The Legend of Sangkuriang

This is an example of how natural events were converted into a legend, such as Bandung Lake and Gunung Tangkuban Parahu with the queen Dayang Sumbi and her son Sangkuriang cited from Neumann van Padang (1971). Once Sangkuriang, in his boyhood was so impertiment to his an ugly wound. The king, who loved his son above everything, was so furious he repudiated his wife.

Fifteen years later, being of age, Sangkuriang asked his father permission to take a trip to West Java. He met a beautiful lady after arriving in the plain of Bandung. He fell in love and asked her to marry him. She accepted. But one day when she caressed her lover’s head she saw the wound. The loving woman, who was the disowned queen, discovered that she was in love with her son and marriage was impossible.

The marriage had to be prevented. Not willing to confess that she was his mother, she thought of a way out. The day before the marriage the queen said “My beloved friend tomorrow is our wedding, if you truly love me as much as you say do then fulfill my wish. I want to celebrate the wedding on board a ship, a proa. Tomorrow morning at day break I want to sail with you on a great lake in a nice boat and the feast must be adorned by a banquet”. Sangkuriang was embarrassed but he was not willing to refuse. He begged the help of the dewata’s the helpful spirits. By landslide the dewata’s dammed the river Citarum that flowed through the plain of Bandung. The water. A big tree was cut down and a proa was constructed while other dewata’s prepared the wedding banquet.

Early in the morning the queen saw that the impossible had been realized. Then she prayed to Brama, the mighty God, to help her to prevent the disgrace of a marriage between a mother and her son.

Brama destroyed the dam in turbulence. Sangkuriang was drowned and the queen in her agony threw herself on the capsized boat, breaking through the hull of the ship and was also drowned. Now the vast plain of Bandung is flanked on its northside by the capsized proa, the volcano Tangkubanparahu. The queen jump on the hull of the ship is the kawah ratu, the “crater of queen”. The hot fumaroles and tremors in the crater show that the heard of the sad mother is still sobbing. Water of the lake streamed away with such force that the ship and was also drowned.

Language in West Java

Language

The majority of the people in West Java speak the Sundanese language with its various dialects as a means of communication. Because of the Javanese influence, when the Sunda Java lands was under the authority of Mataram, a kingdom in Central Java, the Sundanese language knows classes, called “undak-usuk” basa, I, e. the use of language according to the social classes. So, the language has “high” and “low” form. In principle the undak-usuk basa claims that every language user be loyal to the stimulated use of certain words for certain people according to his or her position or class in society. These words are in fact just synonyms, but the use may not be mixed up. When this happens, the speaker is considered violating the code of conduct, because he is regarded uneducated and impolite. This, however, does not hold for foreigners and visitor.