Before telling about my personally impressive pilgrimage, let me tell you a little history about the place that I quote from a small book that I bought in a souvenir shop just next to the place of pilgrimage. Etimologically, the name Sendangsono originates from the word sendang, meaning spring (Javanese) and sono (the name of a tree). On 14th December 1904 Father Van Lith, a Dutch missionary from the Society of Jesus, arriving at Semarang, Central Java, in October 1896, came and blessed the spring found exactly between two giant sono trees. At the same day, the hard-working missionary baptised 173 people as new catholics. This moment is now eternalised
on a relief on a wall near the main altar. Since that time the place became famous.
Another moment that made Sendangsono even more well-known ever since was the blessing ceremony of Saint Mary�s cave on 8th December 1929, attended by 700 faithful. The mass was called in a village elementary school building that was usually used as a church, followed by a procession towards the cave. On that day, the spring, that had been believed to be a palace of the dark, was re-blessed by a missionary, Father Prennthaler, S.J.
Something unique that I found in Sendangsono is the Angelus bells. Three times a day you will hear Angelus bells ringing from many directions of this very remote village to call the faitful for the Angelus rite. It is said that every single neighbourhood possess such a bell. Here is a story about them.
Father J.B. Prennthaler, S.J., who was from the mountain range of Trirol in Switzerland, was sometimes longing for his homeland, where his family would say the Angelus every time the Angelus bells rang. This nostalgia gave Father Prennthaler the idea to bring his tradition to the village of Kalibawang (� 40 kms to the northeast of Yogyakarta, where the spring is located). In the beginning, he must satisfy himself with several long wooden tubes struck with heavy wooden sticks. Slowly but surely he managed to request eighteen bronze bells from the Netherlands for his eighteen congregation groups. The faithful were very pleased to hear about the coming of the Angelus bells, moreover they found the following Javanese words on each of the bells: �Sembah Bektinipun Tanah Jawi Ugi� (Also the Worship of Java Island). Since then, the bells ring three times a day during Angelus time.
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Back to my pilgrimage. I left the city at 6.15 in the morning by bicylce. It was the same bicycle that I use every time I ride around Yogyakarta. I did not bring too many things, only a camera, a bottle of water, some loaves of bread, a pack of white candles, and a lighter in my rucksack, and my Walkman with some cassettes in a waist bag.
It was the first time I had visited the place. I did not take any single road map with me, therefore, I rely on asking people I met where to go. From Tugu (Monument of Yogyakarta) I went east as far as Godean, where I stopped to ask which direction I should take. A kind-hearted half-aged man told me to go as far as Kalibawang and then turn left. As soon as I got the information, I continued pedalling.
I did not follow exactly what the man said. When I almost reached Kalibawang, I came across a man who told me to turn left. I was thinking that it was the direction that the first man had told me, but I was mistaken. In fact, it was an alternative way to the place of pilgrimage.
I pedalled as far as a small bridge located among the rice fields. There, I stopped for a moment and asked for a man�s favour to take my picture. As he left, I had two loaves of bread and some swallows of water, and continued pedalling as far as a church located in a village called Boro. The name Boro is said to originate from
the word biara, meaning monastry, because long time ago there used to be a Buddist monastry in the village. I
got down from the bicycle and took a picture of the church, and then asked a man which direction to be taken. As he indicated me the way, I continued pedalling. Unfortunately, the road was too bad for bicycles, it was stony and also too ascending. There was no other way, except getting down and walking by pushing the bicycle by hand.
After walking for several metres ahead, I met a man of my age, who was also walking by pushing his bike. I soon iniciated a small talk in Indonesian, but he replied in a very polite Javanese. I said to myself:
�My God, how can I talk to this man? My Javanese is not that good. What I know is only a very low level Javanese. I will have to be honest to him. Otherwise, he will keep on killing me with his words�.
Since I told him that I did not speak Javanese well, he started mixing up Indonesian and Javanese. I was happy about that because there was no more misunderstanding between both of us. I soon realized the importance of mastering a local language. But, do I have to master all local languages? Oh, my head will break up into pieces before completing the idea. I do not want to kill myself. I had better know more but not all.
I think that I was passing a road to the sky, because there was no falling road. We had to push the bicycles all the time. It was until we had reached the peak of the hill that we found several metres of flat road to pedal our bicycles. Sometimes, we did not talk to each other, because we were almost out of breath.
About one hundred metres ahead of a small village mosque, the man I was walking with said �Good bye� and turned left, while I went straight. I thought that I was already close to my destination, but, in fact, it was still around two kilometres from the point where I parted from the man.
After walking as far as about two kilometres through a village road that slopes downward, I finally arrived at the destination, Sendangsono. There, I asked a man sitting in front of a small house, whether I could take my bike to a place just near the cave. He said that I could. I thanked him and left.
When I was entering the gate, my watch marked 09.30. It means I had spent almost three and a half hours pedalling and walking up and down the road and the hill. It was very tiring and someone learning that would say that making the trip was a crazy idea. However, I did not care about anything. The most importang thing was that I had done something that not everyone could have done. It was indeed a satisfaction, and a happiness too.
I was very happy to be in that place of pilgrimage. Praying, going around, reading the history of the place, talking to people, taking pictures did made me happy. It is indeed an ideal place to let our souls close to the Creator.
I prayed several times, including at the Angelus time, when everybody could hear bells ringing from several different parts of the jungle. It did give a total peace to my hungry and thirsty soul.
Towards the afternoon, about two o�clock, I left the place without forgetting to pray for my difficult trip and to say �Good bye� to the men who were painting the concrete walls and poles.
Thank God, I did not encounter any problem on my way back home to Yogyakarta. Because of being tired, I did not pedal as fast as what I had done for the departure. Inspite of this, I almost took the same length of time as that for my departure. I arrived at my boardinghouse at 18.20.
That is all about my pilgrimage to Sendangsono, which is well-known as the Indonesian Catholics� Lourdes. I have promised to myself to visit the place again another time. Please come and enjoy the tranquillity of Sendangsono.
Yogyakarta, 11th May, 2002
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(Yogyakarta, Tuesday, 22 July 2002