Sejarah desa betung (oku timur)

My father come from Betung village, OKU Timur, Sumatera Selatan. So when I have holiday idul fitri 1432H I and my family went to Betung. Betung means bamboo, beginning there is someone gave choise to Betung�s people for that village�s name there are Betung and Kedaton and then that someone said �If you choosed Kedaton, so just the champions will stay or live in here. But if you choosed Betung , there will be so many people live in here and you can have very much descendant. So, the people of Betung village choosed Betung as name of their village because they want so many people stay in there.

Now, Betung is historical graveyard village (Desa Pemakaman Bersejarah) in OKUT. There are 52 great grandparents�s grave. The great grandparents�s grave divide to 4 groups base on the place of grave of great grandparents. There are Muyang Morbau and Muyang Libu in downstream of village and Muyang Hulutiuh in upstream of village. Muyang Merbau and Libu separated by river, in Muyang Libu there is Tuan Junjungan who was made large drum (beduk) of Masjid Agung Palembang but before that Tuan Junjungan divided the wood to 2 parts so, the one for Masjid Agung Palembang and the other for Masjid Agung Betung.

Muyang Hulutiuh there are Abdul Malik Gelar Mas Purba, he is grandfather of OKU Timur�s regent H. Herman Deru and Agung Rodi is great grandparents of my family. And there are Naga Berisang, Liwat Panimbang and Ria Monang Butanding. The history, when hurricare happened in that village Naga Berisang was at sugar palm (pohon enau) he is took the fruit from that tree (kolang-kaling) so after the hurricare happened the people try to found him but the people failed to found him but they believe Naga Berisang still around the sugar palm because the last time they see Naga Berisang on the tree so, the sugar palm let down by them and they buried the tree because that Naga berisang�s grave have 12m length.

Liwat panimbang is someone who had kill colonizers, the colonizers is people from Lampung. Before that, Liwat Panimbang prepared like find the poison and to fell a coconut tree for the kill equipment.  When the colonizers will enter Betung village Liwat Panimbang gave them porridge which is very poisonousand when the colonizers fainted he was stabbed the colonizers�s head with iron to coconut tree each other which was fall. So, the colonizers will not occupied the Betung village.

The last, Ria Monang Butanding before he entered the Betung village he joined a competition. The competition is pet competition, the pet will competed in desert and who can defend for a long time so he or she is the winner. Ria joined the competition and the represent of him is a fish. The fish competed with buffalo in the desertto defended their life and the fish won, the fish�s time for defend life longer than the buffalo. The fish stronger than the buffalo. Because, that  Ria has name Ria Monang Butanding.

Before 2004, the existence of great grandparents�s grave in Betung village is not know yet by people in Betung village and society outside Betung village but after Bapak H. Herman Deru become regent of OKU Timur that is division of OKU regency. Betung village become historical village because there are so many grave of great grandparents and the regent create a monument which contsins are all of great grand parents�s names that buried in Betung village.