Tangkuban Perahu, The Mountain that Born the Legend - West Java
Tangkuban Perahu mountain or better known just Tangkuban Perahu is one of popular mountains in West Java, the distance is about 20 Km from Bandung.
Tangkuban Perahu is a popular tourist attraction where tourists can hike or ride to the edge of the crater to view the hot water springs and boiling mud up close, and buy eggs cooked on the hot surface.
The name of Tangkuban Perahu is derived from the Sundanese word of “upturning of a boat" or "upturned boat" in Sundanese, referring to the local legend of its creation. Tangkuban Perahu is also popular by its folklore about Dayang Sumbi", a beauty who lived in West Java. She cast away her son "Sangkuriang" for disobedience, and in her sadness was granted the power of eternal youth by the gods.
One at the time, Sangkuriang fell in love with Dayang Sumbi and planned to marry her. In order to prevent the marriage from taking place, Dayang Sumbi asked Sangkuriang to build a dam on the river Citarum and to build a large boat to cross the river, both before the sunrise.
Sangkuriang meditated and ask for help to the dark power. Dayang Sumbi saw that the tasks were almost completed and called on her workers to spread red silk cloths east of the city, to give the impression of impending sunrise. Sangkuriang was fooled, and upon believing that he had failed, kicked the dam and the unfinished boat, resulting in severe flooding and the creation of Tangkuban Perahu from the hull of the boat.
