The Legend of Tangkuban Perahu

Little is known about the legend of Tangkuban Perahu. Some Sundanese people have been familiar with the legend of Sangkuriang.

Long time ago in West Java, there lived a woman named Dayang Sumbi. She was thirsting for a husband. Along her life, she kept praying and praying. At last, God heard her pray. A male dog picked her up and

Dayang Sumbi got married to the dog, and called the dog 'Tumang'. After years, Dayang Sumbi gave a birth to baby and named him Sangkuriang. Unfortunately, Dayang Sumbi never told him who his father was.

One day, Sangkurinag was hunting with Tumang in the forest, and he found nothing except a little animal. He blamed Tumang for the failure, and then he killed Tumang. When Dayang Sumbi knew what Sangkuriang had done, she hit Sangkuriang's head with a big spoon and expelled him.

Many years later, Sangkuriang wandered and found an old house in the forest. Sangkuriang came closer to the house, and there was an old beautiful woman. The woman, Dayang Sumbi recognized the wandered as Sangkuriang by the scar on his forehead.

Unintentionally, Sangkuriang forced Dayang Sumbi to marry him, but Dayang Sumbi rejected his demand because she knew that Sangkuriang was her son. Sangkuriang still forced her so many times with many efforts. Finally, Dayang Sumbi agreed to marry him with a requirement that Sangkuriang had to build a vast boat, just in one night.

At night, Sangkuriang called his friends, ghosts and fairies to help him make the boat. Feared with the boat to complete, Dayang Sumbi asked other women in the village to help her. Then the women punched the grains with grain puncher to make noise which molested the ghosts and fairies.

The morning came before Sangkuriang completed the boat. Unfortunately, the ghosts and the fairies also left Sangkuriang alone. Finally Sangkuriang got very angry and kicked away the boat to the downside, which finally turned into a mountain, called Tangkuban Perahu.