The island of Java has many historical about princes and kings lived over there. One of them is Ken Dedes princes. The story about a beautiful princess named Dedes, was very much present in the local folklore. She lived in Singosari a long time ago. The assumed that such a highly beautiful statue had to be of Ken Dedes, the wife of Ken Arok, founder of the kingdom of Singhasari.
Some people believed the story of Ken Dedes is not just folklore. This name actually appears in the history books of Pararaton, a text written at the beginning of the sixteenth century. According to this book, Ken Dedes came from the village of Panawijen, it’s a village in the eastern of Gunung Kawi. Ken Dedes’s beauty was famous the region to the east of mount Kawi, the all people known about that. The local ruler of Tumapel named Tunggul Ametung, He took Ken Dedes away from her father’s and made her his wife. Mpu Purwa Dedes fathers feel angry and cursed Tunggul Ametung with these words: ‘May the pleasure of my daughter’s abductor be short-lived. May he perish by kris (knife). And for my child, I wish that she knows one day a great happiness’. (Pararaton I,9).
Tunggul Ametung really fears and depresses with cure of Mpu Purwa, Tunggul Ametung brought Ken Dedes to his palace in Tumapel and soon the princess became pregnant. The curse, however, was fulfilled, thanks to the intervention of Ken Arok, an adventurer who was working at the palace as a servant.
During a trip to Boji, while dismounting her chariot, Ken Dedes’s skirt opened and showed off her crotch. Ken Arok, who saw this, was intrigued, since the princess’s private parts were glowing. From the Lohgawe, Ken Arok learnt that this was a good luck charm and that whoever married such a woman would become ruler of the world. Following this discovery and after many adventures, Ken Angrok murdered Tugul Ametung with a knife, married Ken Dedes and founded the kingdom of Singhasari.