse because those objects still illuminate how people understood disease in their own time. Protective charms, ritual objects and healing amulets can therefore be historically significant even when their claimed supernatural powers remain unverified.[Science Museum Group Journal]journal.sciencemuseum.ac.ukScience Museum Group JournalA history of amulets in ten objects – Science Museum Group JournalMay 1, 2019…Published: May 1, 2019

For visitors, the most useful way to approach the gallery is as an exploration of belief rather than a demonstration of magic. The displays illustrate how cultural explanations of illness have coexisted with developing scientific medicine in Indonesia, showing that healthcare history includes not only hospitals and laboratories but also the fears, rituals and protective practices through which communities have tried to make sense of sickness.

Why this museum matters within Indonesia’s curiosity landscape

Indonesia has relatively few public collections devoted specifically to the occult. The Dr Adhyatma Health Museum therefore occupies an unusual position. Instead of creating a museum of witchcraft or paranormal investigation, it embeds alleged sorcery objects within the country’s medical heritage.

That approach makes the collection more informative than sensational. It encourages visitors to ask why people trusted certain objects, how traditional healing interacted with modern healthcare, and how museums should preserve artefacts connected with beliefs that remain meaningful for some communities while lacking scientific verification. In doing so, the museum contributes a distinctive perspective to Indonesia’s wider landscape of unusual collections: not by claiming to display proof of magic, but by documenting the enduring relationship between belief, healing and the history of medicine.

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Endnotes

1. Source: east-java.com
Link:https://www.east-java.com/tourism/surabaya/health-museum.html

2. Source: repository.unair.ac.id
Title: ORA L HISTORY JEJAK MUSEUM KESEHATAN DR. ADHYATMA, MPH SURABAYA Repository
Link:https://repository.unair.ac.id/69330

3. Source: tripadvisor.com
Link:https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g297715-d10592811-Reviews-Museum_Kesehatan_Dr_Adhyatma_MPH-Surabaya_East_Java_Java.html

4. Source: journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk
Link:https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/history-of-amulets/

Published: May 1, 2019

5. Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
Link:https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g297715-d10592811-Reviews-Museum_Kesehatan_Dr_Adhyatma_MPH-Surabaya_East_Java_Java.html

6. Source: tripadvisor.com.sg
Link:https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Attraction_Review-g297715-d10592811-Reviews-Museum_Kesehatan_Dr_Adhyatma_MPH-Surabaya_East_Java_Java.html

7. Source: tripadvisor.com.tr
Title: Museum Kesehatan Dr. Adhyatma MPH
Link:https://www.tripadvisor.com.tr/Attraction_Review-g297715-d10592811-Reviews-Museum_Kesehatan_Dr_Adhyatma_MPH-Surabaya_East_Java_Java.html

Additional References

8. Source: jejakpiknik.com
Link:https://jejakpiknik.com/museum-kesehatan-surabaya/

9. Source: detik.com
Title: duh cagar budaya museum kesehatan di surabaya dibongkar
Link:https://www.detik.com/jatim/berita/d-5976956/duh-cagar-budaya-museum-kesehatan-di-surabaya-dibongkar

Published: March 10, 2022

10. Source: youtube.com
Title: Surabaya’s Health Museum by Dr. Adhyatma, MPH
Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ0o6mTYH6k

11. Source: youtube.com
Title: Museum Kesehatan Dr. Adhyatma Surabaya (Oral History)
Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rwvSETBRD0

12. Source: collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk
Link:https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co103800/woollen-doll-amulet

13. Source: youtube.com
Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVHOOllci3E

14. Source: londonmuseum.org.uk
Title: London Museum Witches, medicine & magic through London’s history | London Museum
Link:https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/witches-medicine-magic-through-londons-history/

15. Source: detik.com
Title: Museum Kesehatan di Surabaya yang Dibongkar Adalah RS Pertama RI Sejak Merdeka
Link:https://www.detik.com/jatim/berita/d-5977480/museum-kesehatan-di-surabaya-yang-dibongkar-adalah-rs-pertama-ri-sejak-merdeka

16. Source: youtube.com
Title: Health Museum of Dr. Adhyatma, MPH
Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm54iLZx8oU

17. Source: amertamedia.wordpress.com
Title: menilik sejarah kesehatan di museum kesehatan dr adhyatma surabaya
Link:https://amertamedia.wordpress.com/2018/06/08/menilik-sejarah-kesehatan-di-museum-kesehatan-dr-adhyatma-surabaya/