Tengger Highland on Java Island, Indonesia, has been a tourist attraction since the 19th century because of its picturesque landscapes. During the British interregnum in Java, Thomas Stamford Raffles was responsible for documenting and collecting natural and cultural specimens, including those from Tengger. A multitude of European and North American scholars, military personnel, entrepreneurs, tourists, and others followed his steps towards collecting artifacts from the Tenggerese community.

Following our initial encounter with the head priest of the Tengger highlands, his inquiry about the sacred robe ignited this project. When the current Tenggerese priest learns that we come from an institute in Leiden, the Netherlands, he becomes genuinely interested and asks me directly where the robe is kept. A Dutchman allegedly appropriated their sacred robe from the priest during the colonial era and deposited it at the Leiden museum. Senior individuals and former priests provided him with oral narratives and fragmented local archives. 

Following our discussion, we begin investigating the location of this robe and considering its restitution to the community. In short, his knowledge aligns with that of the Wereldmuseum in Leiden, which holds four collections of Tenggerese priest robes. However, the museum's website lacks substantial informational value. They stated, "Knowledge of this [item] has vanished."

That kind of situation is not unusual in the museum, especially in an ethnographic museum with a long history of acquiring collections from many parts of the world. Mary Louise Pratt (1992) and later James Clifford (1997) introduce the concept of an artifact as a "contact zone," a space where people geographically and historically separated come into contact with one another. Pratt located the issue within unequal colonial relations, where the histories and politics of the past several centuries have often created gaps in knowledge across generations.

Due to the longstanding and positive links between KITLV and the museums in the Netherlands, the TRACE team received a warm welcome from the Wereldmuseum management to collaborate on research with the Tenggerese communities regarding the sacred robe. The Tenggerese's understanding of the robe extends beyond its materiality, which is rather fascinating, and constitutes an integral component of what we refer to as knowledge-scapes. These knowledge-scapes reveal how Tengger communities perceive cultural-ecological-spiritual-geographical relations as nested and intertwined, flown together, in dynamic, ever-changing, powerful constellations comprising myriads of elements that make up Tenggerese eco-cultural-spiritual systems (Suhardiman & Perkasa, 2026).

The Wereldmuseum underwent a dynamic transformation in response to developments in the history of ethnographic museums and organizations in the Netherlands and the Global North. The Wereldmuseum is the current designation for the Volkenkunde Museum in Leiden, the Tropen Museum in Amsterdam, and the Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam. In the last ten years, the museum has concentrated significantly on decolonization. The decolonization process involves the museum's ongoing investigation into the provenance of artifacts, in partnership with other museums, governmental bodies, universities, and, particularly, the communities of origin. In light of that context, they welcome us, together with the Tenggerese people, to engage with the collections passionately.

Following extensive dialogue with the Tenggerese priest and communities, we agreed to arrange a hybrid visit as a preliminary step. The visit preparation was equally intensive. We have gathered all relevant information concerning the Tenggerese priest robes stored at the Wereldmuseum. Initially, it was rather simple to carry out since a substantial amount of material, including images, was readily available online. Furthermore, we extract additional information from the KITLV archives relevant to previous Tengger studies. The Wereldmuseum personnel demonstrated commendable responsiveness to our request. They provided everything we needed from their depots and made it available at the easily accessible Wereldmuseum Leiden. They also arranged the necessary technical resources to facilitate the hybrid visit.

The Tenggerese were also actively preparing for this hybrid visit. Although they were unable to attend in person, they enthusiastically organized everything they considered desirable for the visit. In addition to the priests and village elders, numerous young Tenggerese participated, particularly to ensure effective communication. Around forty people convened at their village hall for the hybrid visit, marking the first occasion in almost 150 years that these communities had viewed several ancestral artifacts, including the priestly costumes, kept at the Wereldmuseum.

All parties involved believe that numerous fruitful exchanges occurred during the visit. While the Tenggerese's initial demand for the repatriation of the priest's robe proved unfeasible in the short term, they found satisfaction in the assurance that their ancestors' legacies are well preserved and accessible to them. The management of the Wereldmuseum welcomed our efforts to advance this study and to collaborate with the community. In summary, several follow-up tasks lie ahead to unravel the Tenggerese knowledge-scapes as an important part of the TRACE journey.