Once upon a time, in Central Java, there was a kingdom called Baka, ruled by King Prabu Baka, a giant who feasted on humans. Despite his fearsome nature, the king had a beautiful daughter named Roro Jonggrang, whose name meant "The Slim Girl."
One day, Prabu Baka sought to expand his territory by invading a neighboring kingdom, Pengging. In response, Pengging's ruler, King Prabu Damar Maya, sent his son, Raden Bandung Bandawasa, a man known for his extraordinary supernatural abilities, to defend their land.
Raden Bandung Bandawasa triumphed in the battle, killing Prabu Baka and conquering the Baka kingdom. Following his victory, he entered the palace once ruled by Prabu Baka. There, he met Roro Jonggrang and immediately fell in love, proposing marriage to her on the spot.
Roro Jonggrang, grieving the loss of her father, was reluctant to marry the man responsible for his death. She initially refused but eventually gave in after Bandung Bandawasa persisted. However, she set two seemingly impossible conditions for the marriage.
"I will marry you, but only if you can fulfill two tasks in one night. First, dig a well, and second, build me a thousand temples. Everything must be completed before sunrise," she declared. Confident that these demands were unachievable, Roro Jonggrang believed she would avoid the marriage.
Bandung Bondowoso agreed to the conditions without hesitation. Using his immense supernatural power, he managed to complete the well within a few hours.
“Done!” he exclaimed proudly. “The well is finished. Now, for the temples. I will summon my genie soldiers to assist me.”
With a powerful incantation, Bandung Bondowoso called upon his genie helpers and ordered them to build the thousand temples. The genies worked tirelessly through the night, quickly completing 999 temples.
When Roro Jonggrang realized the temples were nearly finished, she grew anxious. “Marrying Bandung Bondowoso is the last thing I want to do,” she thought desperately. “I have to find a way to make him fail.”
An idea struck her, and she immediately gathered her servants and village women. “Listen,” she said urgently, “the genies are almost done, and it’s unfair! We need to stop them. Collect as much straw as you can, quickly!”
One of the women asked curiously, “What will you do with the straw, Princess?”
Roro Jonggrang explained her plan. “We’ll fake the dawn. We’ll burn the straw and make the sky appear red. At the same time, everyone must pound rice pestles to create the sounds of morning activity. The genies will believe it’s sunrise, and they’ll stop working and flee.”
The women followed her instructions. They burned large piles of straw, filling the sky with a reddish glow, and began pounding rice pestles noisily as if preparing for the day ahead. The illusion of dawn began to take shape.
The plan worked perfectly! The reddish glow of the sky and the rhythmic sound of pounding rice pestles convinced the genies that dawn had arrived. Believing their time was up, they fled, leaving the final temple incomplete. Little did they know that they had been deceived by Roro Jonggrang and her clever scheme.
When Bandung Bondowoso discovered what had happened, he was furious. He immediately realized that Roro Jonggrang had tricked him to sabotage his efforts.
“You cannot deceive me, Roro Jonggrang!” he thundered. “I have completed 999 temples, and only one remains. You will fulfill the final task yourself by becoming the one-thousandth temple!”
With his supernatural powers, Bandung Bondowoso cursed Roro Jonggrang. Her body began to stiffen and turn to stone until she became a lifeless statue.
Legend has it that Ratu Baka's site near the Prambanan area was once the palace of Prabu Baka, while the 999 nearly completed temples are now known as Candi Sewu, or the “Thousand Temples.” The beautiful statue of Durga Mahisashuramardini, found in the northern chamber of Prambanan’s main temple, is believed to be the transformed Roro Jonggrang. To this day, it is called the Statue of Roro Jonggrang, a reminder of the fateful tale.
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