Although the sun was about to erect, the hesitant breeze blowing in the atmosphere of Ciamis made us simply at home. On Saturday, 6 December 2014, Zia, Neviza, Mia, and I had the privilege to visit one of the most sacred places in Ciamis, West Java, which was Karangkamulyan. Most natives call it the "patilasan" (remnants of a kingdom's building) of the dynasty of Ciung Wanara, but we call it the "Monkeys' Site." More ubiquitously, the place was called Karangkamulyan, which was presumably a Sundanese name, meaning the 'rock' (Karang) of the 'nobles' (Kamulyan).
[caption id="attachment_340182" align="aligncenter" width="491" caption="(Left-to-right): Neviza, Zia, Mia, I"][/caption]
It took only 15 minutes to get there by car from where I stayed, which was exactly at the borderline between Ciamis and Tasikmalaya. We were so fortunate that there was no traffic, and as we arrived, there were only few cars in the parking lot. However, several manik-manik (beads for accessories) were available on sale not very far from the main gate. Some visitors came in a flock by bus, some others came with their little family, but no one, indeed, came alone. I noticed several license plates of the car and recognized that there were visitors from another region or town. After the long trip, the adults would "ngaso" (take a brief rest while having a coffee or hors d'oeuvres) before entering to the site, and the children would play around with the rented scooters or odong-odong (a colourfully decorated rickshaw ) available.
[caption id="attachment_340078" align="aligncenter" width="420" caption="Entrance View"]
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[/caption]The entrance ticket was pretty affordable for all layers of society. We paid Rp 15.600 for six persons, so each person gets to pay Rp 2.600, which was the weekend price, but they did not put the price for weekdays.
[caption id="attachment_340143" align="aligncenter" width="420" caption="List of the spots"]
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[/caption] The first object that imprisoned our eyes was the frantic panorama of bamboo trees all over the place. Only if there were no leading paths as the sign for the spots would we recognize that place as a mere, abandoned forest. However, the paths were clear yet rife of leafs, probably the kuncens (the responsible person for the place) did not have adequate people to clean them (or maybe too lazy to do it?); Nevertheless, we did not really feel like it was a land of nowhere whatsoever. Hehehe.
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As we strolled along, a wooden, cracked board, with the computer-written "Singgasana Ciung Wanara" on it in front of us, caught our interest just in a click. We saw a couple of meters of this area that was surrounded by iron gate with the lock on the threshold. Inside was a certain type of rock (big one!) being surrounded with other rocks. We believed it was the singgasana (the place to sit for a king), and the fact that it was strictly preserved indicated that the natives wanted to maintain the sacredness of the place and the myth that derived the whole thing inside the site, which made it unique and intriguing even more.[caption id="attachment_340185" align="aligncenter" width="491" caption="The 'kuncen' guiding us from one spot to another"]
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[/caption]While the kuncen was talking hereabouts about more or less the history of the place, we saw a field with the phenomenal enormous tree at the center. This was one of the most need-to-visit place in the site. It is believed that whoever gets to walk toward the tree, with his eyes closed, and ended up touching his hands to its bump, swollen-shaped in the trunk at the tree's navel, without peeking, is to have great luck, and that all his wishes shall be granted. The kuncen showed us the way, but none of us had the guts to try. We had this feeling that doing such a thing will, we afraid, stir our own spiritual perspectives and beliefs, so we just asked a lot of questions to the kuncen as he was demonstrating by himself.
[caption id="attachment_340187" align="aligncenter" width="491" caption="The Magical Tree Field"]
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