As with many places, Indonesia has its own legends and myths as well, for how things came to be and just local beliefs in general. Here are some of the more fun stories, which I enjoyed as a child.
Gunung Tangkuban Perahu(
Tangkuban Perahu Mountain)
Tangkuban Perahu is a stratovolcano 30 km north of the city of Bandung, the provincial capital of West Java, Indonesia. The name translates roughly to "upturning of (a) boat" or "upturned boat" in Sundanese, referring to the local legend of its creation.
The story tells of "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. After many years in exile, Sangkuriang decided to return to his home, long after the two had forgotten and failed to recognize each other. Sangkuriang fell in love with Dayang Sumbi and planned to marry her, only for Dayang Sumbi to recognize his birthmark just as he was about to go hunting. 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 summoned mythical ogre-like creatures -buto ijo or green giant to do his bidding. 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.
Legenda Rara Jonggrang(The Legend of Rara Jonggrang)
The Legend of Rara Jonggrang is a Javanese popular legend from Central Java telling the story of love and betrayal, the knight and the cursed princess. It also explains the mythical origin of Ratu Boko palace, Sewu temple, and the Durga statue in Prambanan temple compound.
The legend tells the story about two ancient and neighbouring kingdoms in Java, Pengging and Boko. Pengging was prosperous, and wisely ruled by its king Prabu Damar Moyo who had a son named Bandung Bondowoso. By contrast, Boko was ruled by a cruel man-eating giant named Prabu Boko, supported by another giant Patih Gupolo. Despite his unpleasant nature, Prabu Boko had a beautiful daughter named Rara Jonggrang.
The story relates that Prabu Boko desired to expand his kingdom, and so began training an army and raising taxes for an invasion of Pengging. His forces launch a surprise attack on Pengging, and the ensuring war causes devastation and famine on both sides. In order to defeat the invader, Prabu Damar Moyo sends his son Bandung Bondowoso to fight Prabu Boko. After a furious battle, Prabu Boko is killed by the prince's supernatural powers. His assistant, the giant Patih Gupolo, leads his armies away from the battlefield in defeat.
Returning to Boko Palace, Patih Gupolo tells princess Rara Jonggrang of the death of her father. The princess is heartbroken, but before she can recover from her grief the Pengging army besieges and captures the palace. Prince Bandung Bondowoso is mesmerized by the beauty of the mourning princess and propose marriage, but his offer is swiftly rejected. Bandung Bondowoso insists on the union, and finally Rara Jonggrang agrees on two impossible conditions: first the prince must build a well named Jalatunda, and second, he must construct a thousand temples in only one night.
The lovestruck prince agrees, and immediately starts work on the well. Using his supernatural powers once again, the prince swiftly finishes construction and proudly displays his work for the princess. As a trick, she urges him to enter the well and when he does so, Patih Gupolo piles stones into it and buries him alive. With great effort Bandung Bondowoso escapes, but his love for the princess is so strong that he forgives her the attempt on his life.
To fulfill the second condition, the prince enters into meditation and conjures up a multitude of demon spirits from the earth. With their help he builds the first 999 temples and starts work on the final one. To thwart his efforts the princess and her maids light a fire in the east and begin pounding rice, a traditional dawn activity. Fooled into thinking the sun is about to rise, the spirits flee back into the earth leaving the last temple unfinished.
The prince is furious when he learns of this deception, and places a curse on Rara Jonggrang which turns her into a stone statue. In this way she herself becomes a feature of the final temple, completing its construction and fulfilling the conditions for their marriage.
The Legend of Jaka Tarub and Nawang Wulan(Legenda Jaka Tarub dan Nawang Wulan)
Jaka Tarub was a handsome young man who was very popular in the village. Many young girls fell in love with him. However Jaka Tarub thought that they were not beautiful enough to be his wife. One day, he went to the forest to collect some woods. Suddenly he heard some noise from the waterfall. He was curious.
Slowly, Jaka Tarub walked to the area. When he arrived there, he saw seven beautiful girls taking a bath. He was really amazed by their beauty. After they were finished, the girls slowly took their shawls. Amazingly after they wore the shawls, they flew to the sky. They were not humans. They were fairies!
On the next day, Jaka Tarub then decided to go back to the waterfall. When those fairies were taking a bath, he stole one of their shawls. The fairy whose shawl he took could not fly back to the sky. She cried, and he approached her, asking what was wrong. She explained that she had lost her shawl, and that all her sisters had left her stranded there. She told him her name was Nawang Wulan and that she would give him anything if he could find her shawl.
He promised to help her, but as he had hidden the shawl, they weren't able to find it. He took her home, and at some point they got married. They had a baby girl, a happy life, and they always had enough rice to eat. They did not have to work hard like their neighbors. It was because Nawang Wulan used her magic in cooking.
One day, Jaka Tarub asked her about the magic. Nawang Wulan did not tell him the secret and asked him not to open the cooking pan's lid. She said that if Jaka Tarub opened the lid, they had to work hard to get a lot of rice to cook.
One day, Jaka Tarub was really curious. He then opened the cooking pan's lid. He saw there was only a small portion of rice to cook. When she got home, Nawang Wulan knew that Jaka Tarub had opened the lid. She was angry because she already lost the magic in cooking.
Slowly, the rice in the silo decreased. And when Nawang Wulan wanted to take the last portion of rice, she found her shawl. Jaka Tarub had been hiding it there. Nawang Wulan was really happy. She told him she was going home and to take care of their daughter. She said when there was a full moon, he had to take their daughter out of the house and she would come to get her. Nawang Wulan then flew to the sky. Jaka Tarub was really sad. However, to keep the promise, Jaka Tarub always went out of the house with his daughter when there was full moon. But Nawang Wulan never came back.
