Mbok Rondo Mori, a story from Bojonegoro

Once upon a time, it was a gloomy day for Adipati Tuban, one of the districts under the Majapahit Kingdom. Adipati Tuban was so angry but sad, knowing that his daughter got pregnant without any husband.

“Indarti! How could you do this to me? You are my daughter. A princess with blue blood in you. But you did something stupid. How dare you! Tell me, who did this to you?”

Indarti was only silent, she couldn’t give any answer for her father’s question. She looked down at the floor and crying. She did not know how to answer her father’s question.

“Indarti, who did this to you?” her father shouted one more.

“Errr, father, err… I don’t know who did this to me. I did hide from the others. I know that I am in “pingitan” but it suddenly happened to me. I’m sorry, father….” Indarti answered nervously while crying.

Her father got even angrier. “Impossible! I can’t believe it! Oke then, if you do not tell me the truth, go away from this house! I don’t dare to have a daughter like you! Go!”

Indarti was so sad, but nothing she could do except leaving her house. She could not tell her father that she dreamed about a handsome man then they were in love and she finally got pregnant. It was such an impossible thing to happen. In a dream. No, her father would be angrier and thought that she was insane. She herself did not believe it could happen as well, how would her father? So she left.

She walked alone and cried. She walked through the mountain and forest to the South but did not have any places in her mind to stop by. She walked days and nights until it came to the time for her to give birth, so she stopped in that unknown place, a small yet quiet and peaceful place in the border of Bojonegoro, a district next to Tuban. In that silence of the night, she gave birth to a boy, alone and desperate since there was no father for her baby. She cried a lot and decided to leave away her baby.

“the baby is already born. I have released from my dark past. Later in the future, this place, the place where I gave birth, the place where I can start a new life, will be called as “Deso Mori”, she whispered slowly to nature.

Mori meant ‘leave the bad things’ since she thought that her son’s birth was the answer to leave her dark past. She also decided to leave her baby away. When she was about to throw away her baby in a place next to Mori, a man prohibited her to do that. The place then is known as ‘Dusun Penggak’.

She walked again to the South with her son through the river’s bank. Indarti made a raft from the banana stem and took her baby on it. She decided to wash away her son on the river. She hoped there would be a good person who would love to take care of him and made him a great man in the future. She then walked again and stopped by a big house in a village and asked to stay there for a while. The owner of the house was “Demang’, the leader of that village. He let Indarti stay in his house and asked her to do the house-chores such as washing the clothes of the family and taking the water from the river.

One morning, when Indarti and her friends were washing the clothes in the river, they suddenly saw a raft stuck on a twig. Indarti took the raft and saw that it was her baby, but she pretended to know nothing. She brought the baby to Ki Demang and Ki Demang gave him a name ‘Joko Popok’ and let Indarti took care of him. Indarti was so happy that she could take care of her own baby. She loved him so much.

When the baby grew up into a handsome boy, Ki Demang gave him a responsibility of taking care his buffaloes without giving him any money unless the Buffaloes gave birth of a white buffalo or ‘bule’ so that Joko Popok might own the ‘bule’ buffalo. It didn’t become a matter for Joko Popok, he did not care for money, he only wanted to help Ki Demang for he was so kind to him and Indarti. So he took care of the buffalo sincerely.

One day, one of the buffalo gave birth. Strangely, the baby buffalo was ‘bule’. According to his promise to Joko Popok, Ki Demang gave the bule buffalo to Joko Popok. It happened continuously. The buffaloes only gave birth to ‘bule’ buffalo. Joko Popok then owned many buffaloes, bule buffaloes. He became a rich man. He asked Indarti to make their own house and they lived there together.

Joko Popok asked Indarti who are his parents actually. Indarti could not give any answer so she asked him to go with her in a different world or ‘moksa’ to find the answer. So, both of them were just disappeared. No one knows where they were since then. Their house still existed, known as ‘cungkup’ in Mori village. While Indarti is known as Mbok Rondo Mori because she did not have any husband but she has a son.