Nyai Loro Kidul ( English )

NYAI LORO KIDUL

It is not known that Nyai Loro Kidul has been named in Javanese history. It was Panembahan Senopati (1586-1601 AD), founder of the Mataram Sultanate, and his grandson Sultan Agung (1613-1645 AD) who named the Kanjeng Ratu Kidul as their bride in the Babad Tanah Jawi.(the creation story of Java).One original Sundanese folks telling is about Dewi Kadita of the Pajajaran Kingdom, in Western Java, who desperately sought the Southern Sea after black magic had hit her. She jumped into the violent waves of the Indian Ocean where the spirits and demons crowned the girl to the legendary Spirit-queen of the South Sea.While another Sundanese folks telling shows how Banyoe Bening (meaning clear water) becomes Queen of the Djojo Koelon Kingdom and, suffering from leprosy, travels to the South where she is taken up by a huge wave to disappear into the Southern Ocean.A very complicated story goes about the Ajar Cemara Tunggal (Adjar Tjemara Toenggal) on the mountain of Kombang in the Pajajaran Kingdom. He is a male seer who actually was the beautiful great aunt of Raden Joko Susuruh. She told him to go to the east of Java to found a kingdom on the place where a maja-tree just had one fruit; the fruit was bitter, pait in Javanese, and the kingdom got the name of Majaphait. The seer Cemara Tunggal would marry the founder of Majapahit and any descendant in first line, to help in all kind of matters. Though after he (the seer) would have transmigrated into the "spirit-queen of the south" who shall reign over the spirits, demons and all dark creatures. After all it is because of these traditions that the myth about Nyai Loro Kidul got a Sundanese, West-Javanese origin.