Malin Kundang
A long time ago, in a small village near the beach in West Sumatra, a woman and her son lived. They were Malin Kundang and her mother. Her mother was a single parent because Malin Kundang's father had passed away when he was a baby. Malin Kundang had to live hard with his mother.
Malin Kundang was a healthy, dilligent, and strong boy. He usually went to sea to catch fish. After getting fish he would bring it to his mother, or sold the caught fish in the town. One day, when Malin Kundang was sailing, he saw a merchant's ship which was being raided by a small band of pirates. He helped the merchant.
With his bravery and power, Malin Kundang defeated the pirates. The merchant was so happy and thanked to him. In return the merchant asked Malin Kundang to sail with him. To get a better life, Malin Kundang agreed. He left his mother alone. Many years later, Malin Kundang became wealthy. He had a huge ship and was helped by many ship crews loading trading goods. He had a beautiful wife too. When he was sailing his trading journey, his ship landed on a beach near a small village.
The villagers recognized him. The news quickly spread in the town; Malin Kundang has become rich and now he is here. An old woman ran to the beach to meet the new rich merchant.
She was Malin Kundang’s mother. She wanted to hug him, releasing her sadness after being lonely for a long time. Unfortunately, when the mother came, Malin Kundang, who was in front of his well dressed wife and his ship crews, denied meeting that old lonely woman. For three times her mother begged Malin Kundang and for three times he yelled at her. At last Malin Kundang said to her "Enough, old woman! I have never had a mother like you, a dirty and ugly woman!" After that he ordered his crews to set sail. He would leave the old mother again, but this time she was full of both sadness and anger.
Finally, enraged, she cursed Malin Kundang that he would turn into a stone if he didn't apologize. Malin Kundang just laughed and really set sail. In the quiet sea, suddenly a thunderstorm came. His huge ship was wrecked and he was thrown by the wave out of his ship. He fell on a small island.
It was really too late for him to avoid his curse. Suddenly, he turned into a stone.
Legenda Danau Toba
(The Legend of Lake Toba)
Lake Toba is a large natural lake occupying the caldera of a supervolcano. The lake is about 100 kilometres long, 30 kilometres wide, and up to 505 metres (1,666 ft) deep. Located in the middle of the northern part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, with a surface elevation of about 900 metres, it is the largest lake in Indonesia and also the largest volcanic lake in the world.
Lake Toba is the site of a massive supervolcanic eruption estimated at VEI 8 that occurred 69,000 to 77,000 years ago, representing a climate-changing event. It is the largest known explosive eruption on Earth in the last 25 million years. According to the Toba catastrophe theory, it had global consequences for human populations: it killed most humans living at that time and is believed to have created a population bottleneck in central east Africa and India, which affects the genetic make up of the human world-wide population to the present.
Long time ago, there was a wanderer, named Sibuatan. After wandering over so many places, he finally decided to stay in one place; it was on the river bank near the valley. He was so pleased staying in this new place because it has beautiful scenery, fresh air, and the most fertile land. He did his daily works like cultivating the land, collecting vegetables and firewood, and catching fish for his meal diligently.
One afternoon, when he went fishing, he caught a very big fish which has golden scales. "Hurray! I got a giant fish. I will have a big dinner tonight!" said Sibuatan happily. He walked home quickly to cook the fish. When he arrived in his house, he put the fish on the table in the kitchen; meanwhile he went down to get some firewood underneath the house. However, when he came back from collecting fire-woods he was so surprised to find out a beautiful woman in his house instead of the fish. Sibuatan’s heart beat very fast, he knew he fell in love with that woman which he soon learned was a transformation of the big fish he had caught that day. Without second thought Sibuatan proposed her to marry him. The woman agreed to marry him on one term, Sibuatan wouldn't ever mention her origin to anyone. Sibuatan agreed with it. He was too happy to have such a beautiful wife.
A year passed and they had a son named Sam. Since he was a little, her mother spoiled him. So, when he was big enough his behavior was bad. He was a lazy boy, just played around the river and never helped and respected his parents. He was good at swimming and diving and did it everyday, but his father wanted him to help him in the field.
One day when Sam's mother told him to deliver his father's lunch, he ate it little by little while walking. When he arrived at the field, there was only a little food left. His father got very angry finding this fact. Everyday Sam only played around, and when for the first time he was given a task delivering his father's lunch, he didn't only arrive late but also had eaten the lunch. Sibuatan could not control his anger anymore. He smacked and cursed his son. "You are really area son of a fish! You can't be taught well. All you want to do is playing in the river like fish. Get out of my sight!" he was furious.
The boy ran home, crying and then told his mother that he was cursed as a son of a fish by his father. His mother was very sad to know that his husband had broken his oath. Sibuatan told her origin to their son. The woman then told Sam to climb the hill behind their house as high as he could. Without asking anymore, Sam went away. When his mother saw his son had climbed high the hill, she walked to the bank of the river. Then, thunder struck one after the other. The woman jumped into the river. She transformed back into a big fish. The rain came down hardly with thunder rumbled. The river overflowed so fast and kept overflowed till the big valley that circled the hill where Sam had climbed up was covered by water. Sam cried when he watched from top of the hill what had happened. The overflow from the river became a big lake with an island in the centre. That lake is known as Lake Toba, meanwhile the hill is named as Samosir Island. The name came from the words "the son (Sam) that was chased away (diusir)".
Subject: Legenda Indonesia - Indonesian Legends 
24th September 2016, 7:58 am
I didn't know that Lake Toba had a legend like that. XD
