A long time ago, there lived a beautiful
woman by the name Roro Anteng. She was a reknown beauty and had attracted the
attention of an evil giant. Because the evil giant possessed extraordinary
magical powers, Roro Anteng dared not reject the giant’s advances when he
proposed to her. Roro thought of a plan to get away from the marriage without
offending the giant. In order to get her hand in marriage, the giant had to
fufill her wishes.
Roro then concocted a difficult request in
hopes that the giant did not have the power to fufill it. She had asked him to
make her a sandy desert in between the mountains in one night and before the
break of dawn.
Unfortunately for her, the giant magically
and swiftly begin to work his powers and was near completing her wishes. The
fast thinking Roro Anteng quickly thought of an idea to disrupt the completion,
she made all sorts of noises that woke up the roosters. The roosters began to
crow bringing dawn in.
On hearing the rooster’s calls, which signalled
the break of dawn, the giant was shocked for having failed his task.
Frustrated, he threw the coconut shell that he used to dig the desert, the
shell fell to the ground beside Mount Bromo, forming what is now knows as Mount
Batok (coconut shell). The sandy plain was to form the Tengger caldera.
The story continues with Roro Anteng falling
in love with Joko Seger, a descendant of the great Majapahit Kingdom who had
led a reclusive life on the desolate mountain range.
They were married, living happily blessed
with many children. Their children and their descendents formed the tribal
community of the Tengger (taken from the names ‘Roro Anteng’ and Joko Seger”).
This was the story of how the Tenggerese
tribe came to be and how they lived the lands.
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