Kolong Tangga Museum is a museum that displays traditional toys and accessories from the past as a means of giving past awareness of the Indonesian art of traditional toys. Kolong Tangga is an Indonesian phrase which means “under the stairs”, because the location of the museum is under the stairs that connects the indoor stage and atrium of Taman Budaya Yogyakarta (Yogyakarta Culture Park). The museum was established in February 2008 based on the concern of Rudi Corens, a Belgian toy collector who has been living in Yogyakarta for more than 25 years. His concern was that there are so many young children and teenagers who tend to forget their own culture and tradition, especially regarding toys and games. In fact, some of them don’t even know at all regarding traditional toys and games, whereas traditional toys and games can give a very useful and clear moral message in them that can be used as a medium to learn about life and society.

Kolong Tangga Museum displays mora than 400 toys. Most of the toys are traditionally handmade, with wood or other natural materials. Almost 80% of the toys in the museum is a private collection of Corens that was donated because of his concern and also love for children. Through museum, children are educated about the traditional toys and games that exists in Indonesia from the past until present. Traditional games such as “gobak sodor”, “cublek-cublek suweng” or “patil lele” are some of the games that is still played until today, which is displayed in the museum as paintings with tools and equipments and step to step on how to play the game.

Kolong Tangga museum is expected to not just become a place to preserve and introduce Indonesian traditional art, especially toys and games, but also to inspire the young generation to create something better that can show the identity and status of their country.
Besides the collection of toys and games, the museum also provides a library named “Burung Biru” or “Blue Bird”, which displays mostly children books and even films. In the afternoon, children can gather here and listen to traditional fairytales that is told by the storyteller.

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