The Origin of Pantai Karang Nini

The Origin of Pantai Karang Nini
A Folktale from West Java

Long time ago in a village in Ciamis, West Java, Indoensia lived a couple of elderly husband and wife. The elderly husband was called Aki (Grandpa or Kakek in Indonesian) and the elderly wife was called Nini (Grandma). They had two sons and one daughter. Their sons lived across the ocean and their daughter lived in another place far away from Aki and Nini.

Every Lebaran day (day of celebration at end of fasting month/Ramadhan), their two sons visited Aki and Nini. But their daughter never did. Aki and Nini missed their daughter. Two days before Lebaran day, Aki told Nini that he wanted to visit their daughter. Nini wanted to come along, but Aki refused.

“You should stay home and wait for our two sons,”said Aki to Nini.

Aki promised that he would return two days after Lebaran day. Nini was sad when Aki left the village on a boat with other passengers. She looked at the boat as it sailed away on the ocean. She imagined meeting her daughter, together with Aki.

On the day Aki promised to return, Nini dressed up and went to the beach, to wait for the boat to return. She couldn’t wait to meet her husband. Hours passed by. Days passed by. Nini still sat on the beach, waiting for her husband. The boat was never seen. But Nini kept waiting on the beach. Several days later, the people of the village heard that the boat sank into the ocean. They quickly went to Nini’s house to tell her about the bad news. But she was not there. Then they looked for her at the beach. Nobody was there either. Only the wind and the sand.

They kept searching for Nini, calling her name. Finally they found a rock that looked like an old woman sitting down on the beach. They believed it was Nini, who was sitting down on the beach, waiting for her husband, Aki, to return.

The rock symbolizes a wife’s faithfulness to her husband. The beach is then called Pantai Karang Nini. Which means the beach’s of Nini’s rock.