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The Tenggerese in Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park


The Tenggerese in Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park

The area in and around the park is inhabited by the Tenggerese, one of the few significant Hindu communities left on the island of Java. The local religion is a remnant from the Majapahit era and therefore quite similar to that on Bali but with even more animist elements. The Tenggerese are believed to be descendents of the Majapahit princes and were driven into the hills after mass arrivals in the area of devoutly Muslim Madurese in the 19th century. These Madurese immigrants were labourers working for Dutch coffee plantation owners and the native Hindu people of the region soon found themselves outnumbered and either converted to Islam or fled to the inhospitable high mountain tops where they remain today. The religion is quite low key though (certainly when compared to Bali) with the most visible manifestation of faith being the rather austere Poten temple in the sea of sand. The Tenggerese number about 600,000 and they reside in 30 villages scattered in and around the park with smaller communities elsewhere in East Java. For many visitors, the sight of the angular-faced, sunburned, moustachioed Tenggerese wrapped in poncho-like blankets, trotting about on ponies with craggy mountains as the backdrop, more resembles Peru than Indonesia!

The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park

Roro Anteng and Joko Seger

Javanese folklore has it that during the 15th century, Princess Roro Anteng (daughter of the Majapahit King Brawijaya) and her husband Joko Seger fled marauding Islamic forces, ending up in safety at Mount Bromo. Here they developed a new kingdom, and named it Teng-ger using parts of their respective surnames.

The Kingdom of Tengger prospered and their religion flourished, but the royal couple were unable to produce an heir to the throne. In desperation they prayed and meditated on Bromo for many days before the crater opened and the almighty god Hyang Widi Wasa announced that they would be given children, with the condition that the last borne was to be sacrificed back to the mountain.

No less than 25 children were produced, but many years later Roro and Joko broke the condition and refused to sacrifice their last borne, Prince Kesuma. A dreadful eruption of Bromo followed and swallowed Kesuma into the crater. To appease the great God, Kesuma's brothers and sisters held an offering ceremony at the crater once every year, and this still happens today — the famous Upacara Kasada held on the full moon of the 12th month (Kasada) of the Tenggerese calendar.


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Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.

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