The Legend of Pasuruan
Rewritten by -Etik Wahyuni
Long-long time ago, there was born
a baby boy, named Untung Suropati. His father passed away when his mother
pregnant. His grandmother named him “Untung Suropati’’ in order that he would
always be Lucky in his life. “Untung” is a Javanese language which means lucky.
When he was a teenager, her mother
often said “ Untung, remember you must be a brave and a good person. Your father was dead because he
struggled for this country. The Dutch had made us lived in misery. Please
struggle for our independence from Ducth”
Untung replied:” Yes mom, I will train
my self defense. I promise.
Each time her mother encouraged
him, and his spirit became higher and higher. He really loved and respected his
mother
But when he was 15 years old, his
mother passed away.
He was then raised by a Dutch
family. He lived in a sufficient life. He was given good clothes, good food and
money. But this could not buy his “
soul”.
He hated the Dutch very much. At
first, he didn’t show it but when the time went by, he could not stand it. He
started showing his courage.
Knowing this, the Dutch put him in
prison. This happened many times,
In the jail, Untung burnt his
friend’s spirit and encourage them to struggle. The soul of hero was getting
bigger and bigger.
“ Friends, we have been living in
misery because of the Dutch. So we must struggle from this damn jail to get rid
of them from our country”
“ Agree” I agree “ I agree” His friends said
“ Let’s run away from this jail”
Then they set up plan and strategy
to get out of the prison. They made noise and the Dutch jail officers came to
check. At that time they were successful to beat them they took the key and “
crek –crek “ they are free from the jail.
They wanted to run away to Mataram.
On the way, they kept thinking the strategy to fight against the Dutch. They
found a great place to hide, a dense bamboo forest, this put the Ducth in
difficulty to arrest them. From this place Untung built his troop, set up
strategy and then attacked the Dutch, they took guns, sword, and others
weapons, then hid again in the forest. They did it many times they never
surrender to struggle.
When the Dutch knew this, they tried
to chase Untung Suropati and His friends. They asked the local people, but no
one tell them. The people kept silent even though they were threatened by the Dutch.
Many people were killed because of
this. Then finally they knew it. “ the Bamboo forest”
Every time they tried to arrest
them they could not do it because the forest is very hard to trespass. Then
they enforced all their troops to that area. After a tiring walk they could
reach the area. But still they couldn’t. They had spent months there and they
had lost many soldiers.
Then the Dutch had an
idea.
“Let’s make use of
the villager’s poverty” Prepare a ton of coins” we will see the effect.
They prepared many
gunnysacks of coins. They spread the money in many places in the forest. The light
of the coins attracted the villagers to come. They were afraid to take it, they
asked to the officers
“ Can we take the
money , sir! Asked the villager
“ It’s ok. The money
is for all of you” Please take all but you must cut the bamboo trees first”
“ Wow, That’s great.
Let’s cut it”
“ OK” OK” replied all
villagers. They were very happy and then they cut the bamboo trees until they
could find much many.
Oh, “ Pasar
Uang” Pasar Uang” much money here . come
on let’s take as much as possible” said the villagers.
They didn’t realized
that the action made Untung Suropati and his soldiers easy to catch. The Dutch
then cought Untung Suropati.
Because of that
happening people named the place “ Pasuruan” from Pasar Uang . And to commemorate the name of Untung Suropati,
it becomes the name of a street, a
building, and a school in Pasuruan
