Cirebon
A North Coast Sultanate City With Three Surviving Palaces, The Tomb Of One Of The Nine Saints Who Brought Islam To Java, And A Visual Culture Where Chinese, Javanese And Islamic Forms Sit On The Same Wall · Cirebon, West Java
Cirebon sits where Javanese and Sundanese Java meet on the north coast, and it looks like nowhere else because of it. IT HAS THREE SURVIVING KRATONS - the sultanate split and split again, and the palaces all stayed - and the walls of the oldest are STUDDED WITH CHINESE PORCELAIN PLATES set into the brick, which is exactly as strange and as telling as it sounds. SUNAN GUNUNG JATI, ONE OF THE NINE WALI WHO BROUGHT ISLAM TO JAVA, IS BURIED HERE and the complex around his tomb is a serious pilgrimage site with Chinese ceramics worked into the gates. GUA SUNYARAGI is a water palace built as an artificial coral grotto and looks like a folly from a dream. THE BATIK OF NEARBY TRUSMI carries the MEGAMENDUNG cloud motif, which is Chinese in origin and is now the city's signature. Almost nobody stops. It is three hours from Jakarta on the north-coast line, the kratons are quiet on almost any day of the year, and the food - empal gentong, nasi jamblang - is worth the journey on its own.
Cirebon, West Java, Cirebon, West Java, Indonesia
CIREBON IS ON THE MAIN NORTH-COAST RAIL LINE and is THREE HOURS FROM JAKARTA BY TRAIN, which is the easy way. THE KRATONS keep daytime hours and charge small entry fees; guides are available at the gates and are worth taking. SUNAN GUNUNG JATI IS AN ACTIVE PILGRIMAGE SITE, not a monument - MODEST DRESS IS REQUIRED, the inner areas are restricted, and it is busiest around Islamic holidays and on Thursday nights. GUA SUNYARAGI charges separately. THE BATIK WORKSHOPS AT TRUSMI are a short drive out and are working businesses that welcome visitors. EMPAL GENTONG AND NASI JAMBLANG are the local dishes and are everywhere. It is hot, flat and coastal; mornings are the comfortable hours.