Ken Dedes

The first time I saw her statue depicted as Prajnaparamita, the goddess of Wisdom, was in Amsterdam more than 3 years ago. Earlier this year I saw it again in Museum Nasional Jakarta, as beautiful as the first time I saw her. It is said that its beauty is comparable to that of Monalisa.

Ken Dedes was the first queen of Singhasari, a kingdom in East Java, who was considered as the origin of the lineage of kings in Java, from Singhasari, Majapahit, to Mataram.

I've been having synchronicity about her lately, it all started with seeing the really bad replica of the statue Prajnaparamita at the Trowulan museum. That replica didnt do justice to the real thing. So I was explaining about the statue a bit, how it was found in Singhasari where we were passing by the day before, and was brought to Holland for some years before brought back to Jakarta since 1978.

Then the other day, I was reading Kompas, and stumbled upon this short story based on her life. I'd never read Kompas' short story before. I thought it was an article about dance, when I read the title.

Yesterday an aunt called for hours to ask me about Ken Dedes and history of Java. Apparently our mutual acquaintance is writing a book and has difficulty explaining about Ken Dedes.

Some coincidences, huh?