The legend of Tangkuban Perahu

TIMESINDONESIA, JAKARTA – The legend of Tangkuban Perahu was casted by a mother Dayang
sumbi and her son Sangkuriang. This story took place in Java and was become a popular short story
till now. So let’s read the story.

Once upon a time, there are a god and goddess which were detained for breaking the rules. They
both then were sentenced to live the rest of their life in the world while doing good deeds. During
their time on earth the God was turned into a dog named Tumang and the the Goddess turned into a
swine named Wayung Hyang.

Tumang was owned by a king named Sumbing Prabangkara and live in the palace. Both become good
friend, and stick like a glue. One day, King Sumbing decided to go for hunt to the nearest forest.
Apparently, it’s the forest where Wayung Hyang lives.

At the forest, the king needed to do his thing, and apparently his pee was cupped in a coconut shell.
Little did they know, Wayung Hyang who felt thirsty and found the ‘water’ in coconut shell drank it
and she became pregnant. 9 month after the pregnancy, right after Wayung Hyang gave birth, the
king back to hunt on the same forest.

He heard a baby crying, looking for it, and found a lovely baby girl. He took the baby to the palace
withourt knowing that it was his daughter and named her Dayang Sumbi.

Long story short, Dayang Sumbi grew up to be a loveliest girl in the country. Lots of prince quarreled
and fought over her. Dayang Sumbi who felt uncomfortable chose to remain silent and move to the
middle of nowhere where no one knows her. There she lives only with Tumang, her bestfriend.

She spend her live weaving clothes with traditional loom she has. One day the loom was fallen to the
ground and she was too lazy to pick it up. She swore to herself anyone who brought her the loom if
she’s a girl then she will consider her as her sister, and if he was a man then she would marry him.

Suddenly, Tumang appeared and bring her the loom. As her promised, she married Tumang. As his
husband Tumang revealed himself and turn himself to be a lovely God only when the full moon
comes. Daang Sumbi then became pregnant in no time. The king was so angry to hear about this. He
casted her out of his family name and told her to live far away from the palace.
Long story short, Dayang Sumbi has a prettiest baby boy you could ever see. She named him
Sangkuriang. He grew up to be a descent strong pretty guy who loves her mother without knowing
that the dog who happened to stay with him all along was his father.

One day, Dayang Sumbi sent him to go for hunt. She told her son that she wanted a deer heart for
dinner. Sangkuriang took Tumang to go with him. Yet, he couldn’t found any deer after three days of
hunting. He was too afraid of going home with an empty hand.

Suddenly, he saw a pig and asked Tumang to go for it. Tumang remained silence since he knew it was
Wayung Hyang, her granny. Sangkuriang was so upset and point her bow and arrow to Tumang.
Accidentally he got shot and died.

Tumang asked him to get his heart to be given to his mother. This young guy cried with tears for he
couldn't bear the sadness of losing his best friend. He took Tumang's heart as he wish and came
home to her mom.

Dayang Sumbi was so happy to have her son back. Yet, she was curious why didn’t Tumang came
along. She asked Sangkuriang where Tumang was. But Sangkuriang kept silent and didn’t tell the
truth. Dayang Sumbi who have a good instinct found out that it was Tumang’s heart. She hit
Sangkuriang on his head and then casted him out.

Time flew by, Sangkuriang has grown up to be a good looking man with well-built body. Meanwhile
Dayang Sumbi who was a descendant of Goddess was given an eternal beauty and stays forever
young. Sangkuriang who wandered anywhere, one day reached his house yet he couldn’t remember
that it was his former residence.

Dayang Sumbi didn’t recognize him either when they met around the house. They both fell in love
and planned to get married soon. On the day of their marriage, Dayang Sumbi fixed Sangkuriang’s
bang. She found a scar on his head and remembered her old forgotten son.

Dayang Sumbi then called out the marriage and explained everything to Sangkuriang. Blinded by his
love, Sangkuriang couldn’t take the explanation and kept resisting marrying his own mom. He even
threatened that he will destroy everything he found. Dayang Sumbi who knew that Sangkuriang has
such God power felt threatened with it.

She then thought of an idea on how to defect the marriage. She gave Sangkuriang a term that she
thought he won’t be able to fulfill. In order to marry her, he needed to build her a huge lake along
with the boat just in a night. If he could fulfill it then she would marry him.

Sangkurinag with his Godey superpower asked the genies and spirits to help his work done in just a
few hours before the dawn. Dayang Sumbi who didn’t expect that to happen was so surprised and
thought of an idea. She made a huge fire in the east to decoy Sangkuriang so he thought the dawn
had coming.

The genies that thought it was the dawn were afraid of the sunlight run away and left Sangkuriang
alone. Sangkuriang was so mad that couldn’t finish his work. The coconut shell he used to dig the
ground was thrown to the East and becomes Mount Manglayang.

Sangkuriang kicked away the boat he made and apparently it was laid down on the back. The boat
then turned into Mount Tangkuban Perahu. Tangkuban Perahu literally means upside down boat. Yes,
believe it or not, the mountain looks like an upside down boat.