LORO BLONYO

[ganjawulung]

Originally Posted by David

I'll have to see if i can dig up the photos, or maybe take some more, but i have this pair in my home here in the American Midwest as well. Mine seem to date somewhere between Ganja's and Alan's.
Interestly enough Ganja, mine both have a little keris (patrem) on each of their laps.
Perhaps for the edification of myself and others you might speak to the cultural significance of the Loro Blonyo.

Thanks, David and Alan for the response,

In the javanese cosmology -- according to a study of Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta -- this pair of bride and bride-groom could means as symbol of "sangkan paraning dumadi" (please forgive me, not to able to give the right English translation. But it could mean: the origin and destination of the being). The "two dressed human" is the symbol of 'microcosmos' and the "senthong tengah" or the central living room, is the the symbol of 'macrocosmos'. So, Loro Blonyo and the Senthong Tengah is an unseparable unity. It is the manifestation of harmony. And in the human being world? This harmony manifests in the form of Dewi Sri and Raden Sadono, the goddess and god of fertility...

Traditional javanese people believes, that their agricultural crop is the gift of the kindness of Dewi Sri. And in the Hindu aristocracy in the past, noble men usually spared a special room in traditional houses of royal family, which was specially made for worshiping Dewi Sri. The special location is called as "pasren" (pa-sri-an = pasren) or "patanen" (pa-tani-an, means agriculture).

Some javanese people even put much of their crop here, in the living room. But some others just put symbols in the living room. The "pasren" must be equipped with certain furniture (wooden bed, fully ornamented with crafty design, which located in the central living room). And also, one set of 'earth' jar, one set of rice paddy and crop containers, and "robyong" lamps which always flame up....

GANJAWULUNG