Cangkuang Temple West Java’s Oldest Shrine
February 14, 2008 – 3:24 pm
Dating back to Java’s Hindu period, the Cangkuang Temple is one of West Java’s oldest monuments. Beautifully situated near Leles north of Garut, Cangkuang is a magical visit back to old Sundanese roots. From Bandung and back this outing takes five to six hours.
A bamboo raft glides across a small lake overgrown with water lilies to the temple located on peninsula. On the other side a flight of stairs leads through a grove of big old trees to the temple located on the hilltop.
Cangkuang is the oldest preserved building in West Java. Estimates of when it was built vary between the 7th and 10th century A.D., during the Sunda kingdom of Galuh, remains of which can be seen at Karang Kamulyan. The Dutch Archeological Service first reported the collapsed remains of the temple in 1914, but not until the 60’s was the site more closely investigated. The foundations and a sufficient number of stones remained (about 40% of the original) to enable reconstruction in the 70’s.
The temple door faces the rising sun. Inside is a statue of Siva sitting on a cow, leading one to believe that the temple was devoted to Siva during Java’s Hindu era. Prior to reconstruction, the site was a place of worship and pilgrims often came here to lift one of the stones to obtain good luck. Such practices are still alive elsewhere today (visit: Pasir Panyandaan).
Adjacent to the temple is the grave of Arief Muhammad, who was an officer in the Central Javanese Mataram army. In the 17th century this army repeatedly but unsuccessfully attacked the Dutch base in Batavia, then under the command of Jan Pieterszoon Coen. After the failed expeditions, Arief Muhammad settled here, married, and raised six daughters and one son.
The inhabitants of the cluster of traditional houses below Cangkuang Temple, beyond the small fence of the lower end of the stairs, consider themselves descendants of Arief Muhammad. This hamlet is called Kampung Pulo (Island Village) and consists of six houses and a small prayer hall. The inhabitants here practice a number of remarkable traditions: the hamlet must always have six households living in six houses, and all others must not be changed, in particular no house may have a square roof; nobody is allowed to pay homage to Arief Muhammad on Wednesdays, apparently because the himself had forbidden to raise four-legged animals in the village, as they might disturb the environment.
Elsewhere in the Leles Valley, there are reportedly megaliths on various hilltops. These stone slabs are sometimes placed flat on the ground as terraces and sometimes erected as menhirs, as found in parts of Sumatra and in Kuningan.
