THE STORY OF SANGKURIANG
(Folk Tale from West Java )
Once upon a time, in Sunda – West Java , living a Princes named Dayang Sumbi. Dayang Sumbi had a son named Sangkuriang. Sangkuriang really liked hunting in the jungle and always asked his dog, Tumang, to accompany him to go hunting. Actually Tumang was an incarnation of god and a father of Sangkuriang.
One day, As usual Sangkuriang went hunting in the jungle. There he saw a bird in the tree and soon shot the bird. The shot was right on target but the bird flew. Sangkuriang ordered Tumang to run after it, but Tumang didn’t want to do it. Sangkuriang ordered a few time and Tumang kept doing nothing. Sangkuriang got angry. He beat Tumang and drove it away.
A soon as Sangkuriang arrived at home, he told it his mother.
His mother was angry because Sangkuriang had driven Tumang away. Then, Dayang Sumbi beat Sangkuriang. Sangkuriang did not like his mother treatment and decided to go from the house.
After that incident, Dayang Sumbi felt regrets. She prayed to God that one day she would meet her son again. Every night and everyday she prayed and prayed. Because she prayed diligently, God gave her an eternal beauty and young forever.
After leaving his village for a long time, Sangkuriang went back to his village. He was surprised because his village had changed a lot. He become more surprising and happier when he met a beautiful girl in the village, Dayang Sumbi, which was also his mother.
Sangkuriang proposed her and Dayang Sumbi agreed with his proposal. They planned to get married soon.
One Dayang Sumbi saw scar in Sangkuriang’s head. She ask him about the scar and Sangkuriang told about it. Dayang Sumbi surprised because Sangkuriang was her son that had left her for a long time. It was impossible for getting married with her own son.
One day Dayang Sumbi was confused. She asked Sangkuring to cancel their marriage plan but Sangkuriang didn’t agree with it.
Finally, Dayang Sumbi proposed two requirement of Sangkuriang wanted to keep getting married with her. First, he had to damn Citarum river and second, he had to make a canoed to across the river. Both had to be finished before dawn.
Sangkuriang agreed with both requirements and promised to finish them before down.
With his power and helped by his friends and jin, he did the two job and almost finished them.
Dayang Sumbi silently saw Sangkuriang’s job and was surprised because he almost finished them. Because she didn’t want Sangkuriang finished before dawn, she asked for people’s help to hold silk cloth in the east of the village.
When Sangkuriang saw the red color in the east of village, he thought that he failed. He was upset and break the dam. The water of the dam flew to the village. The village was flooded and drowns. He also kicked the big canoe and the big canoe changed into a mountain called Tangkuban Perahu.
