The Legend of Roro Jonggrang

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom named Prambanan. The people lived peacefully. However, soon their happy lives were disturbed by Pengging Kingdom. The king, Bandung Bondowoso, 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 Bondowoso. Pengging could win the war because Bandung Bondongwoso had a supernatural power.

His soldiers were not only humans but also genies. Those creatures always obeyed Bandung Bondowoso. They always did whatever Bandung Bondowoso asked them to do. The king of Prambanan had a beautiful daughter. Her name was Roro Jonggrang. Bandung Bondowoso fell in love with her and wanted to marry her.

"If you want to marry me, you have to build a thousand of temples in just one night," said Roro Jonggrang. She hated Bandung Bondowoso because he made the people of Prambanan suffered. "What? Impossible! You just gave me an excuse for not marrying me!" said Bandung Bondowoso. But he did not give up. He asked the genies to help him.

Then all those genies worked hard to build the 1.000 temples. Meanwhile, Roro Jonggrang heard from the lady-in waiting that the building of 1.000 temples was almost finished.

She was so scared; she did not want to marry Bandung Bondowoso. 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 Roro Jonggrang. All those ladies-in-waiting were confused. They did not know why Roro Jonggrang asked them to 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 mortar. The genies will think that the sun is going to rise and they will run away. Genies are afraid of sunlight." It worked! All those genies thought that the sun rose. They did not know the light was from the fire that burning the straw. And the noise from pounding the mortar was like the start of a new day.

Bandung Bondowoso was angry. He knew Roro Jonggrang just tricked him. "You cannot fool me, Roro 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 Bondowoso made Roro Jonggrang a temple. Until now, the temple is still standing in Prambanan area, Central Java. And the temple is named Roro Jonggrang temple.

The Story of Lutung Kasarung

Prabu Tapa Agung was an old king. He had two daughters, Purbararang and Purbasari. Prabu Tapa Agung planned to retire as a king. He wanted Purbasari to replace him as the leader of the kingdom. Hearing this, Purbararang was angry.

"You cannot ask her to be the queen, Father. I'm older than she is. It's supposed to be me, not her!" said Purbararang. But the king still chose Purbasari to be the next queen.

Purbararang then set a bad plan with her fiance, Indrajaya. Together they went to a witch and asked her to put a spell on Purbasari. Later, Purbasari had bad skin. There were black dots all over her body.

"You are not as beautiful as I am. You cannot be the queen. Instead, you have to leave this palace and stay in a jungle," said Purbararang.

Purbasari was very sad. Now she had to stay in the jungle. Every day she spent her time playing with some animals there. There was one monkey that always tried to cheer her up. It was not just an ordinary monkey, he had magical power. And he also could talk with humans. The monkey's name was Lutung Kasarung. He was actually a god. His name was Sanghyang Gurumina. Lutung Kasarung planned to help Purbasari. He made a small lake and asked her to take a bath there. Amazingly, her bad skin was cured. Now she got her beautiful skin back.

After that, she asked Lutung Kasarung to accompany her to go back to the palace. Purbararang was very shocked. She knew she had to come up with another bad idea. She then said, "Those who have longer hair will be the queen."

The king then measured his daughters' hair. Purbasari had longer hair. But Purbararang did not give up. "A queen must have a handsome husband. If my fiance is more handsome than yours, then I will be the queen," said Purbararang.

Purbasari was sad. She knew Purbararang's fiance, Indrajaya, was handsome. And she did not have a fiance yet. "Here is my fiancé, Indrajaya. Where is yours?" asked Purbararang. Lutung Kasarung came forward. Purbararang was laughing very hard. "Your fiance is a monkey, ha ha ha."

Suddenly, Lutung Kasarung changed into a very handsome man. He was even more handsome than Indrajaya. Purbasari then became the queen. She forgave Purbararang and her fiance and let them stay in the palace. 

The Story of Bawang Merah and Bawang Putih

Along with her stepmother, Bawang Putih shared a home with Bawang Merah, her stepsister. When Bawang Putih was a baby, her mother passed away. Her step-sister was then born after her father remarried a different woman.

Unfortunately, her father passed away soon after. Bawang Putih's life has been so miserable ever since. Bawang Putih was mistreated by her stepmother and stepsister. She was frequently required to perform all household duties.

One morning, Bawang Putih was washing some clothes in a river. Accidentally, her mother's clothes were washed away by the river. She was really worried, so she walked along the riverside to find the clothes. Finally, she met an old woman. She said that she kept the clothes and would give them back to Bawang Putih if she helped the old woman do the household chores.

Bawang Putih helped her happily. After everything was finished, the old woman returned the clothes. She also gave Bawang Putih a gift. The old woman had two pumpkins; one was small and the other one was bigger. Bawang Putih had to choose one.

Bawang Putih was not a greedy girl. So she took the small one. Bawang Putih returned home after thanking the elderly lady. When she arrived home, her stepmother and Bawang Merah were angry. They had been waiting for her all day long. Bawang Putih then told them about the clothes, the old woman, and the pumpkin. Her mother was really angry, so she grabbed the pumpkin and smashed it to the floor. Suddenly, they were all surprised. Inside the pumpkin, they found jewelries.

"Bawang Merah, hurry up. Go to the river and throw my clothes into the water. After that, find the old woman. Remember, you have to take the big pumpkin," the stepmother asked Bawang Merah to do exactly the same as Bawang Putih's experience.

