Podcast #29 - The First King of the Kingdom of Singasari [English Audio]

 

Hello and welcome to Bet.ID Podcast. The podcast where I talk about Indonesian and things related to it so that you can improve your listening comprehension and get to know more about Indonesia and its culture. I’m Jeff

                This is the episode number 29. In this podcast, I’m gonna be telling about one king from the Kingdom of Singasari. This kingdom was located in East Java. Actually, this episode is a request from my Australian friend but now lives in Vietnam. Thank you for the request.

                Okay, so the first king from the Kingdom of Singasari was Ken Arok. How did he become a king? How was his life? So, these questions are the thing that we’re gonna get to know now. Let’s start

Ken Arok was born in 1182 C. E. in a poor farmer family which lived in the side of Brantas river, East Java. His mother was Ken Ndok, the wife of a servant of an Adipati, Adipati is a title of a young king in Kediri Kingdom, so this young king name was Gajah Para. But not so long after Ken Arok was born, his mother abandoned him. It was because, his family was poor. So his mother didn’t want him to suffer. But he was found by a robber who was called Lembong. Because he lived with a robber, he also became a robber when he grew up.

One day, Ken Arok met Mpu Logawe who had a spiritual intelligence. He believed that Ken Arok was the incarnation of Vishnu God. After he left his old life, Ken Arok went with Mpu Lohgawe and becoming a guard of Tunggul Ametung, who was a ruler of Tumapel. So, Tumapel was a region in the Kingdom of Kediri.

When he was working as a guard, Ken Arok fell in love with Ken Dedes, the wife of his master. So, because he fell in love with her, he wanted to kill his master. Then, he went to a smith asking for the smith to make for him a Keris, so Keris is a kind of long knife, and the smith’s name was Mpu Gandring. Mpu Gandring told him that it would take 1 year for him to make such knife.

Some months later, Ken Arok got tired of waiting and recklessly took the unfinished knife and stabbed the knife onto Mpu Gandring’s chest. While Mpu Gandring was dying, he cursed Ken Arok and said that one day, the knife would kill seven kings, which were Ken Arok and his descendants. When Ken Arok went back to Tumapel, he deliberately gave the knife to his friend, Kebo Hijo

The next night, Ken Arok took the knife from Kebo Hijo and he sneaked into Tunggul Ametung’s chamber and stabbed him to death. The next day, Kebo Hijo was executed since the people thought that the knife was his. The interesting thing is, Ken Dedes, who was the wife of Tunggul Ametung, knew that Ken Arok was the killer of her husband but unfortunately she fell in love with Ken Arok. Afterward, Ken Arok made himself a ruler over Tumapel and married Ken Dedes. Ken Dedes was conceiving Tunggul Ametung’s child when they got married. Later on the child was named Anusapati.

Ken Arok kept on trying to gain more power. In the year 1222, he rebelled against the king of Kediri Kingdom even went to war against that kingdom. This event is called Ganter Battle. Ken Arok won and he declared that Tumapel, which was a region in the Kediri Kingdom, as a new stand-alone kingdom. So, Ken Arok became the first king of this Kingdom. His title was Sri Rajasa Bathara Sang Amurwabhumi. His empire was called Rajasa. His kingdom was called the Kingdom of Tumapel and later on was called the Kingdom of Singasari or Singosari. It was located in Singasari, Malang. But his reigning period was quite short. He only ruled over this kingdom for 5 years, from 1222 to 1227 C. E. It was because of he was killed by Anusapati, his step son, the son of Tunggul Ametung. Just like what Mpu Gandring the smith said that Ken Arok would be killed with the same knife that he used to kill Mpu Gandring and Tunggul Ametung. So that is the end of Ken Arok’s life, the first of king of the Kingdom of Singasari.

What do you think? Leave your comment down below wherever you’re listening to this podcast. If you’d like learn Indonesian online you can visit my Youtube channel or book an online lesson with me. All the links are in the show note down below. Thanks for listening. Sampai jumpa!