Sunday, 12Nov06
Highlights: Imogiri tombs, Kraton, goodbyes to Prof. Wheeler & Carool, fly home to Jakarta, dinner with neighbor
7:30 am, we picked everyone up at the hotel & took Carool to the airport (goodbye #2), before heading to the southern stretches of Yogya & the Imogiri cemetery of kings.
Yogya was the center of the Mataram kingdom several centuries ago, and the long line of Kings are buried here, going as far back as Sultan Agung, the 3rd generation of Matarm Kings, and the first to convert to Islam. The history of the Mataram kingdom is still revered, and current Sultans of Yogya and Solo, HM X & ___, are direct descendants. The kingdom was split by the Dutch in ___, when a power struggle of succession couldn’t be resolved internally.
Parts of the history are still confusing, as I sometimes hear reference to an earlier Hindu kingdom by the same name (Mataram).
There are some 480 something steps to climb to reach the burial grounds. Our guide invited us to count, as tourists often come up with different numbers. (mystique of these grounds?) Sure enough, between catching my breath & counting in bahasa Indonesia I was a few digits off. Must be the mystique.
Highlights: Imogiri tombs, Kraton, goodbyes to Prof. Wheeler & Carool, fly home to Jakarta, dinner with neighbor
7:30 am, we picked everyone up at the hotel & took Carool to the airport (goodbye #2), before heading to the southern stretches of Yogya & the Imogiri cemetery of kings.
Yogya was the center of the Mataram kingdom several centuries ago, and the long line of Kings are buried here, going as far back as Sultan Agung, the 3rd generation of Matarm Kings, and the first to convert to Islam. The history of the Mataram kingdom is still revered, and current Sultans of Yogya and Solo, HM X & ___, are direct descendants. The kingdom was split by the Dutch in ___, when a power struggle of succession couldn’t be resolved internally.
Parts of the history are still confusing, as I sometimes hear reference to an earlier Hindu kingdom by the same name (Mataram).
There are some 480 something steps to climb to reach the burial grounds. Our guide invited us to count, as tourists often come up with different numbers. (mystique of these grounds?) Sure enough, between catching my breath & counting in bahasa Indonesia I was a few digits off. Must be the mystique.
posted by jonathan adventures at 5:42 AM
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