Bawang Merah immediately went to the river. She threw the clothes into the water and pretended to search for them. Not long after that, she met the old woman. Again, she asked Bawang Merah to do household chores. She refused and asked the old woman to give her a big pumpkin.

The old woman then gave her the big one. Bawang Merah was so happy. She ran very fast. When she arrived home, her mother was impatient. She smashed the pumpkin on the floor. They were screaming. There were a lot of snakes inside the pumpkin! They were really scared. They were afraid the snakes would bite them.

"Mom, I think God is just punishing us. We have done bad things to Bawang Putih, and God doesn't like it. We have to apologize to Bawang Putih," said Bawang Merah.

Finally, they both realized their mistake. They apologized and Bawang Putih forgave them. Now the family is no longer poor. Bawang Putih decided to sell all the jewelry and use the money for their daily life.

The Story of Crying Stone

In a small village, a girl lived with her mother. The girl was very beautiful. Every day, she put on make-up and wore her best clothes. However, she didn't like to help her mother work in the field. The girl was very lazy.

One day, the mother asked the girl to accompany her to the market to buy some food. At first, the girl refused, but the mother persuaded her by saying they were going to buy new clothes. The girl finally agreed, but she asked her mother to walk behind her. She didn't want to walk side by side with her mother.

Although her mother was very sad, she agreed to walk behind her daughter. On the way to the market, everybody admired the girl's beauty. They were also curious. Behind the beautiful girl, there was an older woman dressed simply. The girl and her mother looked very different.

"Hello, pretty lady. Who is the woman behind you?" they asked.

"She is my servant," the girl answered.

The mother was deeply saddened, but she said nothing. As they met more people, the same question arose.

"Hello, beauty. Who is the woman behind you?" they asked again.

Once more, the girl claimed her mother was her servant. Every time they encountered people, she repeated the same lie.

At last, the mother could no longer bear the pain. She prayed to God to punish her daughter. God answered her prayer. Slowly, the girl's legs turned into stone. The process continued up the girl's body. The girl became frantic.

"Mother, please forgive me!" she cried, begging for her mother's forgiveness.

But it was too late. Her entire body eventually turned into a large stone. To this day, people say tears can still be seen falling from the stone. It has since been called the Crying Stone, or in Indonesian, Batu Menangis.

The Story of Jaka Tarub and the Seven Nymphs

It was said that somewhere in Dadapan Village there was a pond where apsaras descended from heaven to take a bath.

Jaka Tarub was a young man who lived in a small village. One day, he was hunting for a deer in Dadapan Village but he did not find any deer. While searching for a deer, he heard the sound of girls laughing. As the place is deep inside the forest, Jaka Tarub wondered why there were girls there. He followed the sound and arrived at a small pond where he saw seven apsaras descended from heaven to take a bath. The apsaras looked like young girls and were very beautiful.

While the apsaras were bathing, Jaka sneaked out and took one of the shawls lying on a rock nearest to him and went back into hiding. He watched as the apsaras were chatting among themselves while bathing. After they finished bathing and getting dressed, one of the apsaras, the youngest and the most beautiful of all, looked puzzled because she could not find her shawl, which was stolen by Jaka. Without her shawl, she could not fly back to heaven. Jaka heard the other apsaras called her Nawang Wulan while they told her that it was getting late and they had to return to heaven so could not stay with her to look for her shawl. After the other apsaras had gone, Jaka Tarub showed himself and pretended to offer his help.

The trustful Nawang Wulan agreed to go with Jaka Tarub to his home. Eventually the two fell in love and got married. It turned out that Nawang Wulan was a good wife and was very skillfull in doing house chores without making much effort. Moreover, their rice supply seems like never decreased after he married her. But Nawang Wulan forbade Jaka to look inside the rice cooker while she cooked rice.

Not long after, Nawang Wulan got pregnant and at due time she gave birth to a baby girl whom they named Nawangsih. Now, added with the task of taking care of a baby, Nawang Wulan still seems to have no difficulties in doing her house chores, while most other woman would have some difficulties in doing all she did.

Feeling very curious about all these, Jaka tried to find out her secret. He did what Nawang Wulan forbid him to do. He opened the lid of the rice cooker and looked inside it. He found out that Nawang Wulan only used one single grain of rice to cook into a full rice cooker. Now he knew why their rice supply was never decreased and that all these times Nawang Wulan had been using her apsara powers to do house chores.

But something happened after Jaka peeked inside the rice cooker. Nawang Wulan began to have various difficulties in doing her tasks. Furthermore, their rice supply began to decrease. Nawang Wulan had lost her apsara powers and became an ordinary human being.

When their rice supply was nearly used up, Nawang Wulan unintentionally saw her old shawl lurking from below their rice supply while she went to the granary to get some rice. To her surprise, she found out that it was Jaka who stole her shawl all along, which made her could not go back to heaven. She was angry, and now that she had find her shawl, she decided to return to heaven. Jaka pleaded her not to leave, but her decision was final.

But before she went, Nawang Wulan asked Jaka to build a hut outside their house and told him to leave Nawangsih there every night, and that he should never look inside the hut while she was there to nurse the baby. Since then Jaka took Nawangsih to the hut every night until she grew up. Nawang Wulan always cared for her family from heaven and always provided help for her family when they needed it.

Past Continuous Tense dan Recount Text

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