If you know me for a while, I used to have something called Timeless Architecture series where I explored parts of Indonesia containing history and buildings from the 8th to recent times. From all these explorations, I only learned that there are many smaller kingdoms and civilizations that are missing from my radar.

Ancient civilization and its wisdom are always a mesmerizing topic and subject to explore. Unfortunately, in the country, often these places are shrouded with mysticism and rely a lot on fictional stories to preserve their place. From spring to temples to significant areas, these are the factual heritage that shows a certain civilization and kingdom thrived in the country. Now, let me take you to explore one of the spring water sites that has its cultural significance from the 12th century.

Today, I visited an area where spring water is abundant. The area is also known by locals to be the place where people meditate and a place where people look for mystical assistance. Whether you believe it or not, people visited these places for various reasons including gaining wealth, getting healthier and getting relief from their ailment. But these places itself leave you wondering.

The gates of these places are often guarded by Dvarapala. They look pretty scary and they often have fangs. In Indonesia, they are always a giant but uniquely today, they look like a smaller giant with a flatter headband. This type of dvarapala is uniquely/commonly found around these areas compared to Central Java or other parts of Java. The place that we visited today in the local tongue is called Sendang Tirto Kamandanu. It is located in East Java, Kediri and used to be a part of Jayabaya kingdom dating from the 12th century.

Not only guarded by Dvarapala on each sides of the area, they have statues of what seemingly hindu gods and goddesses. This area is influenced by a mix of hinduism and local folk believes. From a brief interaction with the locals, they mentioned that many Balinese visit the place to take the water from this spring. Even the similar rituals that are done in Bali called Melukat are also done in this area. It is also safe to say that these are part of the remaining of ancient hinduism that was once exist and thrived in the region.

When we entered the area, there’s no entrance fee but a donation that was written for their cultural events every 1st month of the javanese calendar or called “1 Suro” in local language. For Javanese this is almost equal to lunar new year but the javanese use sun instead of lunar calendar. So, every new year, in this place they organize an event to celebrate using their local culture and festivals. We were also required to fill in our name and where we came from just for additional data. We circled the area. It was a typical sacred and ancient place all across the country. It has a similar vibe except when you’re inside the place it is nice to do a meditation. Sadly there were some experiences that made us go back quicker than expected.

Since it was my mom and I who mostly explored the area, we felt some type of eerie vibe from the place. We tried getting into the water source but inside the place, there were a few creepy looking men sleeping and lounging around the hall. We wanted to explore more but because we didn’t want anything to happen, we ended up going back and just got back into the parking lot and talked to the locals. We ended up learning quite a bit from the locals instead of just wandering the place.

As we got back, I noticed a few more places all around the area. There are also cemeteries that are considered sacred and there is also a sign that shows the guardian of the place. Whenever going to these places the #1 source of the storytelling is always the guardian but unless you have an actual need, just casually exploring the area and reading what is written on the site helps.

When you look at these like myself, a mix of anthropology + structural point of view, there are things that particularly don’t interest me esp the need to actually understand deeper of its spirituality side of it. Personally, what stands out the most is the figure of Dvarapala or the guardian that looks a lot different from the ones I saw in Thailand, even all around Indonesia. I might need to actually find what they are because they definitely look different from the ones all around the country.

On our way back, we decided to stop by a humble stall selling specialty food of the place. In this place, they sell assorted vegetables with peanut sauce. It is served with steamed rice that they call pecel punten.

Punten is made of steamed rice with salt and bay leaves. They taste salty which is unlike most steamed rice that can be found across the country where it’s often tasteless and nothing added to it. As you can see below, the portion is quite huge and I didn’t even finish it. For a plate of this, it costs 10,000 or equals $0.64. This stall was not the most famous one but it was packed with diners who wanted to eat a filling meal at a cheap price.

Somehow, my day can get so random like that but it’s always those random trips that I manage to learn something new and discover new things; just like that Dvarapala that I think is so unique and wanted to learn more.

Anyhow, see you in my next adventure!