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🎨 Culture

Bandung for Culture Lovers — 3 Days of Sundanese Art, Bamboo Orchestras & Studio Visits

Angklung rehearsals, contemporary galleries in converted villas, wayang golek puppet workshops and the batik of Priangan

📍 Bandung, Indonesia 📅 3-day itinerary

Bandung's culture runs deeper than its colonial facades: a UNESCO-listed bamboo orchestra tradition, art schools that produced Indonesia's modernists, and gallery-cafés in Dago hills. Three days of angklung, wayang golek and Sundanese craft.

Visual Arts & Architecture

09:00
🖼️ NuArt Sculpture Park

Nyoman Nuarta's 3-hectare sculpture park in Setraduta, with the studio behind the Garuda Wisnu Kencana monument. Bronze and copper works in indoor galleries plus outdoor trails. Open daily 09:00–17:00; weekday tickets cheaper than weekends.

⏱ 2-3 hours 💶 Rp 50.000 weekdays / Rp 75.000 weekends
Ask at the desk whether the working atelier at the back is open — welders are usually active mornings, and you can watch panels being hammered.
12:00
Selasar Sunaryo Art Space

Sculptor Sunaryo's hillside complex in Dago Atas, opened 1998: three exhibition wings, Bale Tonggoh for emerging artists, and Kopi Selasar terrace overlooking the ravine. Closed Mondays; open Tue–Sun 10:00–17:00.

⏱ 1.5 hours 💶 Rp 50.000 (includes Wot Batu access)
The ticket also covers Wot Batu across the road — keep the stub rather than paying twice.
14:30
🪨 Wot Batu

Sunaryo's stone garden, opened 2015: 135 andesite and basalt boulders arranged as a walk-through meditation on the elements, with a water mirror and a stone bearing his son's ashes. Guided entry only, in small timed groups.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 Rp 50.000
17:00
🎨 Lawangwangi Creative Space

Contemporary gallery and café in Dago Giri designed by Andra Matin's circle: cantilevered glass box over the valley, rotating shows of Indonesian contemporary painting, and an art-book library. Open 10:00–22:00.

⏱ 1.5 hours
Gallery floors close around 18:00 while the café stays open — see the exhibition first, then take the terrace for the city lights.

Performing Arts & Museums

10:00
🎋 Saung Angklung Udjo

Bamboo-music village founded 1966 by Udjo Ngalagena in Padasuka, keeper of the UNESCO-listed angklung tradition. Afternoon show at 15:30 mixes wayang golek, jaipong dance and a mass angklung play-along; workshops run mornings.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 Rp 130.000 domestic / Rp 200.000 foreign visitors
Book the morning bamboo-craft workshop instead of the show if you want hands-on tuning — the instrument you make is yours to keep.
13:00
🪆 Cupumanik Wayang Golek Workshop, Jalan Pangarang

Family atelier carving Sundanese rod puppets from albasia wood: heads roughed with a chisel, faces painted with the colour code that marks a refined hero from a coarse ogre. Craftsmen sell direct and explain each character.

⏱ 1 hour
15:00
🏛️ Museum Sri Baduga

West Java's provincial museum in Tegallega, in a joglo-roofed building: Sundanese kris and kujang blades, the Batutulis inscription replica, gamelan degung sets and dioramas of Priangan village ritual. Tue–Sun, closed Mondays.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 Rp 3.000 adults
Labels are mostly Indonesian — the guide desk near the entrance will walk you round in English at no fixed fee.
18:00
🎭 Rumentang Siang Theatre, Jalan Baranangsiang

Bandung's working municipal theatre since 1975, the home stage for sandiwara Sunda, ketoprak and longser folk comedy. Programmes are posted on the street banner outside and tickets sold at the door for a few tens of thousands.

Performances are announced only days ahead — check the Instagram of Gedung Rumentang Siang, or simply read the banner when you pass Kosambi market.

Local Culture & Neighbourhood Life

09:30
🧵 Batik Komar, Jalan Cigadung Raya Timur

Working batik house run by Komarudin Kudiya, producing Priangan motifs in tulis and cap. Visitors watch wax drawn with canting over cotton, then dye baths and boiling-off; short hands-on sessions bookable in advance.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 Rp 100.000 workshop, free to view the floor
Phone ahead a day before — production runs Mon–Sat mornings, and the dye vats are covered by early afternoon.
12:30
🍚 Warung Kopi Purnama, Jalan Alkateri

Peranakan coffee shop trading since 1930 as Chang Chong Se in the old Chinatown lanes off Braga: marble tables, srikaya coconut-jam toast and coffee roasted with butter and maize in the pre-war manner.

⏱ 1.5 hours
14:30
📿 Vihara Satya Budhi & Pecinan Bandung

Bandung's oldest Chinese temple, built 1885 on Jalan Kelenteng, with red pillars, a courtyard of coiled incense and the Pasar Baru Chinatown lanes around it — herbal shops, gold traders and calligraphy stalls.

⏱ 2 hours 💶 Free, donation box at the altar
17:30
🥁 Padepokan Seni Mayang Sunda, Jalan Peta

Sundanese performing-arts compound with pendopo halls where jaipongan dance, kacapi suling and pencak silat groups rehearse most evenings. Open rehearsals are watchable free; weekend shows are ticketed.

Turn up around 17:00 on a Friday or Saturday — the dance classes warm up in the open pavilion before the paying audience arrives.

📍 Route map

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