"The Legend of Roro Jonggrang & Bandung Bondowoso"
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This is an illustration about the legend of the origin of the Prambanan temple.
The story of this illustration is created with Bahasa Rupa style that comes from Professor Primadi Tabrani's dissertation. Bahasa Rupa tells stories in a unique way. It presents multiple events only in a "frame" or "canvas". We can convey a story by each sequence through only a frame.
The first sequence:
Bandung Bondowoso proposed to Roro Jonggrang to marry him. She wanted to reject him but she was afraid of him. Then, Roro Jonggrang gave him impossible conditions as a reason to reject him. Roro asked Bandung to build a thousand temples in one night before dawn came.
The second sequence:
Bandung Bondowoso agreed. Unexpectedly, he asked genie reinforcements to build the temple. Roro Jonggrang was surprised and worried. If she let it continues, Bandung Bondowoso will be successful in completing his task.
The third sequence:
Roro Jonggrang then immediately woke up the village girls to ask for help.
The fourth sequence:
Roro Jonggrang asked them to sound the pestle and burn the straw. The noisy sound of the pestle awakened the roosters so they crowed. The reddish light of the burning straw created an illusion that it was already dawn.
The fifth sequence:
Bandung Bondowoso's genie reinforcements panicked and ran away thinking it was already dawn. They fled when there was only one more temple to build. Bandung Bondowoso was furious. Roro Jonggrang felt satisfied because he had thwarted Bandung's work.
The sixth sequence:
Bandung Bondowoso realized that his failure was due to Roro Jonggrang's actions. Then Bandung Bondowoso cursed Roro Jonggrang to become a temple to fulfill the thousand temples he had built.
