Once
upon a time, there was a kingdom named Prambanan. The people lived peacefully.
However, their happy lives was disturbed by Pengging Kingdom. The king, Bandung
Bandawasa, wanted to occupy Prambanan. He was a mean King.
The
war between Prambanan and Pengging could not be avoided. Prambanan lost the war
and led by the new king, Bandung Bandawasa.
Pengging
could win the war because Bandung Bandawasa had supernatural power. His
soldiers were not only human being but also genies. Those creatures always
obeyed Bandung Bandawasa. They always did whatever Bandung Bandawasa asked them
to do.
The
king of Prambanan had a beautiful daughter. Her name was Loro Jonggrang. Bandung Bandawasa fell in love and wanted to
marry her. "if you want to marry me, you have to build a thousand of
temples in just one night," said Loro Jonggrang. She hated Bandung
Bandawasa because he made the people of Prambanan suffered.
"What?
Impossible! You just gave me an excuse for not marrying me!" said Bandung
Bandawasa. But he didn't give up. He asked the genies to help him.
Then
all those genies worked hard to build the 1000 temples. Meanwhile, Loro
Jonggrang heard from the lady-in-waiting that the building of 1000 temples was
almost finished. She was so scared; she did not want to marry Bandung
Bandawasa. And then she had a great idea. She asked all the ladies-in-waiting
to help her.
"Please
prepare a lot of straw and mortar. Come on! Hurry up!" said Loro
Jonggrang. All those ladies-in-waiting were confused. They did not know why
Loro Jonggrang asked them prepare a lot of straw and mortars in the middle of
the night.
"Listen,
all those genies are building the temples, right? We have to stop them by
burning the straw and make some noise by pounding the mortars. The genies will
think that sun is going to rise and they will run away. Genies are afraid of
sunlight."
It
worked! All those genies thought that sun rose. They did not know the light was
from the fire that burning the straw. And the noises from pounding the mortars
like the start of a new day.
Bandung
Bandawasa was angry. He knew Loro Jonggrang just tricked him. "You cannot
fool me, Loro Jonggrang. I already have 999 temples. I just need one more
temple. Now, I will make you the one-thousandth temple."
With
his supernatural power, Bandung Bandawasa made Loro Jonggrang a temple. Until
now, the temple is still standing in Prambanan area, Central
Java. And the temple is named Loro Jonggrang temple.
