27 Jan

KOTAGEDE ROYAL CEMETERY

KOTAGEDE ROYAL CEMETERYKOTAGEDE ROYAL CEMETERY. Hastorenggo cemetery, a 1930s cemetery complex for the descendants of royal family of Kraton Yogyakarta. The royal cemetery is named Makam (Pasareyan) Hasta Kitha Ageng. It is located to the west of the Great Mosque. It is the most intact part of Kotagede. Chronicles mention that Senapati’s father, Ki Gedhe Mataram, was buried to the west of the mosque and Senapati himself was buried to the south of the mosque, in the direction of his father’s feet.

Other important people buried in the cemetery is Sultan Hadiwijaya. The cemetery is guarded and maintained by Juru Kunci who are employed by the two palaces of Yogyakarta and Surakarta. The portal to the cemetery has the feature of Hindu architecture, each portal contains a thick wooden handle heavily decorated with carvings.

The walled cemetery does not act as a physical protection of the tomb treasure from robbery, as the tradition to accompany the death with valuables stopped existing in Java since the introduction of Islam. Rather these enclosures separate the realm of the dead from those of the living.

Another royal cemetery on site is Hastorenggo cemetery. Built in 1934, it is the royal cemetery for the descendants of Kraton Yogyakarta and is still used today.

Kotagede, which is often, called Sargede lies about five km southeast of Yogyakarta. In this old-city, tourist can visit the cemetery of the Mataram Kings like Sutowijoyo, also known as Ngabei Loring Pasar the founder of the Mataram kingdom who was then called Panembahan Senopati. There is also the unique tomb of Ki Ageng Mangir. He was Panembahan Senopati’s son in law and his enemy at the same time. His body was buried outside the complex. A hundred meters away from the tomb, there is a stone called “Watu Gilang”, the stone on which Panembahan Senopati smashed the head of Ki Ageng Mangir to dead.

Those who want to go inside the cemetery have to wear traditional clothes that one can hire there. Kotagede Royal Cemetery opens on Monday at 10 am – 12 am, and at 01.30 pm – 4 pm on Friday. In addition to cemetery, there are “graceful gates”; ponds will be full of Clarius Melenodermas and yellow turtle. This turtle is hundred years of age and also had had believed as a sacred miraculous turtle.