Muara Cianten Inscription
Photo RXerself , Creutzen · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Muara Cianten Inscription (Prasasti Muara Cianten), also known as the Pasir Muara Inscription (Prasasti Pasir Muara), is one of the inscriptions left by the Kingdom of Tarumanagara. It stands on the bank of the Cisadane river near Muara Cianten, in Indonesia.
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Article
Muara Cianten Inscription
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Indonesian): Prasasti Muara CiantenCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Indonesian): Prasasti Muara CiantenCC BY-SA 4.0
The stone lies in the territory of Kampung Pasirmuara, Desa Ciaruteun Ilir, Kecamatan Cibungbulang, Kabupaten Bogor, which is why it was formerly known as the Pasir Muara (Pasiran Muara) inscription.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Indonesian): Prasasti Muara CiantenCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Indonesian): Prasasti Muara CiantenCC BY-SA 4.0
The inscription is carved on a large natural boulder. It is called an inscription because the stone bears marks, but what is carved is a design of scrolling tendrils (pilin), or curls growing from a bulb.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (Indonesian): Prasasti Muara CiantenCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Indonesian): Prasasti Muara CiantenCC BY-SA 4.0
The inscription was first found by N.W. Hoepermans in 1864.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Megalith traditions of Indonesia
Indonesia is one of the few places where megalith-building is still a living tradition. Among the Nias of North Sumatra, the Batak of the interior of North Sumatra, the people of Flores and Sumba in East Nusa Tenggara, and the Toraja of the interior of South Sulawesi, megalithic cultures remained preserved, isolated and undisturbed well into the late nineteenth century. Menhirs, dolmens, stone tables and ancestral stone statues are also found in sites in Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, the Lesser Sunda Islands and New Guinea.
On Sumba, the megalithic burials found in the central regions of the island go back thousands of years. This stone-based burial tradition is still kept alive by the Sumba people, and has become a "living ancient tradition" that scholars can observe today. The megalithic remains on the island include dolmen tombs, upright stones, megalithic statues, stone enclosures and levelled terraces, built and carved to a high standard. Quadrangular adzes unearthed in the Anakalang area are among the notable finds. Nias is best known for its festivals, including stone jumping, a manhood ritual in which young men leap over stone towers about two metres high; some historians and archaeologists have called its culture one of the few remaining megalithic cultures in existence, though this point of view is hotly debated.
Because the tradition has not stopped, it is hard to give a single date to a monument. Megalithic culture still flourished in places such as Nias and Toraja when other parts of Indonesia had already begun their historical periods, and script was unknown there. The Atlas gives such sites a broad range, and dating is often impossible without excavation.
When visiting, remember that these are the burial places and ritual landscapes of living communities. Ask permission and do not move stones.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Megalith, Wikipedia: Sumba, Wikipedia: Nias, Wikipedia: Prehistoric Indonesia · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1864
Hoepermans "Hindoe-Oudheden va Java (1864)" ROD 1913:74 J.F.G.
Source - 1868
Brumund “Bijdragen tot de kennis va het Hindoeisme op Java” VBG.XXXIII 1868:63-64 H.
Source - 1891
1891:30-31. Bambang Soemadio (et.al. editor) Sejarah Nasional Indonesia II, Zaman Kuno.
Source - 1914
1914, l915:28-29 (di dalam keterangan atau catatan nomor 59) P.J.
Source
Photographs
8 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Where it stands
Indonesia
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 6°31′23″ S, 106°41′28″ EFor a GPS or map app: -6.52311, 106.69114
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q12506386wikidata.org
Image files
- Muara Cianten Inscription side.jpgRXerself , CreutzenCC BY-SA 4.0
- Cianten River.jpgRXerself , CreutzenCC BY-SA 4.0
- Muara Cianten Inscription 2.jpgRXerself , CreutzenCC BY-SA 4.0
- Muara Cianten Inscription by the river.jpgRXerself , CreutzenCC BY-SA 4.0
- Muara Cianten Inscription.jpgRXerself , CreutzenCC BY-SA 4.0
- Path to Muara Cianten Inscription is small to the right.jpgRXerself , CreutzenCC BY-SA 4.0
- Stair below to Muara Cianten Inscription.jpgRXerself , CreutzenCC BY-SA 4.0
- Prasasti Muara Cianten Cianten Inscription Sanskrit-Pallava.jpgIlham.nurwansahCC BY-SA 4.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Prasasti Muara Cianten" (Indonesian), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors