Preserving the Mandate of Astana Gede Kawali

KOMPAS/DEDI MUHTADI

Cikawali Spring, at an ancient site in Astana Gede Village, Kawali district, Ciamis regency, West Java, is known locally as part of the former center of the Sunda Galuh Government in the 14th century. The spring is believed to have been the bathing place of the daughter of King Galuh Diah Pitaloka, who died in the Bubat war.

Astana Gede in northern Ciamis is the former capital of the Galuh kingdom in the 14^th century. Six stones with inscriptions have been found at an archeological site on the eastern slope of Mount Sawal, three of which contain ancestral mandates that have been preserved by the residents of Tatar Galuh (Ciamis).

The Pasundan Bubat battle is described in the ancient manuscripts of Kitab Pararaton and Kidung Sundayana. The battle took place during the time of King Prabu Maharaja Linggabuana, who ruled the Sunda-Galuh kingdom from the capital city of Astana Gede, Kawali. The battle occurred when a group from the Sunda-Galuh kingdom was escorting Princess Diah Pitaloka, who had been promised in marriage by Majapahit ruler Hayam Wuruk.

When the group arrived in Bubat, Mahapatih (prime minister) Gajah Mada informed them that the group served as a tribute that signified the subjugation of Galuh-Sunda under Majapahit. King Linggabuana, who led the group, rejected the idea and the ensuing chaos led to the Battle of Bubat, which claimed the lives of the king and his daughter. “The tale is also mentioned in the manuscript of Wangsakerta, but historians have doubts about its authenticity,” said Astana Gede Kawali writer Djadja Sukardja (2002).

The ancient manuscript Negarakertagama does not include the tale of the battle of Bubat. Djadja said the story of the ancient battle might have been a ruse by colonial forces to create conflict among ethnicities in the Dutch East Indies.

Regardless of the controversy surrounding the Bubat incident, the Astana Gede complex and its ancient inscriptions are have been preserved by locals. Research by the Dutch colonial government found that the center of the Sunda-Galuh kingdom was located in what is now Kawali village in Ciamis regency, West Java.

The archeological site is located in a 5-hectare protected forest on the eastern slope of Mt. Sawal, some 400 meters above sea level. According to a research team from Padjadjaran University in Bandung led by history professor Nina Lubis, Astana Gede it is archeological remains of the Sunda-Galuh kingdom.

Since 2014, a team has excavated ancient man-made terraces at Astana Gede. The team first found indications of the presence of such an ancient structure in research held from May 28 to June 3, 2014.

Ancient site

Astana Gede has now become a tourist destination. Jagat Palaka Kawali Artists and Culturists Association head Daday Hendarman Praja, 63, said the association preserved historical sites, including cultural and environmental heritage sites.

As a representation of local communities, the association independently preserves and promotes the mandates of the Kawali inscriptions. However, in the 2000s, strong winds toppled thousands of trees in the Astana Gede forest.

The oldest tree was estimated to be 350 years old. The hardwood tree, locally called a peusar tree, was 35 meters high. “Some 300 trees, some of which were between 150 and 200 years old, were uprooted and carried by the wind to residential areas,” Daday said.

In 2001, the Jagat Palaka association encouraged locals to replant trees in Astana Gede Kawali. The Ciamis regency administration supplied thousands of tree seedlings. Replanting was done in stages. Up to 2015, some 21,000 trees of various species had been replanted in a 5-hectare area in what used to be an area of the Galuh kingdom.

Before the replanting effort, the forest area between Astana Gede and the Cikawali water spring was cut off by a 2.5-hectare cassava farm. This has been remedied by the replanting effort, which involved mahogany, rasamala (Altingia excels Noronha) and camphor trees.

The Cikawali water spring is believed to have been the old bathing place of Princess Diah Pitaloka. The water spring has never dried up even during prolonged droughts. However, after the forest area on Mt. Sawal was converted, the water level of the spring decreased during the dry season.

“The spring was partially covered by a landslide in 2012,” Astana Gede Kawali caretaker Dae Durahman, 40, said. He worked with the Jagat Palaka association to remove the earth left by the landslide and restore the Cikawali water spring.

Cikawali is used to measure vegetation on Mt. Sawal and as a source of water for the people of Ciamis. The water spring flows to the Cibulan River on the south side of Astana Gede.

Ancestral mandate

Efforts to preserve Astana Gede have been ongoing since 1992. However, the Jagat Palaka association has only been active since 1998, by intensively disseminating information on Astana Gede’s history. Since 1996, efforts to promote local cultures, including the content of the Kawali inscription, have been conducted.

There are six stones with inscriptions in Astana Gede, comprising three with meanings and three signifying the functions of the inscriptions. According to Thomas Stamford Raffles in The History of Java, the inscriptions are mainly about veneration of the king.

The first inscription, on a square andesite stone, has 10 lines of writing in the ancient Sundanese alphabet. The mandates include one that king Prabu Raja Wastu should ensure the welfare of his people and a wish for a good successor after him to ensure the kingdom’s glorious future.

According to Daday, the decree of Linggabuana’s successor king Wastu Kancana (1371-1475), has a broad meaning. It is mainly about his hopes that his descendants and the people of Sunda Galuh in general work hard and remain sincere and honest. In today’s world, being honest means rejecting corruption.

Ensuring a glorious future means that one must be remembered for a long time due to one’s deeds. Daday cited former Ciamis regent, the late Taufik Hidayat, who established many city parks in Ciamis when he was in office from 1988 to 1993. People remember him until now as his work continues to benefit everyone in Ciamis long after he died.